Data Hungry

I love data, I am an engineer so by nature it is in my blood.  At work I just got certified as a Green Belt in Six Sigma and had a blast just playing with the numbers for my project.  At home, it is no different.  When we were up north for New Years, I did a lot of relaxing and magazine reading and came across the Bodymedia Fit in a magazine.  It was used by biggest looser contestants to help monitor their calorie intake and output.   Cool!

Granted, I did not think about this to lose weight, but to make sure that I am eating enough to build muscle with all of my training.  Due to all of my allergies, I tend not to take in a lot of calories.  I had no idea at the time what I really ate but my personal trainer at the gym wanted me to do some testing to see how much my body burned.  I saw the Bodymedia Fit as a better idea!  It was not a one time test but a way of living to see and make sure I was getting enough good, balanced food to fuel my exercise.

Now, just as a disclaimer, Bodymedia did not ask me to review this product.  I purchased my own Bodymedia Fit at Best Buy with my own money and am doing this review without any direction or compensation from them.

First, it is easy to wear and I do not even notice it is on me.  I was kind of worried about having some sort of allergic reaction to the medal in it as I normally do not wear anything but gold, but had no problems at all with any skin reactions to the device.

Now, the good stuff!  The data!!!

I love seeing the data!  I can see:

•  How many calories I burn when I run (around 9 or more a minute) 
• I need to manually input either on my Mac or iPhone app what I eat - this is so easy! to see how many calories I consume
• My activity is tracked, both moderate and vigorous and I target 60 moderate and 30 vigorous each day although I always exceed it
• The steps taken on a daily basis are also tracked.  Amazed that I took 45,620 steps on Sunday during and after the Half Marathon!
• One of my favorite things I get to monitor is how well I sleep!  For those who know me, Mama loves to sleep and is often in bed at or before 9pm.  Granted I am an early rise, but I just love how it shows how I slept and for how long, when I woke in the night and went back to sleep.  That is amazing to me!
• Finally, the weight.  This is manually entered although..... I have a new gadget thanks to Hubby that I can purchase one of those body fat scales to tell me more... more to come!11

I would really recommend the Bodymedia Fit for anyone, at any fitness level.  Whether you need to loose weight, maintain it or make sure you are building the muscle you want to!  There is a monthly subscription fee of $6.95 a month or so after a trial period, but I love the data and if you honestly input your food, it gives you a REAL assessment of your level of activity vs the calories that you burn!

My next data tool that I will be reporting on is my new Garmin 610.  Yes, you know it!  The touch screen Garmin that every runner covets!  I came home on Thursday and found out that Hubby bought this for me!! I complained that my Garmin 305 crapped out on me during my bathroom break on the half in a structure and also that I bought it second hand on Craigslist so I did not have access to the Internet data.  He understands my love for data!

I have not been able to do a run outside since I got it due to the rain and high winds, but as soon as I do I will do a report on it.  I have been practicing on the treadmill with it and learned today to hit the lap at each mile, not the stop at mile 3, lol!

What data do you love???? Please, do tell!