GoWear fit Lifestyle and Calorie Management System
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Customer Reviews of GoWear fit Lifestyle and Calorie Management System
Customer Review: Love It! Does what it says! Easy to Use! Definitely Recommend It
Summary: 5 Stars
I have had my GoWearFit for a week now. I totall love it! I expected it to say 1500 or 1800 calories a day for my calorie intake. Nope - instead it said 2900. I was shocked and amazed. What? No starvation, no killer drop in what can eat. Yep and it has worked. I told it I wanted to lose 2 pounds per week and during week #1 I am down 2 pounds. I watched my calorie intake and burn and kept the deficit in the right area and saw results.
I bought the display and definitely encourage you to spend the extra for display. It is nice to be able to check progress during day without removing arm band and plugging into computer to synch data. The display is not pretty to wear but gives you feedback when you need it and much quicker then synching everytime you want to check yourself. I like the display becuase can see my target (goals), yesterday and today's information for calorie burn, steps taken, activity time. Quick checks can make the difference. If GoWearFit made a prettier display - I definitely would inveset in it. Mine is gray band and face. Not horrible looking but bulky. I do wear it to work in office. So not so bad you wont want to wear it. I wear as a watch becuase afraid I would lose it if clipped onto my pants.
CAUTION: I found out that if I wear the GoWearFit while on my 30 minute commute (one way) that it picked up the road vibrations as steps and activity. Some trial and error has led me to this conclusion. When riding in a car - remove it OR as I do - keep arm perpendicular to body (resting on window edge, out from shoulder) and it wont think you are getting in steps and activity. If arm is parrell to body (hanging down, resting on arm rest) then it will think you are taking steps and getting in activity minutes which could cause an error in calorie burn number. Other than this issue, I have not found any other times when I feel the device is not accurate.
Sleeping - AMAZED! It knew when I was awake, laying in bed, asleep. This is a really cool function.
Food logging - I read some reviews that folks did not like the food logging program. I have had no issue with it. I search for food and find it or something close (eating out items) or if I have the package can create a food immediately. Creating a food is very easy they have the data entry form set up to look like food label. During the week, I was able to go to a movie and eat popcorn and log it. We ate at a Hibachi restaurant, mexican and I was able to find an item close to what I ate to log into the software. If you do not want to log every item - they have a feature for you to enter a daily total.
Personally, I like to log the items. The system will then calcuate your carbs, fat, protein, and the other nutrient values and shows you a complete review of your intake. This is helpful in learning your eating habits and the make up of foods you eat.
The dashboard is a great resource. It has a summary view and then you can click an arrow and see detailed graphs of the entire day to be able to see when during the day your are getting your activity. They have a place (not sure under which menu) called Reports where you can print the information. They also have an export function - I have not used it. Not sure why I would want to use it. The printed reports are good for taking wiht you to doctors appointment.
The synch process if very fast and easy to do. Just plug it in and it does the rest.
Wearing the armband - I was afraid it would be uncomfortable and I would mess with it. After the first day, I forget it is even there. Sleeping was no problem either. I never woke up or felt it. It is very small and compact. I would recommend buying an extra armband ($8-$12) so that if you sweat or get it dirty you can swap out.
The online resources are top notch and easy to use. System is good on speed. At home the dashboard flips around quickly but at my work is is slower but defintely usable.
I will come back in one month and give an update on my GoWearFit.
Edit (August 20th) - Been 8 days and still loving it. I have had no issues. I definitley recommend getting the display. I have read reviews saying get disply and not online resources. Make sure you take a look a the online resources. The data that you get from the gowaearfit really is cool and interesting. Being able to see when you are active during your day, your steps and other items by the hour definitely provides valuable information for making some minor adjustments.
I did not want to start this and go extreme. So I changed NOTHING during the first week as far as exercise and made no drastic eating change. My goal after seeing the calorie allowance was to eat the amount or less and try to see where my calorie burn number was without additional effort. This has given me a good baseline to move forward from. I did not want to kill it week one by eating next to nothing and exercising every minute and the gowearfit has provided me great data about how my calorie intake and burn are on normal days.
I look forward now to increasing my exercise slowly and trying to make small diet changes. Yep, knew I liked carbs but did not know for a 7 day period they made up 84% of my diet.
Progress: Week #1 lost 2 pounds which corresponded the calorie deficit system shows
Customer Review: Money well spent!
Summary: 5 Stars
I've wanted the BodyBugg for months after seeing it featured on The Biggest Loser. I've lost over 130 pounds and kept that weight off for over 5 years. (I would like to lose about 25 more.) If there's a gadget out there, I want it. If there's a gadget related to health and wellnes, I've got to have it! I don't spend money (particularly the amount that I would have to spend to get the BodyBugg) without serious consideration. After recently deciding I was going to take the plunge, I came across the GoWear Fit while checking online consumer reviews for the BodyBugg. (On a side note, they are made by the same company - Body Media.) I am glad I found out about the GoWear Fit. I literally cannot think of anything that I don't like about this product.
As anxious as I was to share a review, I refrained for a week. I wanted to be certain that my review was based on experience and not simply because I had a new toy that excited me. I wanted to have the oppportunity to try all the features and give it a chance to present a problem (like some mentioned in other reviews). I'm thrilled to say that I've had no issues at all. It's been a week and I've worn it around the clock.
Comfort: It takes some getting used to in order to select the right "tightness", but once that was done I simply slip it off and on instead of readjusting it every time. I can truly say that I don't even know I'm wearing it. The strap gets quite sweaty after working out, so I will most like look into buying another strap for it.
Battery Life: I hook it up to my computer to charge while I'm in the shower every morning and that's kept it fully charged without having to remove it for any length of time.
Display: While you wouldn't need the display to use this product, it really does add to the appeal. It beeps when you reach certain levels (steps, calories burned, etc.) which is encouraging to me. It's also encouraging as you're wrapping it up for the evening to see that you're only a few steps/calories behind yesterday's totals. It makes me want to get moving for a bit longer. Without the display, you wouldn't know this. I wouldn't let lack of money for the display discourage you from getting it though. It can be something to add to it later. A neat feature of the display is that it doesn't have to be worn as a watch. The face of the display is detachable and can be carried in a pocket or clipped on a waistband (or any other area on your clothing for that matter) much like a pedometer. This would be important for someone - like me - that doesn't wear watch.
Sleep Duration: WOW! This feature is amazing. I tend to go to bed early because I get up so early in the morning. One evening my daughter wanted me to get up to make a snack for her and a friend. Keep in mind, she's definitely old enough to make her own snack. When she came in my room, she woke me up. However, I pretended to be asleep. (I know, bad Mom!) Long story short, I "faked" sleeping for about 30 minutes and this little device showed me as "lying down" as opposed to sleeping. It's clearly not lack of activity that determines when you sleep. I was very impressed. Now to make sure she doesn't learn how to read the information on the website. :)
Calories Consumed: Most things that I've looked for I've found in the database. Diet Pepsi, Baked Doritos, Meximelt from Taco Bell, fruit, vegetables, milk, high fiber white bread ... There's been a few items that I haven't found, but they are easy enough to add and after adding them they can be edited. Recent foods that you've eaten come up first in the database as well as anything that you add.
Uploading Information: This is a very easy process. I have my computer at work and home set up to accept the information. Although it's not necessary to do it every day, I find myself doing it once or twice a day just to get the updated information.
Calories Burned: Other than simply monitoring the calories burned, it allows you to pick specific time frames to check the amount of calories burned. For instance, I used a different program on my treadmill and found that what I thought was an easier exercise (slower speed, higher incline) was actually burning more calories then one I thought would be harder (faster speed, lower incline). By setting the slide bar on My Calories Burned, I was able to see the total calories burned during the time frame I did each.
Website: Yes, you have to pay a monthly fee to use the site or eventually the device won't accept any new information if you don't upload the arm band, but the $6.95 I'm paying a month (I signed up for a year) is just one less trip to Starbucks and one less fast food joint! I consider it an investment in my future.
Overall: I'm anxious to go out of my way to get more steps, burn more calories and eat less without realizing the effort I'm putting forth. I would encourage everyone to make an investment in this. Your health and wellness are worth it. I have a website (www.thefiveds.com) that I swore wouldn't promote any product, but I think I'm going to have to reconsider.
And, the best news of all .... I'm down 6.2 pounds in a week!
Healthy regards,
Angela
Customer Review: excellent product
Summary: 5 Stars
**Please read this entire review in its entirety because there are time updates and progression updates about this product***
I got this product as opposed to the Bodybugg specifically because this product (both made by the same company) tracks sleep patterns! I had trouble falling asleep for a few months and when I finally did fall asleep, woke up very tired because of my restless sleep. I got the Gowear fit because i wanted to improve and record my sleeping.
I have been wearing the gowear fit for 2 weeks and I LOVE IT!! My sleeping has improved by so much!
The Gowear tracking what calories are expended throughout the day is a HUGE motivator!! I go throughout my day wondering how I can get a bigger caloric deficit. I love it. :) Before wearing and tracking my food intake (you do it for 3 days on gowear fit and it gives you an average daily caloric intake), I didn't know the my CHOICES in food were high in calories and thus causing me to gain or maintain a thicker weight (things like cheddar cheese!! Who knew it had so much fat and calories in a little slice?!?!). Since tracking and wearing my gowear, I'm aware of what I put in my body (caloric input) and what caloric output I have.
What I DON'T love is wearing this band now that it's spring and summer. I wear short sleeves and this arm band needs to be worn on my upper left arm to monitor my body. It squishes my arm and makes my fat protrude. It's also attracts attention... attention that I don't want. people keep asking what I'm wearing on my arm. I quickly tell them, wishing I could wear it somewhere covered to avoid the questions. But if you don't mind attention and questions, then that won't be a problem.
I would suggest you be aware of the online subscription that needs to accommodate this purchase (separate fee that you obtain through the gowear fit website). I signed up for a year since it was at a discounted price. I wore this band for two weeks and thought to myself, i should've only done a month so i could see if I wanted to wear this band EVERYDAY for a YEAR... now I'm stuck wearing it all year since I already subscribed for a year's worth of online subscription.
I thought I could be smart and just get the watch with the band, skipping out on the online subscription-- WRONG! You CANNOT use the watch unless you have the online subscription. That just irritates me.
I would HIGHLY recommend this product. But just be aware that to get your money's worth you would have to wear it everyday, in public (under long sleeve you can't see it unless wearing tight clothes), at night and willing to monitor yourself online or through the watch. If yes to these things, THEN DO IT!
my pants are already loose on me and my stomach has gone in a few inches. YAHOO!
******
August 26, 2009
I have worn the gowear fit for 4-5 months now and my new review?
Honestly, I HATED wearing this thing during the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th months! It was soooo annoying!! It started to cut off my circulation, causing my arm to feel sore from the lack of blood flow. It has given me a weird tan. I'm tired of wearing it all the time.
THEN..... now that I've lost 10 lbs, I now realize that this thing REALLY REALLY WORKS, especially since I've really kept on with the food intake and the exercise output. If you don't do what it takes to lose weight then NO, you won't lose weight. But since this thing is an accountability type tracker, if you choose to be held accountable by using it, then YES you will change your lifestyle and by changing your lifestyle you will change your body.
I still don't eat high calorie foods. Everyday I am VERY aware of what I eat and if I've moved enough to create a deficit of calories to lose lbs. Everyday, I see how well I'm sleeping. Everyday, I KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON WITH MY BODY. And once you're aware of something, you can change something!!
I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend this product if you're serious about doing what it is made to do: hold you accountable and tell you the TRUTH about your lifestyle. If you're ready to face the truth, see how many calories you're really eating and how many calories you're really expending, then i HIGHLY suggest you get this.
Especially if you want to lose weight. This thing works because of the above reason. Yes this sometimes still bothers me, people see it... but I've already chosen to get my $$'s worth! IMMA WEAR THIS THING NO MATTER WHAT!!!! :)
GO HEALTHY! LIVE LIFE!! :)
******
September 30, 2009
5 months straight of wearing my gowear fit and if I haven't said this already, I LOVE my gowear fit. The band in itself, is not the answer to your weight loss. The band itself is not magic. IT IS CHOOSING TO USE IT TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE. The gowear fit helped you become COMPLETELY aware of calories in and calories out... if you use it.
I LOVE my gowear fit. LOVE IT. I'm over the irritation of it on my arm all the time. I LOVE IT and feel naked when it's not on my arm.
GO WEAR FIT! HIGHLY recommended!
Customer Review: This thing will change your life!
Summary: 5 Stars
So much has already been said about this product in the other reviews (which were a real deciding factor in my decision to purchase the GoWear Fit), so I will try to keep this brief. It will be hard to do though, because this is the most amazing tool I have ever seen to help people lose weight.
Who knew that just the simple fact of knowing exactly how many calories you are burning, and when, would be so life changing. But it has been.
Everything changed the very first day I got this thing. I put in all of my information and the GoWear Fit website showed me EXACTLY what I needed to do in order to lose 2 pounds a week and reach my goal weight by January 22, 2010.
I basically eat 2050 calories a day and burn 3050 calories a day. That gives me a 1000 calorie deficit each day, which adds up to 2 pounds of fat burning off each week.
The very first day I had the device, I quickly figured out that I was basically burning 100 calories per hour just being alive and breathing. So right there is 2400 calories in a day that I burn automatically. So obviously, I need to burn the other 650 somewhere. I was out in the park that very first day walking to burn those extra calories. I only actually burnt 300 or so during the actual walk, but the boosting of my metabolism from the walk kept my calorie burning elevated for a while after that, so the extra 650 burned calories I needed came fairly easy that day.
I have been exercising every single day since I got this thing, and I have NEVER done that before. And I really don't have to exercise THAT much. I usually just walk during lunch. Sometimes I will walk after work too. And now I am stirred up and exercising with EA SPORTS ACTIVE for the Nintendo Wii. I never would have imagined in a million years that something could actually motivate me like this to be active, but it does.
I got the optional display, so for example, today I am not going to get to walk during lunch. I can see that I've only burned 1449 calories so far today. So I KNOW that I need to go to the park and walk this evening after work, and I will! Without knowing exactly where I stand with calories in vs calories out, I would probably just think, "Eh, I'll exercise tomorrow". But now I can't do that, because I can look right here on my wrist and see where I stand. If I want to lose 2 pounds this week (AND I DO!) then my numbers MUST add up at the end of the day. I know that I have to have that 1000 calorie deficit, and I can tell exactly how to get it, so you better believe I am going to do it.
I have CONSISTENTLY lost 2 pounds a week since getting the GoWear Fit (I've lost 18 pounds so far!). The website shows a graph of your weight and it has this little red line that shows the path down from your beginning weight to your goal weight. Yes, my weight bops around from day to day, but it is amazing when you look at the overall big picture how precisely my weight is following that line down to my goal.
Losing weight is actually FUN now because I know exactly what is going on and there aren't any surprises.
The first weekend I had the GoWear fit, my calorie deficits for the weekend actually added up to a whole pound (3500 calories) just for Saturday and Sunday, yet when I weighed on Monday morning, I weighed exactly what I did on Friday morning. Previously, that would have been discouraging to me because I exercised both days and logged my food religiously and stuck to my calorie goal. But since I was using the GoWear Fit, it didn't bother me at all. Why? Becuase I KNEW that I had lost a pound of fat from my body no matter what the scale said. There are all kinds of other things that influence the scale reading, like how much water you've had, how often you've used the restroom before you weigh, etc. Anyway, none of that mattered, because I could look at the GoWear Fit website and SEE, with my own two eyes, that I had burnt 3500 more calories than I had eaten, and those calories had to come from somewhere. So even though the scale didn't show it, I KNEW what was going on in my body and didn't get discouraged, and sure enough, when the first week was over, I had lost EXACTLY how much weight the data from the GoWear Fit website predicted.
I love this thing! It makes losing weight easy and fun. Armed with the information it gives me, I feel confident, FOR THE FIRST TIME, that I will be able to reach my goal weight. Only 42 more pounds to go! See you there on January 22, 2010!!!
If you are contemplating purchasing this, just go ahead and do it. Yes, the initial cost is not cheap, but it is SO worth it. And the $6.95 month fee is equal to the cost of one mixed drink (if you are a drinker), so I think it's a small price to pay since this thing actually WORKS, and works wonderfully. (Just think about how much money you've spent on things that didn't work!)
This is, without a doubt, one of the best purchases I have ever made in my life.
Can you tell I love this thing?
Customer Review: Mysterious Arm Pain!!
Summary: 2 Stars
I purchased this product a little over a month ago and began having problems almost immediately. The display would be "Not In Sync" with the armband multiple times a day. I couldn't really understand the purpose of the $99 display if I had to sync it up every time I wanted to know where I was at for the day. I contacted Customer Service at Body Media and got nowhere, other then being told to reset the device each time I contacted them. I started not wearing the display very often since it so rarely worked, but this was a small price to pay for getting all the hard data about my body that I was compiling nearly around the clock, right?
Then I noticed a nagging, ever growing pain in my arm that shot all the way down to my left thumb. It got to where moving my left hand was getting debilitatingly painful. Not connecting the pain with the arm band, I planned to make a trip to the doctor to have the mysterious pain checked out, just as soon as I got back from a long weekend with my family. I left the armband at home for the weekend, fearing I might get it wet over the weekend, and the first morning without the armband I awoke to a miracle; the pain in my left arm was *gone*. It was pain I can only compare to tendinitis or carpal tunnel, very nerve based, not skin or muscular at all. That was the moment I connected the pain to the Go Wear Fit.
When we got home, I was eager to put the armband back on and (hopefully) stay pain free! I didn't want the Go Wear Fit to be the culprit, I really wanted to be able to use this technology to meet my goals and I was so excited to have finally gotten one for myself. But within an hour of putting it on, that familiar pain started showing itself again. I tried only wearing it during the day, and taking it off at night, thinking that maybe then I'd be able to tolerate it, but it didn't matter. The pain wasn't worth it. I didn't want to put it on in the morning, knowing that almost immediately I would feel the tingle of the electric charge in my skin and muscles, and from there it would only get worse. I should clarify here, my skin itself *never* got irritated. I know some people have skin problems with theirs, I never had that.
I contacted Body Media Customer Service again, figuring that I *must* have a defective product. Surely this is not the way they intended for their product to work! It took several calls, and an email or two, but I finally got to speak to someone at Body Media. I explained my problem, and was told flatly that my Go Wear Fit is NOT defective, but my body must be fighting hard against it. What? Seriously?!? I have had my Go Wear Fit for all of about 50 days. Their stance is Too Bad, 30 days is the warranty. It took me more then that to figure out that it was what was CAUSING the pain. I've combed over the manuals, the help site, the FAQ's, and nowhere does it warn that any pain besides a possibility of skin irritation is even a possibility! And in case you are thinking this - No, the arm band was FAR from too tight. I kept it loose enough that sometimes it would slip right down my arm. And then, once I put the pieces together, I tried wearing it every different way I could to try and find a way to wear it that didn't hurt, or at least didn't hurt bad enough that I couldn't tolerate it for the sake of knowing how many calories I was burning to help me meet my goals. No luck.
As much as I was willing to keep my experience to myself because I believed I had a defective product, and I hate reading horrible reviews of otherwise good products just because someone got a lemon. Lemons happen, it's just a part of manufacturing, and I'm okay with that so long as the company stands behind their product and makes it right. And I felt they had an otherwise good product. I didn't want to give a poor review based on a lemon. But Body Media's stance is that my Go Wear Fit is not defective. So I'm reviewing my experience with it. And it was not good. It's a good idea, a good theory, and may work great for some people, but be warned - if you start experiencing any kind of arm pain, like I did, you'd better be quick to start calling Customer service - they don't care if it fries your arm off so long as you are out of the 30 day warranty window! If someone had warned me that this arm pain was a possible side effect, I'd have known it for what it was from the get go, and it wouldn't have taken me so long to figure it out. So now I'm out of a Go Wear Fit AND out of my $270! Hopefully my experience will help someone else who is experiencing the same problem in a little timelier manner then I was able to.