Fitbug Fitness Gadget Reviewed
Looking to shave off a few pounds but struggling with motivation? Carrying a Fitbug could be the answer! Here's our transcript of our Fitbug review
Listen to FrequencyCast Show 53 - Hands on with Fitbug |
Fitbug - One Month On
The Fitbug is essentially a USB pedometer - but it's actually a lot more than that.
We looked at the Fitbug in Show 52 (read transcript), but we've now had time to try it out - In show 53, our Sarah shared her experiences, and here's the transcript:
Carl:
Thank you for that, I'm going to look forward to it. Right now though, time to touch on a product we briefly covered in our last show, something to make our office admin girl even fitter.
Pete:
Yes, we're talking about Fitbug, a little grey and purple widget that our Sarah's being trialling by carrying it around with her every day. Looking at her Fitbug now, it's showing that she's done 3,187 steps today.
Sarah:
... which is clearly not enough steps.
Pete:
So you have a daily target, is that right?
Sarah?
I have a daily target, which is around 7,500 at the moment.
Pete:
So I'm guessing the way this works is, you carry this around, it's got a USB socket on it, so you take it back to your computer, plug it in and it uploads information about how many steps you've taken?
Sarah:
It will do consecutive days, so if you miss a day out, it's not too much of a problem.
Pete:
I'm assuming there's a way of putting in other exercise other than walking?
Sarah:
You can go into the interface on the website and put in other activities, whether you're doing running, cycling, swimming. It's even got general household duties, like doing laundry, washing up.
Pete:
And am I right in saying you also have put in details of what you've eaten, so your calorie intake?
Sarah:
There's a tab on the website where you go in, and you put in what you've had for your breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.
Pete:
OK, so you put all this information in, you put in your steps, you put in your exercise, you put in your food intake - then what happens?
Sarah:
Well what you do is, you get weekly reports telling you how well you're doing against your targets.
Pete:
And that's what we're looking at on the laptop screen now, is that right?
Sarah:
That's right. It has this swingometer, which is an energy balance. It calculates what you've taken in in calorie intake as well as your activity, and lets you know whether you're in a gain zone or a loss zone.
Pete:
It also says here, "You're fantastic: total steps achieved, aerobic steps achieved, total energy and target achieved." Now, you've done other exercise and fitness programmes before - this is obviously a little bit different, so you're carrying a gadget around with you - it's a bit more advanced than a pedometer. How would you say it would compare to other health routines you've followed before?
Sarah:
Well, I've done something very similar a long time ago, which was a very clunky, very time-consuming system where you had to input the food, and it was very difficult to actually use the interface. I found this very easy to input my nutrition, and obviously with the Fitbug, just putting it in at the end of the day in your USB is very easy.
Pete:
And do you feel that you're actually getting encouragement from this website? - it's quite a nice graphical display, does that sort of motivate you to want to come back each day and see your improvements?
Sarah:
It does, but it also gives you a little nag if you don't come on for a few days, because it will actually send you a text message.
Pete:
The bottom line - would FrequencyCast recommend the Fitbug?
Sarah:
Yes, I would recommend the Fitbug.
Get a FitbugFitbug is a service, coming with a Bug and access to the Fitbug website (for your results). You can sign up on a monthly basis, but best value is the "12 months" one off fee membership Full details and pricing at www.fitbug.com |
More information:
- FitBug First Look (from Show 52)
- Fitbug official site
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