There has been a lot of interest in the bodybugg lately, and many visitors are (naturally) looking for personal experiences with the armband. I talked about the bodybugg a good amount after I bought it, but I know some of you want to know how it works, long term. While I can’t claim to be representative of all bodybugg users (ha!), I thought it might be useful to share my experience so far.
It’s been about four and a half months since I bought the bodybugg at my local health club. I went through the training sessions (where I got some good info, even though I found the bodybugg site pretty intuitive and didn’t need a lot of help with it). I was motivated by the interesting information and synced my armband several times a day. I faithfully logged my food and saw good results.
At first.
Then, like any other long-term “resolution,” I started being a little less dedicated in my efforts. I only logged my food when it was convenient. I wasn’t as faithful about syncing. And after the included three-month subscription ran out, I let it lapse. (That was partly because I was going on a week-long bike trip and wouldn’t be able to sync, log food, or get real-time feedback, but also because I didn’t want to pay unless I was committed to actually using the service.)
What does that say about the bodybugg? Well, actually, not much except that it’s like any other tool: you have to use it to get any benefit out of it! And I did get some great benefits when I was using it.
From May 22 to early August when I started slacking, my daily average weight dropped from 150 to 139. Not the incredible numbers you’ll see on The Biggest Loser, mind you, but numbers that made me happy, particularly since my end goal is 130.
My current average weight is 143. I have no doubt that if I’d stuck with my faithful bodybugg use, I’d be at my goal by now.
So why didn’t I stick with it? Lack of focus. When I first started with the bodybugg, the novelty aspect helped me stay interested in my health, and encouraged me to make good food and exercise choices so that I could see a positive and accurate picture.
After a while, the novelty wore off, and without paying much attention, I stopped caring whether something was a good choice or not. Last night I missed dinner and ate a lot of dessert, then came home, had dinner, and ate more dessert. If I was logging food, I never would have done that.
So what can you expect with the bodybugg? I’d say it depends on your personality and habits. It’s certainly a useful tool to give anyone a kick in the butt to make a change. The question is whether you’ll be able to stick with it after it’s no longer new and exciting.
If you are the kind of person who can stick with something as long as you get useful feedback, the bodybugg is probably your dream come true.
If you get bored easily and hop from thing to thing (like me!), it will be useful as long as you’re able to remind yourself of the value, but if you don’t have confidence that you’ll be able to do that, you might end up spending a lot of money for short-term results.
(Of course, if you’re like me, you really read this secretly hoping that I would tell you, “It’s a miracle device! Buy one immediately and it will be worth your money a thousand times over!” At least, that’s what I hope people will say when I look for reviews of a product I’m considering…)
If you’re not sure whether the bodybugg is a good investment, I have a kind of wacky suggestion to help you decide:
- Determine the cost per pound/body fat % lost that would make it a good value for you personally. For instance, given a rough $400 price tag for the model I bought (they didn’t have the Digital Display when I purchased), and my solid 11 pound weight loss, that comes to about $36 per pound (or about $89 per body fat percentage point lost, because my body fat went down by 4.5%). How much would you pay to get rid of a pound of fat? If you’re willing to pay $50 per pound (and you don’t get the Digital Display), then you’re talking about losing eight pounds. If it’s only worth $10/pound to you, then you need to lose 40 pounds to make it an acceptable value to you.
- Divide the number of pounds you’d need to lose for it to be a good value by 1.5. A pound and a half is about what most people can count on losing per week if they’re making a serious effort. It’s not a hard and fast number, but it will help you figure out a realistic number of weeks for losing the weight.
- Ask someone who knows you well (and whom you trust), “Do you think I can stick with a diet plan for x number of weeks?” This is the hard one! History doesn’t always predict the future, but if your trustworthy-someone expresses doubt that you can stay committed long enough for you to get your desired value out of the bodybugg, I’d seriously suggest a waiting period before purchase. If you can get them to tell you how long they think you could stick with a diet plan, run the numbers backwards and see how it impacts your price per pound. Would that be acceptable?
Odd? Yeah, a little. But if you’re worried about making an emotional decision that could cost a lot of money, or creating family stress by spending so much on a gadget and not using it, or providing further ammunition in an argument about how you don’t finish what you start, hopefully that analysis will at least help you see it more logically. (If the analysis turns out well, you might also have a good argument to convince your spouse. 
)
Oh, and by the way, I’ve re-upped my subscription and have all the best intentions to be serious about my tracking from now until the end of November. Then I’ll re-evaluate.
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