Apex BodyBugg vs Nike Plus

Check out this picture of my dog, she is panting up a storm. I love it when I wear her out!

Since I am a full time student/worker I have to squeeze in my exercise when I can. So today after I was trapped in front of the computer for 6 hours for a Finance class webinar, I thought it was best to put on my running shoes and go for a jog with the dog.  

For fun I put on my Nike Plus and used it to measure Calories vs the Bodybugg. The nike plus is a device you use with your IPod and through a sensor you wear on your shoe it can tell how long you have ran and how many calories burned, roughly. Jogging with both a bodybugg and a ipod makes you feel a bit like a robot, but not uncomfortable. 

I set my Nike+ to have me run until I burned 500 Calories. Now since I don't have the Bodybugg digital watch to show me my real time calorie burn, I planned to match up when I got back home. 

I love jogging. I am not a fast runner, I jog about a 12 min mile but at a very steady pace without stopping. My dog and I headed up to the redwood forrest near my house, our usual path that she knows pretty well. 

Running through the redwoods is better than any street or beach path. I always feel its like a video game, you have to jump over logs and always watch the ground so not to trip over roots. When I was 250 calories in (the Nike + tells me over my headphones) I decided to go a bit more to reach a full 2 miles in the forrest. When I turned around and came back in I soon reached my 500 calorie goal with more road to go and so I went for 600 calories. 

Coming back to my house I was just about 585 calories so, to my dogs displeasure, we went past my house a bit and then back for a perfect 600 calorie burn. Yay! It was a total of 4.05 miles, 52mins, and a 12:50mile speed. 

When I downloaded my bodybugg I found that I can adjust my calories to the hour I ran and was surprised to see that according to it, I burned 724 calories! 

Comparing the two sciences of the devices, I am going to go with bodybugg. Nike+ uses your weight to match how many calories you burned and when I checked out my Nike+ settings I still had my weight at 197lbs. Wow I had lost some weight a while back, nice to know and nice to see bodybugg is probably right. 

Food Log Not Working

Wow, it would be great if I could start off with things working. But for this to be a true user review, I have to be honest, the damn thing is broken. This is a re-occurring problem for the past three days. I try to log my food in, takes a few minutes, and I press "Next Meal" and nothing happens. Its been three days since I could add my food which sucks because I have to memorize or write down my food so I can input it when the things work again. Glad I paid $199 for this. 

 

My Starting Point

To lay the cards on the table and to quantify this one month study. Here is what we have to start with. I hate when I read these types of things and no one puts their real weight and height. I mean this is not your financial information, I want to know the numbers so that I can learn from others. So here we go:

Age 28

Gender Female

Height 5'7'' 

Weight 193 (I know I know, a chubster)

Measurements:

neck: 13 inches

chest: 37.5 inches

arm: 13.5 inches

waist: 35.5 inches

hips: 43 inches

thighs: 24.5 inches

calf: 16 inches

Goals:

Starting Goal to Reach by Aug 7, 2009: 175lbs

So by July 1, 2009 my goal should be 182.5lbs

The Plan

I bought my Apex Bodybugg last week and have been practicing with it before I started this blog. For those who need a bodybugg primer, according to the 24hr Fitness website:

"The bodybugg armband calorie tracking device uses a patented process to monitor and interpret your calorie burn throughout the day or during your workouts. Using data from four physiological sensors in conjunction with your body parameters (age, gender, height, and weight), the bodybugg electronic calorie counter provides the most accurate estimation of energy expenditure available outside of a clinical setting." (http://www.24hourfitness.com/training/bodybugg/)

I had been eyeing them for a few months but, like apparently everyone else, I was waiting until the price ($249) went down. Finally magic set in and my company bonus came in at the same time the price went down to ($199) and I snapped one up. I was pretty excited to get started and actually read the directions, something I never do. 

As I started searching the web for more information on the bodybugg and user reviews, I didn't find much. I am taking a Social Media Marketing course for my MBA program and so, why not, I started my own user review blog. For the next 30days, June 1, 2009 to June 30, 2009 I will be using the bodybugg and writing on this blog my findings. With hope I can keep this up. For now, I am just focusing on the first two weeks. Here we go!