Just so everyone knows, I bought my bodybugg at 24 hr fitness for 169 plus tax, with 3 months of the subscription included. The subscription is less as well; 14.95 for recurring monthly charges, 29.95 for a single non-recurring month, 39.95 for 3 months or 99.95 for one year. Also, the trainer told me the digital display does NOT accurately tell you how many calories you are burning in a session, just the days totals. I have been using it w/o the display and have lost 3.4 lbs since Weds. My weight loss to this point has been very slow, 24 lbs since the middle of January, so 3.4 lbs in few days is quite significant! I highly recommend purchasing this little piece of genius. I have found it to be highly accurate. I have also found that adding custom foods in even easier than when adding them to the daily plate. The monitor and the website are VERY user friendly and there are step-by-step tutorials to show you everything! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

One question...How do you print the weekly reports like you have screenshots of above? Is it something you can only do once the first 7 days are over?Thanks!!

Someone asked about the times...it runs midnight to midnight.

mazel tov! don't know about printing reports for the bodybugg - i'm assuming that their website is similar to sensewear's, in which case the reporting works (but there wouldn't be much data) right away.

so now i'm wondering - in the wide world of 3fc, there have to be more than the three of us who are using these things, right?

congratulations on your 3.4 lbs! that's tremendous - do you think your monitor is keeping you more accountable in some way, or are you moving more to get that calorie counter to turn faster? or both? or something else? just curious about your experience.

cheers!

I think it is a combination of a lot of things. The main reason I bought it was b/c I was having so many problems determining a good calorie intake range for myself. Having this and knowing how many calories I burn in a day has really helped me to know how much I should be eating. Also, I am determined to reach or exceed my target calorie deficit, so I find myself negotiating and compromising as far as foods I want to eat. If there is something I really want, I can see the impact it will have and adjust accordingly (either eat less at other times of the day or get movin'). If I know I am not going to be moving as much, I can see what my burn will be, so I can plan my food accordingly. I was journaling before this, but never knew how much I was burning, so it was hard to see the whole picture. I had a great Polar HRM, but have found that it actually understimated my calorie burn. All in all, this has given me the peace of mind that I am doing everything that I can to lose weight. My weight loss was so slow and I was working so hard, I actually thought I had a medical problem that was preventing me from losing the weight. If I don't lose weight, I will know why...b/c now I know just how much to move and eat.

I hope that more people find this thread and join in! It's a great place to talk about our successes and failures and compare stories. We all have a lot to learn from each other here!

hey guys/girls.

i got my bodybugg yest.

in the quick start guide there's 4 steps to get this thing going. but the instructions are written for someone who got it from a trainer. in the manual it states if you got it as a gift call customer service for instructions. i got it to work but i wasn't happy that bodybugg people decided not to mention an important step. let me tell you what i mean.

quick start guide:
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1. have trainer enroll you in the bodybugg program and create an apex username.
   
2. go to www-myapex-com, login and click open rogram.
   
3. complete the registration process (answerring some questions about you and plugging in and configuring the bodybugg) - this step is where your subscription starts.

what i did
-----------

1. went to www-bodybugg-com/activate (why didn't they just write this in the quick start or manual??). this is the alternative if you don't have a trainer to enroll you. going to this site will get that done. the site just asks for a serial from the bodybugg and ask you if you have an apex account.
   
2. during step 1, it asked me if i had an apex account. i said no and i was able to create it.
   
3. logged in and completed the registration process as stated.

now that i got that off my chest, i want to say this little thing is pretty accurate i think. my mom has hypothyrodism and i am blessed with her metabolism. i think a dead person burns more calories than me.

i am 5' 7", 143lbs @ 12-14% bodyfat. i started at 165@20-22% i am trying to get down to around 8% for a visible six pack while keep my strength and muscle.

so when i first started cutting last year i needed to know how much to eat. so this is how i figured out my daily need.

online calculators says my BMR is 1650, add in my "tv watching, internet surfing" lifestyle..and my daily requirement is around 1900. i workout for an hour and that's about 250 calories too.
so 2150. so i thought i should cut 500 cals..and ate around 1650.

well i watched my weight for 6-8months while cutitng and i was not losing more than 0.6lbs a week (only ~300 calorie deficit)..

so i go get my bmr tested using that bodygem/medgem thing. it says my BMR is 1250! WHAT!?!? i that's 400 short of my online calculations. and very low for a 23 year old male.

i was hoping the test was wrong at that time..but when i got the bodybugg i wanted that test to be right since that would explain my slow weight loss. and of course it seems right.

yest it said i burned 2200 calories. and the math is right. 500 by working out/cardio. daily activities was around 300. and that leaves me with 1400 BMR (seems about right for my slow metabolism).

now i find myself realizing i am not active enough (actually i didnt need a bodybugg to tell me this but now i feel guilty actually know the exact number..haha).

i am still going to eat 1650-1700cals. but i am going to increase my deficit by being more active. i am not a big fan of cutting food calories to create deficits because for one, anything under 1600..i find myself too hungry throughout the day. so i better get moving.

i will post my diet and activity report after i wear this thing for a couple of days.

hope that helps someone and sorry for the giant post.

don't apologize - THANKS for the giant post! glad to hear that you got it working and that it's corroborating what you thought. i guess that's the magic of these little suckers.

blueyedlvrgirl, that's a great explanation and sounds like it's working as intended. basically, what you're saying is that you've internalized the balance between calories in and calories out, huh? that's fantastic when it turns into just plain old simple math. in my case, an added benefit (that i just realized this minute) is that it takes the moral judgement out of what i put into my mouth. i'm not good or bad, food isn't good or bad, it's just a series of choices i make which may or may not support weight loss.

cheers monitor-wearers (and those considering!)

i was pondering on why they left out that instruction...

the bodybugg i got was branded for 24hr fitness. so my guess is 24hr wants you to have a trainer to do it on purpose. why? they know if they can hook you up with a trainer, then you will more than likely return for training sessions..or $$$.

i only paid 150 with shipping and it was brand new with 3 months subscription. the poor lady i got it from didnt know how to do the enrollment either.

I want to thank all of you for all these detailed posts. Please keep it up as it really helps people like me to go get one. I'm leaning towards buying one but seriously considering the $$ and making sure it's worth it. But looking at what you guys are posting it is definitely making me see more postive than negative about getting SenseWear or Bodybugg. I haven't decided which one I want to get yet though. I was thinking of waiting for version 3 to come out for BB but now I think it might not be a good idea to wait that long I want one soon...as for me too it seems weight loss is crawlingly slow despite eating OP and working out. I don't know how much I can trust the online BMR calculators.

I do have few silly questions though

I remember somebody posting it works midnight to midnight.
-- What about when you have to take a shower...Does it affect the reading that you'll be taking it off? Does it affect the reading in any way if I don't wear it for couple days in a row? And then wear it back again?

-- Can it be worn anywhere? I mean what if I want to wear it on my ankle instead of my arm? Can I do that? Or does it have to be worn at a specific location.

-- Have you guys tried wearing it with sleeveless tops? (ladies)

V2 Bodybugg is $200 at 24hrfitness.com. Average price on ebay is probably like 150.

Sensewear or bodybugg..you can't go wrong with either because they are both made by the same company.

you have a couple of choices.
a. get v2 bodybugg for around 200 with three months included.
b. get v3 sensewear for 460 with six months included.
c. wait for v3 bodybugg. my guess it will be around 300-350 with probably 3 months included.

the biggest advantage of sensewear v3 (and future v3 bodybugg) is that..IT'S SMALLER! [50% lighter, 20% thinner, 40% smaller footprint]

i didn't feel like spending $460, or waiting for the next bodybugg. so that's why i bought it. in fact it was so random. i was like let me look on ebay to see how much they are and i saw this auction for a brand new one and somehow got it.

but when the new one comes out and price goes down...i might get one so i can wear it underclothes without people asking me.

as for your other questions:

after you don't wear it for more than 30 mins, the next time you sync it...it asks you what you did during that time period. so you get to manually say stuff like "i took a shower, or i wasn't active at all, or i was active the same way i was this time a certain day." if you don't say what you did, or compare yourself to another day..it basically just relies on calculations based on ur height/weight etc.

it cannot and should not be worn anyhwere else. i havent tested this myself, which i will once i get a solid week or two going. it has to be worn on ur upper right arm over the tricep.

i am no lady but all of a sudden i find myself wearing full sleeves to the gym in comparison to my wife beaters before.

today i want to wear a wife beater and wear this to the gym but i dont like people asking me what it is. like i am some battery powered alien. lol

Thanks ndnguy85 for answering the questions. It helps a lot Well I just need to figure out which one I want to buy. Dh and I talked and he said it doesn't matter which one I get as long as it benefits me. So we'll see. I do like that SenseWear is smaller and thinner.

I'm like you too where I don't want people looking funny at me or asking me questions. I guess I have to be creative with my clothes

please ask any questions that any of you have about this thing. i am more than willing to answer.

that's how i found this forum. i was looking around for anyone with experience to this thing.

just chiming in - when i first starting wearing mine, i was pretty self-conscious about it, but now that it's summer (and HOT) i'm wearing short sleeves. i now have a sensewear tan line on my left arm. people do occasionally ask me about it, so i just tell them it's a calorie monitor. only my extended in-laws were sort of problematic - they didn't want to ask me what it was, and they assumed it was some sort of medical thing and thought i was sick or something. they're kind of funny about stuff sometimes.

ditto ndnguy on the off-body time.

Give the relatively small difference in price, you're probably better off buying a new one for two reasons. First, the one's on eBay that are going for $150 generally don't have the 3 month free subscription, and that's going to eat up some of the savings right there. Second, you won't know how much time, if any, is left on the warranty of a used Bodybugg, whereas the new ones have a 1 year warranty.

I haven't been wearing a wife beater, I usually wear a t-shirt, but so far, nobody has asked me about the Bodybugg unless I'm fiddling with it to get it to sync wth the monitor-most people don't notice, or assume it's an MP3 player or something like that....

i agree also. i think the normal price is $300 retail. Right now it's $100 off at 24hr fitness and $50 off if you buy direct from apex. my guess is they are clearing out inventory for the new one.

I didn't know the whole 3 month subscription thing when i first searched on ebay. the auction was ending in like 2 hours or something and i just assumed since it was "brand new" everything was included. otherwise i would had to spend a $100 to purchase the program. i guess i missed out on the warranty since i didn't purchase it from a retailer.

here's how i see the whole ebay thing.
a. auction for brand new one with whole 3 months. b. auction for a used one with "some time" remaining. c. auction for a used one with no subscriptioni just dont like wearing full sleeve shirts when lifting. gives me some motivation and self confidence and of course it's easier to do some exercises.

Well, my concern was mostly outside the gym area. For example, going to a restaurant? Hanging out with friends? Just going out doing random things and wearing different clothes/shirts and have the bodybugg/sensewear on you. If someone sees me at the gym with it I don't have a problem but it's outside of the exercise activities that I was wondering what does everyone do?