As I mentioned, when I went to fitbloggin ’10, I received all sorts of fun healthy items to test out.
The first one I’ll detail is the gruve.
If you are not familiar, gruve is a little device that you wear on your hip very similar to a pedometer. There’s some differences though. As I understand it, the gruve takes measurements of movement 1200 times a second. Using those measurements combined with your biometric data, the gruve calculates your caloric burn for that activity and determines whether you are sedentary or not. Its a very cool device.
Now, if the gruve identifies that you are sedentary for 50 minutes, the gruve then buzzes and buzzes and buzzes until you get up and move. This is great for me, as a computer consultant, I often sit at my desk for long periods of time, and the gruve helps remind me that I need to get up and move. Gruve was created with the help of the NEAT group from the mayo clinic. The NEAT group is the one behind the idea that today’s desk workers need to be up and moving. They’re the first ones I heard do studies on the the treadmill desk.
The goal behind gruve is to get to green.
As you can see in my chart above, You start out at red, you progress into orange, then to yellow, then to blue, and then to green (oops, I have to get up and move to get to green.)
Its pretty fun way to keep track of your progress. My wife and I were both happy to receive free gruves at fitbloggin from the gruvesolution team. We now have a little competition going on who can get to green first. Although, I just don’t exercise in the morning as much as she does. So, she’s going to beat me more often than not.
The gruve is not water proof nor does it do a very good job when you isolate muscle groups like you do with weight lifting. So, when I swim or do my weight workouts, the gruve doesn’t track that activity.
I’ve been debating about buying the body bugg, the fitbit, the Philips DirectLife, or the gruve. The only unit I have tested is the gruve, and I can say I’d recommend it. I’d love to test the body bugg, because I think it uses more measurements beyond just movement like skin temperature and other items. I wonder how accurate they all are.
A little disclaimer time, Yes, gruve gave me the device for free. No gruve is not paying me for this review and there was no pitch to write. I am writing of my own accord, because I think the idea is cool. Now, if I could only find a device that would automatically measure the calories I consume without an intervention by me. I’m also interesting in testing out the withings wi-fi scale. Can you tell I love gadgets?
For a limited time, you can gruve with me. When you buy the Gruve at www.muve.me, enter the promotional code BlogNGruve to get $70’s off.
You might want to look at the gruve guide too for research.
I asked the gruve team if there is Programming Interface (API) that I could tie simpleweight weight management tracking site into, but the team at fitbloggin was not sure. I’m still researching that capability.
Exercise is good, but I really must concentrate efforts on reducing my calories in if I want to lose weight. My weight’s been stable for a few weeks now even with my increased activity level. I’m sure the hamburger and fries I ate today for lunch combined with my ice cream desert does not help.
what can I do to help you with your weight management?