Thread: Body Bug??

I have one. I have to say, I wrote a review of it on my facebook page. Here it is, hope it helps?


I want to give my thoughts on the Bodybugg!

I hear a lot of people talk about it and wear it and use it. But, I want to tell you my experience.

I bought mine about this time last year. I thought it was great. I wore it everyday for awhile. At first it was a huge eye opener. I couldn't believe that walking 10,000 steps a day was really hard! I know there were days that I would get on the elliptical at night and do an extra 20 minutes just to get my calorie burned or steps in before I went to bed. Whatever it took to reach my goal of 2200 calories burned a day and 10,000 steps.

I found myself walking in circles when I pumped gas or waited at the photocopied. I found myself taking the long way to walk where I wanted to go, or just walking the dog a little further. This is where the Bodybugg was awesome! It pushed me to do a little more each day.

I also used the Bodybugg religiously when I trained for my marathon! It not only told me that I ran over 50,000 steps in 5 hours, but it told me my calorie burn! I knew exactly how many calories I was burning and knew when I needed to feed it! So, another great bonus!

What I did not do all the time was track my meals! To get the best benefits of the BodyBugg you need to log in all your meals and the calories for each meal. I mean, it's meant to tell you calories in- calories burned to tell you your over or deficit. That is the ONLY way you can track to reach your goals! i' be good on some days and other days I would be horrible at tracking my meals! So, I never really took full advantage of the use of the Bodybugg!

I did invest in the watch. If I got it again, I would have to have the watch! I used my watch everyday to see in real time what I was doing. That is what pushed me to do a little more each day. Plus, I hated to download the band every night (agin, I wasn't logging on every night to track my calories either) to get my results. Now, the band holds everything for 1-2 weeks, so you don't need to download it immediately. But, then if you don't have the watch how do you know if you reached your goals?

Now, to download into their software, you get a few membership, I think 6 months. After that you pay more $$! I don't know how much, I never renewed mine!

Here is what I HATED. I hated the arm band. So unattractive! I got so many comments on it, what is that, what are you doing, you don't need to lose weight..... Also I had it during summer. HELLO, I am not getting a stupid tan line around my arm! So, there were a lot of times I never wore it. Like sailing all day! Heck I was in a swimsuit, how did that look! And, I saw people wear an arm band to dinner where they wore a nice dress. The arm band looked stupid! Totally not a fashion statement (and the watch is just evenly as ugly! It's way to large for my small wrist). My husband cringed that I wore the band just in the car, and I always removed the band before entering a restaurant or certain places!

Again, I hated tracking food all the time. YES! I so think you need to do this to get best results. Me, I tend to track my meals for a week, then not for a month or so. Then I track again to get back on track, and not for awhile. But, to get the benefit of the bodybugg you need to track it. Otherwise, you can not determine the real calories burned to the calories consumed to tell you if you were on track!!!! Plus, tracking calories in, to me is a real guessing game too. Unless you measure and know exactly everything you eat! No guessing, or you are probably underestimating!

I absolutely think that the Bodybugg is a cool and excellent tool. It can be a real eye opener. But, I think it was almost $200-$300 to get the band, the watch and the 6 months of software. I honestly have to say, I have a Polar Heart Rate Monitor (which I also wore during my half marathon and during full days of skiing - including the chest band and only cost about $60). I would much rather wear a chest band and the Polar watch (A lot smaller and more lady like then the Bodybugg watch). The chest band is under cloths and can't be seen, once on I never noticed it. The Poloar HR monitor tracks calories!!! Plus, it tracks your heart rate (Something the Bodybugg doesn't do!) Of course, the HR monitor does not track activity and steps. SOO, its a trade off.

My recommendation- unless you are serious about getting results, serious about tracking all your meals in programs like myfitnesspal.com or the BodyBugg software, and serious about wearing the arm band even if it means comments and goofy tan lines, then pass on the cost of the BodyBugg and go with a good Heart Rate monitor! If you can be serious of all the above, then go with the Bodybugg! It will get you the results you want, because it will open your eyes to what your missing. But, to me, after about 4 months, the novelty wore off!

Just my honest thoughts. I know a lot of people swear by it and can't live with out their Bodybugg. I also know when I wore it everyday, as I said I know I did more! So, if you want to push yourself to lose those first 10 or the last 10, if you really use it or even if it helps you to do a little more, I'm sure it will help! But, know that in 5 months, you may grow bored of the extra step of everything you need to do (track, charge, download, ....) that you may stop wearing it. Then, is it still going to be worth the cost and worth the membership cost???

Hope this helps! That said, I still want to wear my Bodybugg to see how many calories/steps are in a crazy Insanity workout! I guess I need to find it, charge it, set it up and wear it again for awhile!

Thank you that was a wonderful review. Maybe I'll check into the HR monitor. I am already keeping track of what I eat every day on my phone. I mainly just want something to keep track of kind of how many calories *I* am burning everyday on average. I've done the ones online and they vary sooo much. I'd just like something a bit more targetted to me specificially and less to a broad generalization. I think that is the final missing piece in my puzzle.