Scribblings

I expected to maintain based on the numbers.  I have an average deficit of 148 calories per day but have felt a little swollen so I thought it might cancel out the deficit.  Despite this, the scale went up significantly from last week (more than 3 pounds).  BodyBugg believes I miscalculated my calories eaten because statistically most people underestimate their caloric intake.  Well, I'm not most people.  I weigh/measure almost everything (the primary exceptions being pre-portioned foods and apples/oranges).  I have been weighing and measuring my food for over two years now and if I wanted to, I could very likely "eyeball" how much a half cup of ice cream is; although most of the time, I still measure it out.  Typically I will actually overestimate rather than under.  For instance, one day this week I was sure I had eaten over 2K calories for the day but when I entered everything it was just over 1600.  I know I didn't overeat this week.  No, I didn't eat on my target to lose two pounds but I definitely shouldn't have gained... and I am confident that my calories logged were fairly close to accurate.

So what could be going on?  Well, today the program allowed me to enter my measurements and body fat percentage.  Once this information was entered, the program said that my goal for the last two weeks was to lose 4.25 lbs of body fat but that according to my measurements/body fat percentage I had actually lost 5.31 pounds of body fat.  Then how on earth can the scale say I'm only down a total of 0.8 pounds in two weeks?  Well, I haven't gained fat, that's for sure!  I have felt like I was retaining a bit of water, probably due to some meds I took for sinus pressure.  I also believe I've gained some muscle.

BodyBugg says that "if your body fat goal is ON TARGET according to your most recent measurement, you may ignore the last paragraph on this screen. You do not need to alter your current program."  Unfortunately, they don't ignore the last paragraph.  They show in my status reports that I must have averaged a surplus of 412 calories per day this week in order to gain weight.  If I hadn't taken my measurements (lost an inch in both my waist and hips alone), I would be very discouraged right now.  The scale is not always an accurate representatation of what's really going on.  I'm happy with dropping body fat even if the scale doesn't show it just yet.  I'm doing what I can and trusting God for the results.

On to the new week!

This morning I stepped on the scale.  It says I lost 4.4 pounds this week.  So I went into my BodyBugg account and entered this information.  According to them, I should have lost 2.14 pounds.  I'm not totally sure where they are getting that number though.  My food log for the week shows an average deficit of 656 calories per day which would equate to 1.312 pounds lost.  When your measurement numbers don't match your log, the system automatically assumes that you did not accurately track your calories.  This approach is more than likely the case most of the time, but I found it weird that they would assume that I only ate an average of 400 calories per day (and yet logged an average of 1752 calories/day) to get that 4.4 loss.  With the exception of possibly last Friday, my food log was pretty darn close to accurate this week.

A little tutorial pops up after the weigh in and in it they do mention water weight fluctuations and muscle gain.  They suggest looking at a three to four week period of results before determining what is really going on with your habits/changes.  I do agree with that last suggestion.  All in all, I am fairly confident that I know what the difference in the numbers is this week and it isn't that I logged MORE calories than I actually ate :)  Here are my observations of what could cause this much of a difference:

1. The biggest reason is likely the time of day (as well as time of month) I weighed in.  My starting weight was taken in the afternoon and this morning's weight was taken before breakfast.
2. Both my calories logged and calories burned were not accurate for Friday.  I guessed at my total calories consumed and they guessed at my total calories burned since I didn't put on the bugg till that afternoon.
3. On the nights when I wore the bugg all night, I burned more calories while asleep than what they averaged for me on the nights I didn't wear it.  The actual average per minute was 1.2 calories while sleeping with the bugg on and their estimated average when I didn't wear it was 1 calorie per minute.  During a six hour period (because let's face it, I've been watching LOST and not sleeping like I should), that comes out to 72 calories per night that I don't wear the bugg that they don't count.  I don't see this as being a big enough difference to worry about though.  I think I'd rather not sleep with it on.

I knew going in that this week would likely not be accurate.  Even other reviewers have mentioned that it takes a couple of weeks for the program to even out and become more accurate.  I still don't like the food log aspect but I do like being able to view my current burn during the day.  It has prompted me to move more.  The tutorial claims that you can do this program without logging your food (although they do highly recommend that you log what you eat).  I've been tempted to try a week of that suggestion but I log my food not just so I won't overeat but so I won't undereat either.  I tend to fluctuate between those extremes if I'm not paying attention.

Well, that's how week 1 went.  Moving on to a new week today :)

Tonight I'm putting together a soup so I had to use the "Build a Food or Meal" button on the BodyBugg website.  At first it looked promising as this is one feature of The Perfect Diet Tracker that could be improved upon.  Then I attempted to use it.  The pluses are:

• Allows you to enter an actual serving number
• It is saved in your database for future use
  

The minuses?  Well, let's see:

• If the ingredient you are "searching for" doesn't exist, then it says "no matches, add custom food below".  That's great but when you look "below" there is no where to add a custom food.  So I had to close that window, go back to the place where you enter food in general (which I've already mentioned isn't user friendly) and go through that whole process in another couple of windows.  Then you can go back and attempt to build a meal again.  My suggestion is to stay in that food entry window until you've checked to make sure all of your ingredients are in the database (which they won't be) before trying to "build a meal".  When you do add custom ingredients or foods, it doesn't give you the option of saving it to your database without adding it to your food log.  So, I had to add all of my ingredients to my dinner log, then go "build a meal" which they also add to the dinner log by default, then go into the dinner log and delete all of the individual ingredients from said log.  Ugh!
• The other minus is that while you're building this meal, you can see a "total" calorie count for the entire recipe but not per serving.  So you might be staring at a number like 1246 and not know how many calories you'll be eating of that (unless you rock at doing math in your head) until it gets added to the log.  The drawback to this is if you're wanting to alter the meal to make it more calorie friendly you'd have to keep saving (which adds it to your log automatically every time) before you could see the calories per serving.  If they think people don't do this, think again!  I did this all the time when building recipes in WW eTools.

Oh and I wanted to see if the tab/highlight thing was just a Firefox thing so I openned IE and got the exact same thing.  Not a browser issue, it's a Web Developement issue.  Here's a screenshot of the "Build a food or meal" window:

 

Notice the word "Dinner" at the top.  If you've already entered the other meals for the day, you have no choice but to enter something into "Dinner" unless you click on "I skipped this meal" then it will take you to "Late Snack".  That big green "Calories Consumed" button on the main page takes you to the last meal you didn't enter, in order.  You MUST enter your foods in the correct "meal order" apparently.  The only exception is another link further down on the main page intended for "report" type stuff where you can list everything you ate by meal in one place.  IF you've entered something into a meal category then you can "edit" that category from there; However, if there isn't anything entered then no "edit" option appears.  Kind of makes me want to go through and enter "baby carrots" into every meal category at the start of the day just so I can go into whatever category I want to enter what I ate.

Now that I've said so much negative about the food tracker, there is something I do like.  If you're in a meal category, like "Lunch" for instance, it lists foods you've recently eaten in a window on the left.  Better than that is that it keeps the serving size you used then too.  So, with one click you can add it to the day without any further hassle.  This is great for things you tend to eat often and at the same time of day... mostly snacks in my case.

Well, it's time to get that soup on, and maybe I'll burn some calories in the process :)

This is my third day to wear my new BodyBugg.  I'm really trying to give the online subscription a chance but I have spent quite a lot of time entering foods like:

Ezekiel Bread
Laughing Cow Light Cheese Wedges
Hebrew National 97% Fat Free Hot Dogs
Sara Lee Buns
Silk PureAlmond Milk
Hormel Natural Choice Deli Turkey
Dreyer's Slow Churned Ice Cream
Greek gods brand greek yogurt
JollyTime Microwave Popcorn

... just to name some of them.  Out of the 14 items I've already logged today as "eaten", only four of them existed in their database.  Now, granted, the chocolate I eat is organic, fair trade stuff so I wasn't expecting that to show up in there.  However, most tracking tools I've used have had the list above in their databases.   My Plate even has the fish oil and vitamin C supplements I take in the database.  We all know that calories can vary greatly from brand to brand.  So, it is not "good enough" for me to search on "yellow mustard" and get one option that is listed at three calories when the actual stuff I put on my sandwich was zero calories.  I decided to send the company an email today letting them know my disappointment in the food tracker part of this program.

Now, let's get technical for a moment.  I entered my food and uploaded my "burn" on Saturday and Sunday.  I'm shooting for a deficit (meaning, burning more calories than I take in).  I set my deficit target for 1000 calories per day because that should average out to a two pound loss per week.  Why waste time getting back down to goal right?  Originally the program had me eating a lot fewer calories to reach my goal but I decided part of the way through Saturday that there was no way I would keep that up.  I spent years starving myself, no way I want to go there again. I would rather endure exercise any day over enduring hunger pangs (and, let's just be honest, grouchiness).  I opted to up my calorie consumption target which means that I would need to be a bit more active to show a deficit.  On Saturday I had a deficit of 1046 calories and on Sunday, my deficit was 170 calories.  Saturday I hit the treadmill and did quite a lot of "dancing" with the girls in the livingroom.  On Sunday I basically sat on my rear most of the day.  The difference was pretty big.  I also ate more calories on Sunday because my mealtimes were off and I was very hungry by the time I did eat.  This almost always translates to me eating more than I would have.  I should also note that I stayed up way too late watching LOST and wouldn't have gotten hungry again if I was asleep like I should have been.  Here's a screenshot of my stats so far today on the main bar graph (if the image doesn't show up for my Facebook friends, go to Scribblings to see it):

 

The light blue shaded area in the calories burned bar indicates where my calorie burn is estimated to end up if I am sedentary the rest of the day.  I am planning to workout so that should get a lot closer to my target line after I do.

I haven't done any physical measurements since Friday... not even to peek at the scale.  On Friday I should be able to share more about the measurement tracking piece.

I'm wearing the BodyBugg today and using their web based tracking program to track my calories.  I've already discovered a couple of things that are totally not cool.  Before I go with my not cool list I thought I'd say something positive.  I can't imagine using this thing without the digital display.  You have the option of wearing it either as a watch or a clip that I currently have hooked to my shirt tail.  I like that I can see my current daily burn at a glance... which I should point out is a little lower than I expected (that might explain a few things right there).  So far I am really liking the burn tracking aspect of this thing.

What I don't like... well, that has to do with the food tracker.  I used WW eTools for over two years and without a doubt, their tracker is better.  The issues I have with the BodyBug food tracker are:

• The existing food database is rather small - I've had to enter five things manually already... and that's only been through lunch on the first day. So far The Perfect Diet tracker has been my favorite with regard to database size.
  
• ...which leads me to my next complaint.  When tabbing through the fields to enter nutritional information, the "zero" in that field should highlight automatically.  That way you can simply key in a number without having to manually highlight the zero to make it go away.  Otherwise, 2 grams of fat might register as 20 by mistake... not to mention the added time to highlight every field manually.  Of course, might not be a big deal if I hadn't had to enter the nutritional information for five items already.
• When entering a new food, you can only give the serving size in grams or fluid ounces.  I don't mind it that much I guess but there should be an additional section where you can enter the serving size in number of pieces or slices or ounces or cups.  I highly doubt most people will measure out 100 grams of frozen berries - no, they'll grab a measuring cup.
• Unless I'm doing this wrong, it appears that you can only enter meals in the order they dictate.  I would suggest that the programmers take a peek at either eTools or The Perfect Diet Tracker for tips on how a food log should function.
• Overall, I find using their food tracker to be tedious - which is a shame considering the company requires an online subscription (fortunately ten months came with the Bugg).
• I'm tempted to use The Perfect Diet Tracker instead of their food log because it's more user friendly... and is prettier to look at... yeah, it matters to me.

As of right now, I'm going to give the food tracker a chance but I'm not "loving" the functionality of that aspect.  Back on the positive side, I need to go do some kind of physical activity so I can remotely have a chance of hitting my calorie burn for the day... sitting at this computer is not going to cut it.

Today the doorbell rang.  My girls thought their friend was at the door... nope, the UPS dude!  I came back inside with a small brown box and the kids begin asking questions.

"What is that?"

"It's my BodyBugg."

"What's a BodyBugg?"

"My new toy."  And with that I proceeded to the kitchen where a timer chimed for the homemade bread I had baking.  Once the bread situation was under control, I pulled a pair of scissors from the "junk drawer" and went to work on the box. I freed the contents and plopped down in my big chair with my laptop and Bugg paraphernalia.  Thinking I would have this thing set up in a matter of minutes I was shocked when thirty minutes had passed and the timer for my second loaf of bread was sounding.  I still wasn't through with all of the questions and tutorials.  Everything had to be put on hold until after dinner (and an episode of LOST), which was just as well considering the device was still charging.

I finished setting up my online account, which was far more detailed than I expected.  I really didn't want to weigh in the late afternoon but I couldn't move forward until I filled in all of those details.  It appears that the Bugg is fully charged... maybe I need to check what color/flashing/not flashing the battery light should be... Yep, flashing green. It's charged.  Right now I feel a bit like I've got a case of "information overload".  I'm wondering if I should put it on and walk around... oh snap, I just remembered that I haven't even openned up the digital display watch.  I wonder how long it takes to charge that piece.  Be right back...

…Ok, no charging.  It has a watch battery inside.  I think I will give it a walk about the room.  I put it on and got the “I’m on” beep.  It automatically shuts on and off depending on whether or not it is contact with your skin.  Wow.  Now to turn on the digital display…  OH MY GOSH!!  It knows my name!  Once it synched the display read, “Welcome to BodyBugg, Julie”.  Looks like it may be guessing at my calorie burn so far today.  Several reviews I read said to give it a few days to convert to your true calorie burn.  Looks like I’ve burned three calories since I turned it on.  Funny, I guess typing does burn calories. Wearing this strap around my arm is going to take some getting used to though.  They say you eventually forget that it's there.  I sure hope so.

For one minute I did a couple of trips up and down the stairs and circled the main floor.  Looks like I burned 4 calories doing that.  The "log" on the display says that I was moderately active for one minute - ha!  This is rather comical.  I have now burned 24 calories since turning it on a few minutes ago.  My goodness.

Tomorrow I'll track my food and wear the Bugg.  The first week I'm just going to focus on learning how to use this thing.  It's pretty neat so far.  If you get one, be prepared to spend a bit of time in the setup process.  Oh, and it takes about three hours to fully charge the device.  During the setup I told them I didn't want the coaching phone call at this time.  It looks like I can change my mind later.

Suprising to me has been how many people I've encountered who have never heard of the BodyBugg.  While I realize that NBC's, The Biggest Loser, has a huge fan base, many don't know what that black band they wear on their arms really is.  Well, it's the BodyBugg... and I've got one coming in the mail!  After making the difficult decision to move on from Weight Watchers, I decided that I still wanted a plan.  Weight Watcher's program change (and timing of that change), for me, ended up resulting in a weight gain of more than the two pounds they allow for you to attend meetings for free.  I was already struggling with motivation to maintain the weight-loss since discovering that apparently I am very "reward driven" when it comes to this.  There were a few other issues in my case but the last straw was the program change.  I figured that if I was going to learn a new plan anyway then I would go into another direction.

I moved toward more whole foods but the weight wasn't budging.  So I started tracking calories eaten, but I found that guessing at my body's calorie burn and the number of calories I should eat each day wasn't working either.  In fact, I grew frustrated with being either too hungry or too full and the scale still hanging in place.  And then I remembered the BodyBugg.  One of my WW online friends mentioned that she got one, loved it, and then a few weeks later she was no longer on WW online... hmm, wonder why?  I began to google reviews and youtube videos and pretty much anything I could find on the BodyBugg.  Most of what I saw was very positive.  After a week, we put in the order through the 24HourFitness website.  They are running some specials through the end of March so I ordered the armband with the display watch.  Wearing the device on your arm allows you to track how many calories you burn each day.  This is helpful because if you burn more than you eat... you lose weight!

The 24HourFitness website said that I should get a confirmation email when the Bugg ships... but I didn't get any such email.  Having ordered the device on Monday morning (prior to their 10am PST cut off for same day processing), I was thinking that by Wednesday I should have heard something.  Nope.  So I emailed them.  I heard back today, with an apology, that my Bugg had been shipped on Tuesday.  They included the tracking number.  Depending on when it actually shows up, we're talking 4-5 days for the free shipping option.  Of course, I should mention that I live in Colorado and the company is in California.

Hopefully I'll have more to post on this product soon.