
This is a follow up post to address the comments/questions left in the Gowear Fit and Bodybugg article.
Real quick let me point out that there has been a new comment widget added on the side of the site to see who has left a new comment. I encourage you to leave comments and to come back when you have left one to see if it has been addressed. I get a lot of comment/questions that I have answered and then will later get an email/contact asking for my response when I have given it in the comment section.
So just a heads up on that. From now on I will do most of my follow ups in the actual comments unless it is needed to be in extreme detail.
Here are a few of the points/questions raised from the article.
Question: Can you provide more detail about the tests you do with the Bodybugg/Gowear?
Answer: At least 3 different long term experiments will be covered with the release of Body By Eats. I have saved the majority of the detail material for that if people want to dive further. The rest I will try to release here and there with the blog when I can.
Question: Do you still rent them out?
Answer: No. I don’t rent them out anymore and likely wont be doing so again in the future. I will only be doing this with clients that I work with as needed.
Question: Does the 15% error go in either direction?
Answer: Yes. It all depends on the activity you do and your conditioning. The devices don’t take heart rate into account either which means it doesn’t adjust to conditioning on certain levels.
Question: Why should I get your book to go with it?
Answer: You don’t have to but I feel it provides a full proof system. I figure why waste time. Still, without my books or without the devices great success can be had. If you wish to do so you can access them here.
Question: How do you know it is off by that much?
Answer: First note that I put it is only in my opinion. Nothing was labeled as an absolute and I have no means of proof. I have done side by side comparisons with heart rate monitors and breath testing. I have tracked and measured progress of a high amount of clients. Based on the rate of loss vs activity and caloric intake, overall on an average, I would say to account for these types of errors to remove frustration and to focus on fine tuning if need. That is all.
Question: Price is all wrong yo, check it!
Answer: Yeah it appears there are too many sources of buying it so I removed that aspect of the review and focused on what matters most. Performance. They both perform the same way really. I have only seen a slight higher reading in gowears vs bodybuggs, but to a point where I barely feel right about saying it so i didn’t even include it in the review.
Question: As to overtraining – do you think that is due to the body’s adaption to the exercise (and thus greater caloric efficiency) or to cloaking?
Answer: I think it can be both, but I think efficiency is a mixed bag of good and bad. In some ways more efficient means slow down. It is the difference between a slow heart rate because of good conditioning and slow heart rate because you are sick.
When we overtraining/undereat is when things start to get all weird (thyroid, leptin, axis of stress, etc). Breaking and refeeding halts this.
I will see that time and time again the best pace of loss that I saw in conjunction to what the devices were saying were those that followed a program of programed training breaks and refeeds.













Thanks for the clarification!
thanks for the answered questions!
Leigh,
Your mention of the overreaching/undereating problem and the need for refeeds in such cases had me wondering about something.
In all your time working with scores of clients, have you encountered any cases where extreme mental stress alone started a major negative cascade of problems due to stress on the adrenals? e.g. things were going along fine with both a reasonable activity level and a food intake that wasn’t anything approaching a massive deficit but suddenly a mentally stressful period crops up and just sets things moving in the wrong direction (possibly to the point where reducing activity and consuming more nutrients doesn’t have a major impact in the positive direction)
Obviously resolving mental triggers is at the heart of such matters, but I was just curious if you’ve seen any/many cases where mental stress alone became the driving force behind significant negative changes.
Thank you for any feedback you’re able to share.
Leigh I was wondering why you didn’t consider the actigraph/actitrainer? The actitrainer can also track a heart rate monitor (theactigraph.com/actitrainer.com). Also the fitbit is almost ready for release (fitbit.com). I have high hopes for this pedometer+accelerometer to monitor changes in daily activity without having to deal with an obtrusive armband — the price point is great too. Of course it’s pre-release and they may turn out to be terrible! One last huge difference that you didn’t mention, which I believe is still the case, is that GWF is Mac compatible while BB is Windows only.
gabi-
that fitbit is very interesting looking….
I still cant tell if it is the same thing as the gowear fit? Do you know?
Much cheaper and no subscription
Thank you for answering (another) one of my questions!
I have so many more, but something tells me that they are unanswerable given the research conducted thus far. Do you know of any scientific studies currently being conducted? Pubmed’s results only yielded a frustrated hissy fit…
Awww I hate that you aren’t renting them. Thanks for answering more questions.
RedOne, this article refers to some studies: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124570834470838683.html which might help you find them.
shari, the fitbit is just the little black thing. there will be fewer inputs than a bodybugg (no temperature or skin response thing). it is just an accelerometer-based pedometer. but it’s much cheaper and basically all you can do is compare day-to-day anyway even with the armbands. there are more details at blog.fitbit.com — btw i’m not affiliated but I did preorder one!
Thanks gabi….already saw that
I preordered a fitbit as well. Seems pretty exciting.