Getting FIT with BodyMedia’s LINK Armband

You may or may not know that I am on a mission to lose about 15-20 pounds that I haven’t been able to get off in years.  What I am doing, counting calories and working out,  is not working.  Either my calorie intake is way off or I’m not working out as hard as I think.

Imagine my excitement when I was offered the chance to review the BodyMedia LINK armband.

BodyMedia’s LINK Armband tracks four very important factors:

• Total Calories Burned
• Total Steps Taken
• Total Physical Activity Time
• Sleep Duration and Efficiency

At first glance, I didn’t really understand how this would help me in my weight loss journey, but I soon learned just what a powerful tool it can be.  The BodyMedia Link Armband pairs with their Activity Manager.  There is no display on the armband, so you must sync it with the activity manager on your computer.  (There is a subscription charge of $6.95 per month for the Activity Manager, but BodyMedia has been so gracious as to offer the first 3 months free!) During the initial setup of your account, you will enter some information about yourself and your goals.  It then maps out a plan for you to achieve those goals.

Within the first two days of wearing it, one of my issues became very clear.  What I considered to be moderate to vigorous activity clearly was not.   I was guilty of over estimating the amount of calories I burned during a workout.

Once the data is transferred from the armband to the Activity Manger you see a display like this:

You can see the total amount of calories burned.  This includes all daily activities and the calories your body burns during sleep.  The Activity Manager estimates that I need to consume 1500 calories per day.  There are two ways to enter these calories… you can enter each item you eat or you can enter one daily estimate.  I usually enter a daily estimate because I hate logging food, but you get one advantage if you take the time to log each item… a breakdown of your day’s nutrition.  You also see how long your physical activity was, how many steps you’ve taken and how long you slept.  Lastly, you can track your weight and your waist measurement.

If you need more information about any of these categories, simply click on the category and it expands.

Here I’ve selected my calories burned.  See the spike just before 10pm…. yep that was my run on the treadmill.

I chose BodyMedia’s LINK Armband for my review, because I have an Android smartphone.  The LINK armband will sync with my phone so I can view real-time updates during the day.  It will also sync with Apple’s iPhone. Probably my favorite feature is the ability to track my workout in real-time on my phone.  (I’ll  update this post once I can take a screen shot of this feature.)

All in all, I am in love with BodyMedia’s LINK Armband.  Just in the first 7 days of wearing it, I lost 1.6 pounds.  I can’t wait to see what the next weigh in will bring.

You can purchase the BodyMedia FIT Armband at BodyMedia.com or on Amazon.com.