Using Devices to Track Your Activity and Sleep; A review of the BodyMedia Fit

This is a review of the Bodymedia Fit.  I have owned mine for a little over the year and have in no way received any request for this review or any products from the company. 

A year ago I started wearing the Link, also known as the Body Bugg from the Biggest Loser television show.  I want some help to figure out why I have so much difficulty losing weight.  It would also tell me how much sleep I have gotten the night before, great side effect for a curious sleep technologist.  You than download it to the website.  This tells you how many calories you burned, how many steps you too and how well you slept.  They also give you a place to track your food. 

This technology works using several different ways to monitor your activity.  It monitors movement via actigraphy as well as monitoring the body heat you produce.  Using both these ways is more accurate than either one alone.  You upload the recording to the website.   The programs give you graphs that allow you to evaluate your activity level.

The bad part of the sleep graph is it just tells you when it thinks you are asleep and when you are awake.  It does not monitor your sleep stages and it does not take into account movements you might have in your sleep.  In most cases if you know your basic sleep cycles you can see that your movements usually coincide with REM cycles.  Most people change positions prior to going into REM and coming out of REM.  It also how long it takes to fall asleep. 

So how does this information get used?  That is up to the individual.  I personally use it to monitor my calories, steps how long it takes me to go to sleep.  I already know I have chronic sleep maintenance insomnia due to medications I need to take, so I am more interested in how long it takes me to go to sleep and if I have any long periods of time that I was awake during the night.  I look to see if there is a correlation with my activity or food that could cause my issues, so I can make changes.

The bottom line is if you are a geek like me and want to know if there are correlations between your behavior and your sleep this may be for you.  If you want accountability or if you are motivated to compete against yourself that this might be a tool for you.  If you are hoping that it will tell you what is going on in your day or give you coaching information than this is not the tool for you. 

I have received no products or services for this review.

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