It Watches Every Movement... and Lack Thereof

Sooooo, I broke down and bought an Exerspy. I've mentioned it before (mostly talked about the previous brand called the BodyBugg). This is the device that you wear all day and night on your arm, and it measures your caloric burn, your number of steps, your amount of physical activity (breaking it down into both moderate and vigorous), and even your sleep efficiency.
IT IS SO GREAT!
You can sync it to the computer throughout the day and it is most helpful if you log your food intake as well. It will show you your caloric deficit (or gain) each day, and at the end of the week there will be no surprises when you step on the scale!
It can be used no matter your goal: weight loss, weight maintenance, muscle gain, etc.

I find it helpful to sync around dinner time so I can see how many calories I can still eat and what I still need to burn for the rest of the day. It lets me know if I need to go for an after dinner walk (or something more intense), and if I'm allowed to have dessert and still stay on track.

This post may become long, as I start to add some pictures and descriptions from the website, so I'll mention a few more things first:

- There are a few similar devices out there... the BodyBugg, the GoWearFit, etc. They are all relatively the same, but I can say that the ExerSpy is created by the maker of the BodyBugg, with added features and efficiency (according to a webinar I participated in with the creator). The ExerSpy is the only one I can personally speak of and walk you through the process, but I have friends that have utilized the other brands as well.

- If you live near me, I would be more than happy to let you borrow mine for a week to learn more about your metabolism and get an idea for your daily nutrition and activity plan.

- I have to say, I always thought I'd just want to wear it for a few days and get an idea of what's going on... but now that I've passed it along for another to borrow, I miss it! I want to know how many calories I burned in an intense spin class! I want to know if I am continuing to stay on track with my goal.

- I won't hide the cost from you. The Exerspy is $220.00, additionally you need to have a $10/month membership to the DotFit website in order to sync your device and follow your progress. (I can give you a 14 day free trial to the site.)

- If you are interested in making a purchase, please contact me. It appears you can only purchase through DotFit (believe me, I tried to find one on eBay, etc.) and I have a DotFit account, so I can help set you up. Also, at no additional cost to you, I make a small profit off of everything I sell through my site and would certainly appreciate your support :)

So let's look at the details:

This first picture shows how many calories I burned in a day. You can see my goal was 2093 calories, but I actually burned 2465, woohoo! You can also see many periods of low activity and one big peak when I went to a cycling class.

You can also zoom in and see calories by the minute, and if you block a time period off, you can see how many calories were burned during your exercise, etc. During my cycling class, I burned 227 calories.

Then, if you click on "physical activity" you can get a good idea of how many minutes you've been active each day, as well as if you have had any moments of more vigorous activity. (During my cycling class I performed 34 minutes of moderate activity and 24 minutes of vigorous)

You can also monitor how many steps you have taken each day... with the goal being 10,000 steps a day. You can see that I only walked 5,201 steps... which isn't as many as I should get, but since my workout was a cycling class, this number is a little more understandable.

You can also measure your sleep efficiency. In one of the webinars, the company said that 85% or higher is a good efficiency. Mine certainly varies from night to night, but on the particular night showcased here, I was 93% efficient in my sleep, hurray!

In addition to the feedback given directly through linking the ExerSpy, you can log your food and compare the amount of calories in to the calories out to make sure that you stay on track with your daily caloric goals. This first picture shows a day that I ate pretty close to my goal, but then I performed more physical activity than my goal, thus having a greater caloric debt which would put me on the fast track to weight loss. (My caloric deficit was 938 calories. If I maintained this every day, I would lose close to 2 lbs in one week)

And because we all have them, I will share with you a day where my caloric expenditure was WAY over my plan. I consumed 2727 calories when I was only supposed to consume 1568. Fortunately for me, I had also exceeded my activity needs for the day, and still managed to have a daily caloric deficit of 247 calories.

You can see how this information could be helpful regardless of whether your goal is to lose, maintain, or gain weight. For me, it is helpful to see the visual balance... if I eat too much, then I have to do more physical activity to stay on track.

I think it's clear to say, I'm a big fan!

Let me know if you have any questions :)

Have a HEALTHY day!

~ Fit Britt