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Fitter, Happier: an eight-week exercise in using technology to help lose weight
For 27 years he ate what he wanted and avoided exercise like the plague. Can an arsenal of fitness gadgets make this human healthier in just eight weeks? From the snake oil salesman to the Thighmaster(TM), science and technology have promised the end of obesity, ill health and lethargy for centuries. Today, weight loss gadgetry is all around us, with affordable commercial systems available from Nintendo, Nike, Adidas and countless other manufacturers, all promising their technology will turn us into paragons of healthy virtue. How is it then, that for all of this, we live in an age where a quarter of the American population is obese? Do any of these seemingly endless health aids actually work? Will a $200 wristband or a $100 pedometer cause you to banish microwave dinners and saturated fats, take up regular exercise at the gym at least three days a week and sleep well with no bad dreams? Or has the health industry made technology another ineffective distraction that only provides you with a vague sense that you're doing something positive? Is the real answer what it's always been: go for a walk in the trees and eat your greens?
Fitbit Ultra: A six-month followup review
Back in October, I posted a review of the Fitbit Ultra. It's a tiny fitness tracker that clips to a belt or sleeve and transmits your daily steps and calorie burn to a recharging and sync dock that's attached to your Mac or PC. In late October, Fitbit released their iPhone app so I followed up with information about how the app and tracker work together. At the time, I also promised to follow up on my original review to tell you how things are working with the Fitbit, so I thought I'd give you an update after six months with this device. The good news is that I'm still wearing the Fitbit Ultra every day. It's my constant companion, always clipped to a belt loop. I don't check my current step count, calories burned or flights of stairs climbed as obsessively as I did when I first got the device, but I still find the fitness information it provides to be important to my well-being. During the time I've used the Fitbit Ultra, I've been able to get a good idea of the average baseline number of steps I take per day. Now that the weather is getting nice, I plan to up my count to the desired 10,000 steps per day, so I have a good idea of how far and long I need to walk. One complaint I heard from many early Fitbit Ultra users was that they didn't feel that the device accurately measured how far they walked. I resolved that problem early on by measuring how many steps the Fitbit counted on a known distance, and then using the online Fitbit website to calibrate my stride. The numbers are now fairly accurate when I compare them to Runkeeper on my iPhone. When using the Fitbit app, I don't enter my food calorie counts. I find that to be time-consuming and just plain boring, so I forget to do it. Don't worry, Fitbit fans -- I never entered my "points" when I was using the WeightWatchers iPhone app either. Another feature I've stopped using is the sleep tracker. It doesn't really track how well you sleep; instead, it's measuring how much you toss and turn. I tend to lay very still in bed even when I'm awake, so the Fitbit dashboard shows a high sleep efficiency number even when I've had a relatively sleepless night. It is a great way to see what time you get up to go to the bathroom, though. The device has held up well to the abuse I've put it through; in fact, it still looks as good as the day I first put it on my belt. One technical issue I've had on occasion is that the device sometimes seems to lose wireless contact with the charging/sync dock so that I may go a few days without my fitness info being passed along to the iPhone app or the online website. The usual fix is to reboot my Mac, so it must be a USB or driver issue. Fitbit includes a social aspect that I almost wish I hadn't gotten into, since ex-TUAW blogger Scott McNulty is absolutely trouncing me in terms of steps walked. I can see where that comparison could become a good impetus to exercise. Watch out, Scott! I will absolutely continue to wear my Fitbit Ultra tracker, and I can't wait to start giving it a real workout this summer.
Fitbit for Android helps track your I/O
The fitness fanatics from Fitbit are looking to aid and abet the Android-loving, calorie-counting masses. The company has announced the release of its self-titled Android application, which will assist users in tracking their health and dietary goals. Through manual entry, or with the assistance of a wireless sensor, Fitbit tracks your daily activity and creates a dynamic nutrition plan to help you achieve your weight loss and fitness goals. What's more, the app and service keep a log of your progress allowing users to feel shame track their progress. The app is available via Google Play for the always attractive price of $0. Have yourself a download... and a quick jog.
Fitbit Ultra: An unobtrusive fitness tracker
I'm a lazy blogger. For most of the day, my exercise consists of clicking and typing, then heading down the stairs for another cup of coffee. Over the years I've blogged about my various attempts and methods of tracking exercise and calorie intake with iOS apps, but I find that I get frustrated with how much work is involved just in tracking what I'm doing. The Fitbit Ultra (US$99.95, announced and available today) might be the unobtrusive fitness buddy I've been looking for. Using my iPhone for tracking fitness walks, I have to remember to start up the app (RunKeeper), pause if I stop for a rest or to chat with someone, stop it when I get home and then type in a tag for the exercise. Since these types of apps use location services, they tends to suck down my battery quickly, which is the reason I've had a Mophie Juick Pack Air installed on the iPhone for the last ten months. Finally, the iPhone and associated fitness apps don't track the work I'm doing around the house. I tend to go up and down the stairs in our house a lot, which is a surprisingly good workout, yet those iPhone apps don't take that into account. The Fitbit Ultra is a tiny device about the size of a flash drive, weighing just .4 ounces and shaped like a small clip. There's a reason for that shape, since you can just clip the Fitbit Ultra onto clothing and let it track your movements throughout the day. The device has just one button, and uses a bright OLED display that is invisible when it's not in use. I found that the best way for me to use the Fitbit Ultra is to just drop it in my front pocket. That's what I love about the Fitbit Ultra -- I don't constantly have to be futzing around with it. I also don't have to do anything to get the data from the Fitbit to the Fitbit website (more about that in a moment) except be within about 25 feet of my computer. It checks to see if the combo charging stand / syncing transmitter is nearby about every 15 minutes, and when it is, the device sends changes to the Fitbit site via a plugin that is installed on your Mac. So, what does it track? To quote the old Police song, "Every step you take, every move you make, I'll be watching you." The Fitbit Ultra uses a MEMS 3D motion sensor to track every step, and unlike the earlier version of the device, it also has an innovative altimeter feature to determine when you've gone up or down a flight of stairs. The motion sensor also senses when you're not moving around, and is used as a sleep tracker as well. The bright blue display is enabled by either picking up the device when it's sitting on a surface or by pushing the button. Picking up the Fitbit Ultra displays a short motivational message ("LOVE YA," "GO," "LETS GO") and optionally your name as well. Pressing the button repeatedly shows the number of steps taken so far in the day, how far you've walked in miles, the number of calories burned, the number of flights of stairs climbed, a flower that "grows" as you get closer to your daily goal, and the current time. You can also use the Fitbit to time workouts, runs, or your nightly sleep with a built-in stopwatch. Of course, the tracked data is worthless without being analyzed and stored. That's where Fitbit.com comes in. The website, which works perfectly with Safari on both Mac and iOS devices, displays a dashboard full of information. At any time, I can see exactly how many steps I've taken (with a goal of 10,000 per day), how many floors I've climbed stairs to, how many miles I've walked, the calories burned, and an "active score." If I choose to, I can enter in calories consumed, set a weight goal, or calibrate my stride to get a more accurate reading of distance walked. Right now, this is all accomplished through the Fitbit.com website, but the company expects to release an iPhone app this month for those users who want to enter or view information on the go. For me, I'll probably just use the regular website when I can to enter the caloric information -- the reason I like the Fitbit, after all, is that it's unobtrusive and I don't have to physically enter information on a small device or start and stop an app. Some of the data that can be displayed on the Fitbit dashboard page can come from other sources or be sent out to your favorite exercise tracking or social networking service. At the present time, the Fitbit site will accept weight and fat mass from the Withings Connected Scale. It would be nice if the site could also bring in blood pressure readings from the Withings Blood Pressure Monitor, as that would supply one more piece of important health monitoring information to the dashboard. The docking station that is used to charge the Fitbit Ultra's battery and receive the updates wirelessly is plugged into a USB port. The battery lasts from 5 to 7 days, and the device charges quickly -- in about an hour -- when it needs to be topped off. I plan to write an update to this post when the iPhone app becomes available later in the month, and in late December I expect to write a follow-up on how successful the Fitbit was in helping to make me aware of my lack of exercise and motivate me to step it up a bit.
Fitbit Ultra review
Oh, hey, Fitbit. Nice to see you again. Although we thought the original fitness tracker did too little for a $100 gadget, enough people apparently begged to differ, as the the outfit just trotted out a second-gen model, dubbed the Fitbit Ultra. Like its predecessor, this little guy analyzes eating, exercise and sleep patterns (largely with the help of an accompanying website). If you've been following along, you know that design hasn't changed much, while that website and hundred-buck price should be mighty familiar, too. This time around the company is adding a few new features, including Foursquare-esque badges and an altimeter for counting how many steps you've climbed. But does this series of minor enhancements add up to a significant improvement? Time to lace up your running shoes, kids, and meet us after the break. %Gallery-135129% %Gallery-135381%
