Losing weight is the same as paying down debt/saving money in that there is only one way to do it. Calories in vs. Calories out, just like money in vs. money out. When working to lose weight you must burn more calories than you eat, this creates a deficit and your body will burn fat (and lean mass if you aren’t careful) to make up that difference in what it needs to operate. Just like your debt, where you spend less than you earn so that the extra can be applied to payments or to savings if you’ve paid everything off.

The Bodybugg is a little device worn on your arm that does nothing but sit there and monitor the calorie burn rate of your body at any given point in time. To do this it uses a variety of sensors including an accelerometer, a couple of temperature sensors, and a sensor to read galvanic skin response (skin moisture level.) You wear it 24 hours a day, minus any time where it may be exposed to water, such as showering and swimming.  The Bodybugg ties my health and fitness goals to my geek obsession with gadgets.

The device itself has no indication of current rate, or any other feedback mechanism other than to warn when the logging memory is full (about a weeks worth of data can be stored) or when the AAA battery is getting low. In order to view the data, you have to connect it via USB (or a wireless communicator) to the computer and upload its data to the Bodybugg website.

Once the data is up on the website, this is where the real power of the system becomes apparent. You now can see how many calories you’ve burned so far today, as well as the number of steps taken and minutes of physical activity (when calories per minute are above a certain threshold.) This is great, but doesn’t this only provide half of the equation for losing weight (calories burned – calories eaten = calorie balance?)

Yes, that only covers the burned half of the equation. The website also has a food tracking system built in as well. It is set up for you to enter your food consumed for Breakfast, AM Snack, Lunch, PM Snack, Dinner, and Evening Snack. It includes a very extensive calorie database, so most foods you eat will be on there. If not, it allows you to enter your own foods based on the information found on the nutrition information label. You now have the calories eaten portion solved.

The system takes it one step further and you enter in your current and goal weights, and it will calculate it all out for you. This means if you want to lose 10 lbs in 10 weeks, you need to lose 1 lb per week. Since one pound = approximately 3600 calories, that means you need to eat 3600 calories per week less than you’re burning, or an approximately 500 calories per day deficit. You can adjust the different factors such as increasing the daily deficit and see how quickly you can lose that 10 lbs, or how much more you could lose in the same time frame.

When you set a new goal, it goes through a wizard asking you several pieces of information, including your activity level, your weight/height, and your preferred diet profile. Based on this information it generates a diet plan for you and sets your target burn and consume goals so you can see at a glance exactly where you are for the day.

The version of the armband I have is the V1/V2, and they just came out with a V3, which is smaller, and is black instead of grey. While I don’t see the information directly on their website, from what I’ve read from other sources it has upgraded sensors that will be used sometime in the future to increase the accuracy of the device even more than it already is.

The key to the Bodybugg is to work the program. If you upload the data often, especially before indulging in any extra eating, you will be able to take the most advantage of it. If I’ve burned extra calories during the day and maybe have eaten less than anticipated, I can see that it is OK some nights to have an extra snack, where others I need to just have a glass of water and forget about it. If you don’t upload it often, and don’t enter your food in, its slightly better than the guessing game you’re playing right now.

While the Bodybugg is expensive at $250 (or more depending on the accessories and subscription length,) it is well worth the price if you’re willing to put the work into the program. I’ve had my Bodybugg for several years, and have used it off and on. When I use it and actually follow my advice in the previous paragraph, it does wonders. My only problem I’ve had with it is I’ve been lazy and have not followed the program. Since I have a long-term goal in place, I’m confident this time I’ll make the most of it. Like any piece of exercise gear, if you use it properly you will see great results, but if you neglect it like the exercise bike in the basement, you’ll get the same benefits the bike provides. The bottom line is when you use it properly, you won’t find a better tool to assist you in reaching your weight loss goals.

Today I kicked it up a notch on the weights.  I skipped the shoulder presses though since my right shoulder joint is bothering me.  Honestly I think its a Wii injury from playing Wii Sports Baseball with a little too much intensity.

Cardio: 18 mins eliptical trainer, hill plus mode

Incline press: 40×10, 2 sets and 30×10, 1 set

MTS Squat: 60×10, 3 sets

Crunch machine: 65×10, 3 sets

I’ve registered for the following challenges, and may sign up for others if they seem to be a good deal, and not just a way to market more junk to me.

• Work challenge. We do these about twice a year. Anyone who wants to participates pays an entry fee, and the pot is paid out to the winners. I’ve won this competition once, and I’ve been a slacker and contributed to the pot several times. I want to win this one this time!
• http://www.50millionpounds.com/ I saw this one on a commercial while watching the season premier of The Biggest Loser. I’m waiting on my local State Farm to get another shipment of the welcome kits, I stopped by and they were out of them and just ordered more.
• Discovery Health National Body Challenge
• Biggest Loser Pound for Pound Challenge
• Signed up for the fitness challenge at the local gym, Idaho Athletic Club.  Beginning stats: 278 lbs, 31.3% body fat (87 lbs fat, 191 lbs lean mass).  Neck: 16.5, Chest 48.25, Waist 50, Hips 43.5, thigh 23, calf 17.75, biceps 15.  Ouch.

Rather than setting 10 goals that have all year to complete, I’m going to set some short-term goals and revisit them on a regular basis.  This should help keep me motivated and prevent me from abandoning them.  With a regular review I’ll be better able to track progress, as well as adjust the goal if it proves to be unrealistic.

To start with, I’m going to set the following goals, all to be reviewed in one week.  After the goals have been “proven” I’ll adjust the review frequency.

• Maximum of 10 hours of TV per week.  This excludes news and non-entertainment related shows, such as business and financial shows.  I’m also going to add an exception for what I call background shows such as “Cops” that I may “watch” while I’m working on something else.  As long as it doesn’t interfere with the task at hand it doesn’t count against the allotment.  Most of what I watch is semi-educational anyway, but I’m hoping to free up more time to do more constructive activities.
• Read at least 2 books per month, one fiction and one non-fiction.
• Make a minimum of 3 blog postings per week. 
• Weight loss: I’m hoping to lose 100 lbs over the next year.  In order to meet that goal I’ll need to average 2 per week.  As long as I’m careful with my eating this should be “easy” to do.
• Financial: We’ve been a little too relaxed in sticking to our budget during the holiday season.  We overspent some (we underspent on some budget areas and did not put that surplus into savings, and actually dipped into the savings a little too much) but that is behind us.  Now we want to tighten down and make sure we’re following our budget.

Depending on how those initial goals work out, I may replace some with similar goals, or I may add additional goals as time goes on.  The important part is to make sure I am realistic with the goals and that I don’t bite off more than I can chew and wind up forgetting about the whole thing.

My soda intake has been way above where it should be.  I would start out the day with a 64 oz refill from the gas station on the way to work.  That would usually be gone by noon.  Then if I went out to eat for lunch, I’d get a large (usually 44 oz) drink and likely refill it at least once if I ate inside the restaurant.  Then before the night was over I’d go through another 2 liter bottle, sometimes more.  On the plus side I only drank diet soda so I wasn’t drinking thousands of calories worth of sugar every day.  On the negative side, thats over 600mg of sodium per day (nearly 25% of my daily recommended intake) on average and I’m sure all the rest of the chemicals in there aren’t the best for me either.

Today marks 1 week with no soda intake at all.  I decided if I was going to break my habit I was going to do it cold turkey, then add a little back in later on if I wanted.  I was afraid if I didn’t do it that way I would have a smaller soda, then later on in the day, “Just one more…” and before I knew it I would still be drinking way too much.  My goal is to go 30 days with no caffeinated or carbonated drinks.  This includes soda, coffee, tea, and even 7-11 Slurpees.  Nothing but water, a little fruit juice, and maybe some flavored drinks such as Kool-Aid.  Then If I still want to by that point, I may go back to a reasonable intake level such as one or two servings per day.

The hardest part was the first few days when I was going through caffeine withdrawls.  The low dull headaches got pretty bad, but I assaulted them with tylenol and some chocolate (small amounts of caffeine) just to keep the edge off.  After about the 3rd day it hasn’t been an issue at all.

Another affect I’ve noticed is I can fall asleep more easily at night.  I’ve always been one that could drink a cup of coffee or some soda right before bed and not have any issues, but then bedtime has always been in the 1:00-2:00 neighborhood for me.  Now when I decide to turn the tv/book/whatever I’m doing off I can fall asleep almost immediately, where before I would lay there until 1:00-2:00 even if I went to bed earlier.

There have been a couple of days where I’ve been tempted to run downstairs to the vending machine and grab a can, but so far I’ve been able to stay true to my goal.