What is GoWearFit and Bodybugg?
GoWearFit and Bodybugg are armband devices that track your daily caloric expenditure. It does so through 4 primary methods of measure.
- Accelerometer-This measures motion and movement.
- Heat Flux-How much heat your body gives off.
- Galvanic Skin Response-How much stress your body gives off.
- Skin Temperature-The temperature your bodies skin is.
While it may seem like each of these is the same, it is not by a long shot. My question was/is the degree of their accuracy of measurement.
Here are a few examples:
Accelerometer:
- Seated leg movements do not register as high as they should such as recumbent biking or spinning. Some could argue that they just aren’t high levels of burn in the first place, but other studies of these types of activities have rated higher, especially with mountain biking/uphill rides.
- Elliptical or gazelle type machines seem to overestimate caloric expenditure. It does seem to land in more correct/logical numbers when arm levers are not used or when stabilizing on an elliptical. It seems the momentum of the elliptical rates in expenditure, but doesn’t elicit that same demand on the body.These have been known issues, but it should still be noted.
- Unilateral arm movements or isometric holds are measured differently. For example, if you wear one on each arm and completed scrubbing movements, the arm in use always registered significantly higher than the arm not in use. In some cases it ranges as high as 45% higher. It should be noted that testing was done with the same device type and transferring different arms because of proper armband use.
Heat Flux:
- No real noticeable flaws in this system or a real means of testing with my equipment. Anything here would be guessing.
Galvanic Skin Response:
- The measure of physical stress seems to exist. I did a lot of tests with isometric stress and it took measurements well. How correct or accurate, I do not know. The measurements themselves were taken though and in a noticeable fashion.
- Emotional stress seems to not be measured very well or perhaps is not a big indicator of caloric burn. When the stress reaches a point of physical reaction there is small measured response. For example shaking or shivering are registered.
Skin Temperature:
- Exterior heat seems to affect burn due to skin temperature changes. How much this is accurate or not again I couldn’t say. This was tested by sitting outside in shade and then in direct sunlight with multiple people. Studies have played in favor of cold speeding up caloric burn, but not heat. So this could be a flaw or it could be accurate. No way of knowing from my side.
Overall these issues are minor in the big scheme, but on small levels could show a difference in readings.
The truth is the only way to confirm these errors in readings would involve far more investigation than I could provide. That being said I do have some opinions and thoughts on situations that I have seen and worked with.
When the numbers don’t add up
One of the easiest ways to test the accuracy of loss would be by rate of loss under a caloric monitored situation. If you measure your intake best possible and compare it with your loss rate this could lead to charting its accuracy. This is great in theory, but hit or miss in practice.
A large reason for this is that weight loss isn’t linear. Weight bounces all over the place and water is the ultimate enemy to conclusions in most weight loss studies. See my recent article “The Science of Scale Fluctuations” for more on this subject.
To get any level of quality charting it takes two very important things:
- Time
- Precision in Measurement
There is only a small number of clients that I have worked with that I could trust on the 2nd aspect. Even then you have unintended human error, and flaws in the system of caloric definitions for products and whole foods.
That all being said I have seen some “weird stuff” go down.
We meet again
It is no secret that I welcome the fat loss challenged. It’s kind of my place. Beyond that I attract a high number of the following…
Anorexics
Bulimics
Overtrained/Undernourished
Extreme Carbphobics
The Hormonally Challenged (Adrenal/Thyroid/Estrogen/Etc)
A lot of the problems above can be solved/treated with relative ease with the knowledge of the proper method of fat loss. Assuming that these types of cases push past my suggested methods of fat loss, they are usually met with more and more problems.
For brevity I will put a few bullet points out and perhaps I can discuss it more in future article if need. Based on my experience thus far I believe:
- Overtraining/Lack of Time off leads to the worst charting patterns
- Those that try to ditch refeeds/diet breaks have noticeable charting problems
- Decrease in general activity and RMR are noted, but only severe drops have been seen in those who are very sick, inactive, and unhealthy (as would be expected).
- I still believe water retention to be the big issue for a massive majority. I do believe that there is a degree of unmeasured burn decrease that isn’t charted, but that is a complete personal belief that I really can’t prove. I hesitate to put it out there. I only do so because there are a few cases that I feel confident because of charting, time passed, and water retention assessment. I will say that these were woman, all overtrained, and put off breaks and refeeds.
Take home point on accuracy
I would be “full of it” if I gave it a correct percentage of accuracy. I have only my experiences to go on. I have now rented out/monitored over 150 different clients and trainers under different experiments and lengths of time. Beyond that I have corresponded in high detail with many others who were charting their own experiences or distant clients.
For my own experiments removal of variables was the best I could do given the circumstances and equipment.
Because of all of the things I have discussed I believe that the Bodybuggs/GowearFits are great monitors for a gauge of your general movement, but not to be taken as gospel in anyway as to your actual daily caloric burn.
In my personal opinion only I would allow for at least a 15% error in reading. I would use them only for alertness to your actual movement in life, to understand that caloric burn is not static, and as a gauge of where to start from to reach your current body goal.
Cost and Package
I initially had a comparison chart but it seems there are just too many places to buy it at different prices so it would be silly to assume. Prices of each range and packages are different. Below are my opinions on different additions and gadgets offered.
Digital Display: No one needs it. All it takes it two minutes to upload your devices and see what you have burned. There is also a good lag between the display and the armbands. I personally see no reason to buy a display for anyone.
1-Phone Coaching: Not important and no different than a help manual. Because I ordered over 12 Bodybuggs initially when they came out I got 12 different phone calls. I used every one of them, and each one were base level knowledge of training and nutrition. 2 of them were downright rude and rushing me off the phone. Had I been an actual beginner to training and nutrition, I would not be left feeling comfortable.
Because of that, I do not see the free phone coaching a benefit.
Food Logging Database: While the GoWear Fit claims food logging, it is a pretty sad example. At least currently. BodyBugg’s food log system is leagues above the GoWear Fit system. While everything is still mostly in cups/tbsp, the variety is pretty good and the interface is attractive.
Sleep efficiency: Though not a technical spec that is mentioned, the Gowear Fit does have a “Sleep Efficiency” chart that measures the amount of sleep you got each night. I happen to think that sleep time is crucial to fat loss and performance and being aware of how much or how little sleep you are getting could be a big advantage.
The better deal overall: It changes constantly on a price point. I wouldn’t be surprised if 2 weeks after I posted this, the prices went up on either. I personally now use the GoWear Fit because at the time there was still only the V2 and I liked the smaller armband. If I had to choose now I would likely go with the GoWear Fit system based on their quick response in customer support.
Since they are by the same company though, I don’t really get the point. I think it is a bit weird to be honest as from a marketing angle I am not sure why they don’t just put the focus on making one product and service the best it can be.
The real question is – should you get it?
Before I give my opinion I want to state that this review is not an affiliate review. I make nothing if you decide to buy a Bodybugg or Gowear Fit. I will say I am 100% recommending my book with it because I believe that knowing how much you burn will mean little to nothing if you don’t know what to do with that information.
I think if you pair The Fat Loss Troubleshoot with a GoWear Fit or Bodybugg system, it is as close to fool proof fat loss you can get.
Thanks so much for this comparison, Leigh. I was definitely in the middle of attempting to figure out which one is worth the money.
I’ve been waiting eagerly to read this article.
I love my GWF and as of today have worn it 5 full weeks and have lost 13.5 lbs (and a few more before I got it.) I paid $149 at Dicks for the monitor and $69 for the display and I pay the $6.95 monthly rate. There are definitely deal out there for it.
I think the biggest help will be during maintenance, which is something I’ve never conquered in my years of losing weight. The dieting part isn’t as hard, and with my GWF I just need a deficit (aiming for 1000 cals/day.) But maintenance will be a balancing act.
I obviously love this tool, and at this time, I’m still singing my praises for it. I’m also tracking as well as possible and posting my info on JPfitness.
Very detailed and nice work Leigh. Do you think you could go into more detail about some of the tests you did? I would love to see some of that information. Also do you stil have all of those left and do you rent them out to people still?
Great article Leigh. I am asked often what the difference between the two is and now I have somewhere to point people.
I have had the GWF since February and love it. I can’t say it in of itself is the reason I have lost weight, but it definitely has showed me how important movement is and that I often burn more on non-workout days where I stay busy all day.
annette- was that a sale at dicks or is that always the price for theres?
that is pretty good.
thanks for the article leigh!
Great article.
Question: Does the 15% margin of error go in either direction? How would /have you adjust for this?
And why should I get your books when I can get something like this?
Seems to me this is just another way for you to sell your books.
Great article Leigh! I haven’t bought one yet because I am still doing fine with my results but if they start to slow down I think I will get one.
Justin: Leigh’s books are invaluable, if you can stay accountable you don’t even need the gowear or bodybugg. I don’t really understand why you are here this site if you aren’t interested in Leigh’s information.
Justin, Leigh’s book Fat Loss Troubleshoot has all the information you need to properly USE the information the Bodybugg will give you. The nutritional counseling or whatever it is you get with the Bodybugg is very base level — think fitness magazine worthy (so not very).
Personally, I think the Bodybugg is a huge waste of coin. I have Leigh’s book and religiously track my measurements and make changes to my fat loss program every 2 weeks based on those measurements. At first, my estimate of my energy expenditure was off, but after 2-4 weeks of tracking and making adjustments, I figured it out. And so can you, without the help of these gimmicky little tools.
I have both. Leigh’s activity calculator landed me at almost exactly what the Bodybugg did. For what it is worth.
I say buy Leigh’s book first and then if need get a Bodybugg or Gowhatever.
Listener Weekend Gift to Self: “Florence and the Machine” album ‘Lungs’. It’s like an edgy Natalie Merchant being backed by the girls of ‘Deathproof’ (if you have yet to see this movie, consider it weekend gift to self part II).
Listener Epic Fail of the Week: Thinking I could overcome the power of sugarnuts (cashews, splenda, cinnamon). I won’t even consider making these again for a couple of months. I’ll need that time to heal and reflect.
LOL Well, I was going to respond to Justin, but that seems to have been done for me. Well said, you guys.
Great article. I’m going to buy one of these (probably GWF) at some point (maybe Christmas) because i think that I need the reminder for my general activity.
Thanks for the review, Leigh! I’d been waffling about whether I wanted the display simply to motivate me to move more. I still think it may be worthwhile, but it’s low on my list of priorities.
My GWF was invaluable in convincing me I wasn’t eating enough (it’s easy to talk yourself into thinking that the Harris Benedict or any other equation is “wrong”). I kept increasing caloric intake to match the burn, and it wasn’t until I was eating a little more than its estimated burn that I saw a bump up in weight.
Weight loss, however, hasn’t been as linear, but I think I do tend to have water retention issues. In any case, I have no regrets about getting my GWF.
i am thinking christmas gift too, i have been eyeing this for awhile….
so santa if you are listening…. :P
I have Leigh’s books and the Go Wear Fit. For me this combo is working out very well.
I am eating more, exercising less and have lost 6 lbs in the last 5 weeks so I am very pleased. Still very important for me to count calories and having the Go Wear Fit seems to bring it all together for me. I have read a lot of fitness, diet and nutrition books and the Fat Loss Trouble shoot is the only one I will ever need. I wish I found it a long time ago.
Cindy
I have been using a bodybugg for 3 months now and have seen good results. I have lost 12 pounds.
How do you know that it is off that much?
There are a lot of good questions here and since people have a habit of not coming back to read the comments, even when they leave them, I will put up an extra post tomorrow answering them. If you have anymore, just comment and I will see if I can address them.
To ChrisR – There is no overcoming something as beautiful and tasty as sugarnuts. I will also be checking out that album.
Leigh – basically a good summary, but I found a lot of your insights to be confusing…. could you please clarify what you meant by
“Overtraining/Lack of Time off leads to the worst charting patterns” (how so?? water retention? overestimating expenditure?)
“Seated leg movements do not register as high as they should such as recumbent biking or stabilizing on an elliptical.” (First off, the elliptical doesn’t involve seated leg movements. Second, are you saying that it undercounts expenditure on the elliptical? I thought it overcounted?)
Thanks in advance.
RedOne – You are 100% correct on the elliptical point. The whole thing was edited incorrectly, I must have erased the entire section. I am glad you caught that and pointed it out, it should have read like this.
“Seated leg movements do not register as high as they should such as recumbent biking or spinning. Some could argue that they just aren’t high levels of burn in the first place but other studies of these types of activities have rated higher, especially with mountain biking/uphill rides.
(Separate bullet point)
Elliptical or gazelle type machines seem to overestimate caloric expenditure. It does seem to land in more correct/logical numbers when arm levers are not or stabilizing on an elliptical. It seems the momentum of the elliptical rates in expenditure, but doesn’t elicit that same demand on the body.
These have been known issues, but it should still be noted.”
As to the overtraining issue, yeah it just leads to not landing where your “numbers” should land you.
Let’s say you are tracking well and you should be at 10lbs lost by all your calculations even accounting for errors and you still land at only 2lbs lost. This type of thing was seen where even with an accounting for errors of 15 to 20% there was still far to little of a result and their wasn’t any noticable or measureble increase in LBM or even a loss of LBM that was noticable.
Hope that makes sense and I will be editing the orignial article.
Can I rent one from you? I need something to keep me motivated.
Leigh, you *should* be making money off the GWF and BB – get an Amazon affiliates account!
Hey Leigh – I’m confused about the gowearfit price you listed. I just checked on the website, and the $249 price says it comes with a display.
http://www.gowearfit.com/Products/Armband-Packages/GoWear-fit-armband-and-display-with-12-Month-Subscription. It looks like a watch to me, but is there something else you are talking about that it doesn’t come with? There was another one with a $159 price that said it didn’t come with a display.
http://www.gowearfit.com/Products/Armband-Packages/GoWear-fit-armband-with-12-Month-Subscription
Sorry to ask if I’m being dumb, but I’m considering asking for one for my birthday and I was just confused as to what to tell my husband to get.
Thanks,
JENNIE
Leigh,
what is your take on lifting? I wore my BB for the longest time and it never ever put my expenditure about 3 cals/ min during lifting…
Oh, regarding the phone consult…I had one after a few days of wearing the thing and I pointed out that the lifting does not create that big expenditure in my case. I was told to do jump squats in between set to keep my heart rate up.
Leigh – Interesting article
Soyou are saying the BB and Gowear overestimate on the elliptical? I thought for me, it underestimated. I mean, my elliptical has the moving arms and I am sweating bullets with heart rate really high, yet it shows me at 4 cals a minute; which is less than a slower paced walk for me. Do you think an elliptical is a waste due to the momentum? Would I be better off to try to sell and save for a Schwinn Airdyne??
As for the food logging, I actually like the Gowear database – you can do grams and it has a lot of foods plus you can customize your foods. Of course, I have not seen the BB food logging, so what do I know?!
But really, I use Fitday and just transfer my total calories.
I don’t know if you paid attention to the pedometer portion of the devices, but mine gets out of whack if I speed up in my walks or bend my arms at 90 degrees. It is bizarre. I can be swinging my arms by my side and count my steps, and it is accurate. But as soon as I bend my arms, or speed up (usually both) to about 4.2-5 mph, it sometimes will only count 1 step. This is not just on the display, as it does not change/increase my steps when I upload it.
As an aside, could you touch on why heart rate monitors are not the best way to calculate calories burned? I always thought that heart rate would have a direct relationship to calories burned and wondered why the Gowear did not incorporate heart rate into the equation. But I read somewhere (can’t find it) that it was not and I just wondered why.
But I totally agree and told someone just the other day on JP that if they get your book and a Gowear, they can’t go wrong!!
For me, the Gowear showed me how sedentary I was and has helped to motivate to move more, therefore, I get to eat more!! Even though I know both values (gowear and food values) can be off up to 10 – 15 % , it still helps.
Thanks for taking the time to answer these tomorrow!!
Leigh – Thank you for the correction. I was really wondering about that elliptical section…. it didn’t seem as detailed as it should have been. Nice to know it was just a posting error.
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?
Thanks!
Jennie, you’re right on the prices for GWF I was just coming here to post this. ($249 12 month package does include the display and it’s $159 for just the armband and 12 month subscription.)
I still find the calorie estimates to be helpful now that I have several months of info as I know how much it tends to deviate from expected weight loss. I agree it’s a good measure of movement. I suppose you could get similiar data from a pedometer but it’s interesting to see everything that it picks up.
Also for those thinking about purchasing I do know that Amazon sells it sometimes for cheaper than the GWF website.
Diana
Great article Leigh! I really think that GWF is a great device to use if you are the kind of person that eats more than they deserve. I think it can be a rude awakening in so many ways. Even if it can be off to some degree it really can teach you to stop being lazy.
OK, suppose you’re a speedskater who keeps his right arm tucked behind his back, and swings his left arm like a metronome to gauge cadence.
Which one would you get?
[...] This is a follow up post to address the comments/questions left in the Gowear Fit and Bodybugg article. [...]
I right now am not having a problem maintaining my weight, but I bought one for my Dad and it has been a big help to him, along with some tips I gave him that I learned from Leigh. I don’t think they are a waste of money if you need more accountability.
Another gadget to consider is the Fitbit. It is just coming out this week. It is a similar wearable gadget to estimate daily calorie burn. It also does sleep tracking. I pre-ordered one months ago, it is supposed to be shipping this week. There is an online component which is not in place yet. I don’t think there will be a monthly fee. The preorder cost is 99 bucks.
fitbit.com
Fitbit is not going to be as accurate for these types of things. It is merely a fancy pedometer. I personally wouldn’t support it for accuracy or bother with testing it. IMO.
Hi Leigh,
What are your thoughts on using Polar Heart Rate Monitors for weight-loss/fat-loss clients? Would you use them and if so, how?