Tag Archives: fitness

Photo Credit: Sean Percival

This week is the National Women’s Health Week empowering women to make their health a top priority. And it’s not only women’s health that we should be concerned about. Childhood obesity in United States has more than tripled in the past 30 years, and there are more than 1 billion overweight adults globally, of which at least 300 million are obese. Food industry is vowing to make processed food healthier, meanwhile studies showing how addictive fatty foods are, also suggesting that processed carbohydrates may increase the risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease more than fat does.

Jamie Oliver’s new TV show Foodrevolution has a mission to fight childhood obesity and change the way America eat. His combined Facebook and Twitter community has passed 700 000 followers and the petition to improve school food has so far been signed by half a million people. It’s a great example of how to create awareness by engaging directly with the community, both online and offline. Watch this clip with Stephen Colbert (4min in) and the magnitude of the challenge the nation in whole is facing becomes evident.

So, what if you could bring a personal trainer, dietician and motivator with you all the time? In your pocket? Now you can. DailyBurn and Swedish ShapeUp Club are two easy to use online weight loss and fitness services, both with free iPhone apps. Yes, you can get started with your new life with zero cost (ShapeUp Club is soon to have an application available for Nokia). DailyBurn’s freemium model also offers a basic functionality free online, whereas with ShapeUp Club one can sign up starting at $3 per month to get added functionality, such as advanced nutrition tracking with charts, back-up and online community.

Setting up ones individual health program is quickly done in both services, whether one is looking for losing, keeping or gaining weigth. The iPhone apps make it really easy to record daily food and exercise, with metric system of ones choice, allowing one to create, add and favourite food items and meals. Both services sync all data with the online account. DailyBurn is a bit more fitness orientated with lots of various workout program and challenges, where one can find like minded people for support to achieve fitness goals.

I spent previously four years on developing the largest online weight loss service in Sweden (Viktklubb.se) in collaboration with an obesity unit, that also conducts research studies on weight loss online with help of the service. These are my learnigs and thoughts on why I think the two services have figured out the key success factors of weight loss, thereby already enjoying over 100 000 users in respective service.

1. The social aspects of weight control. Gaining and retaining motivation with the help of the community, day or night, is very important. To find and interact with other people in the same situation has shown to be crucial to many. Besides from the inbuilt communities, this is where social networks like Facebook and Twitter come to help to increase the interactivity, thus strengthening the core service. ShapeUp Club has been more focused on blogging than social networking so far, where I’m especially happy to see DailyBurn engaging with its users.

2. Easy registering of daily calories and activities. iPhone apps do just that! The most annoying thing users know is spending a lot of time to fill in the diary of daily calories and activities. It brings down the motivation and once one skips registering, it gets harder to stay on track. I think both services have done a great job even if I find it a bit easier with ShapeUp Club. On the other hand, DailyBurn offers a FoodScanner app for $0.99 to easier find foods by scanning UPC barcodes or typing in food names.

3. Visualization of the progress. This is the number one motivational factor. To see charts and diagrams over ones weight, waistline, body fat, to name a few, does wonders. DailyBurn is also connected to Withings, a WiFi scale linked to the Internet that automatically tracks weight and body fat directly to DailyBurn. Trust me, men like this one. Men has shown to be more competitive, also when it comes to fitness and weight loss, thus making the information publicly available a good motivator.

4. Watercheck/Water tracker. Grown ups should drink at least 2 liter (0,5 gallon) water per day. Registering and visualizing the daily water consumption is a great way to get a hang of how much water one actually drinks during one day. I’ve learned how easy it is to be mistaken of ones daily water consumption. I particularly like the neat implementation of watercheck in ShapeUp Club’s iPhone app.

As Andy Smith, CEO and Co-Founder of DailyBurn, said: “You manage what you measure”. (quote by Mark Suster). I couldn’t agree more.

Ps. Not to worry! For the occasional social drinks, stick with gin & tonic and wine. They’re the kindest when it comes to calories.

Paula is online strategist and startup evangelist. She blogs at paulamarttila.com and here at Bub.blicio.us.
Follow her on Twitter: @paulamarttila
Drop her email at paula.marttila[at]gmail[dot]com

Last year the FitBit debuted at the 2008 TechCrunch 50. I read about it and instantly wanted one. This little gadget would help me with my neverending (and seemingly fruitless) quest for weight loss. Before I tell you about it, let me tell you about how I just now got my hands on one. I have a definite case of “early adopter syndrome.” Knowing this, my husband immediately pre-ordered a FitBit for me last September, assuming it would be a Christmas present. The FitBit date was pushed back multiple times (birthday, Valentine’s, Easter, anniversary) until he finally presented me with it yesterday. (“Happy, um Sweetest Day, honey!”)

It’s hardware, which always takes longer than software to create. Additionally, they’ve apparently had some firmware issues along the way that they were unable to reproduce consistently. But on Tuesday it arrived in the mail – one for each of us actually – in a very tiny package.

The FitBit itself is about the size of a USB stick. This has me a little nervous, because although the FitBit can actually be clipped to my clothing, I have a superpower for losing USB sticks. Cross your fingers I don’t lose this.

The FitBit monitors my steps – yep, it’s a high-end pedometer with a fancy blue OLED. But additionally, it monitors how many calories I’m burning and, most intriguingly, it monitors my sleep habits. You place the FitBit in a soft wrist pouch while you sleep and it tracks when you’re awake and when you’re getting the most sleep and how much. I’ve only done this one night, but I apparently woke up 15 times throughout the course of the night and ended up getting about 7 hours sleep despite being in bed for 9 hours. Consistent sleeping habits are key for weight loss and I’ve never really been able to monitor my own before.

How does all this information get shared? The FitBit comes with a tiny wireless base station. If I’m anywhere near it, the FitBit transmits my latest information, which is then uploaded automatically to FitBit.com. At any point in my day, I can log onto my account and view my progress. The site itself is reminiscent of Weight Watchers online. You can enter information into a daily food journal, as well as add specific activities. In my case, the FitBit knew I’d taken rapid steps for an hour, but I was able to specifically adjust the calories burned for ballroom dancing. Of course, there’s also a weight tracker and a few other tracking charts.

How does all this help you lose weight? It is, after all, a fancy pedometer. Well, it makes you very aware of your habits. By being more aware of how many calories you’re burning per day, even with regular movement, you can more easily figure out what changes you need to make to get healthier. Will it work? Well, I’ve only had the FitBit a few days. In fact, as you’re reading this, I’m on vacation, walking around the Epcot Food & Wine Festival at Disney World in Florida. After wearing the FitBit through vacation (and hopefully not losing it), I’ll report back and let you know.

The FitBit is finally available and retails for $99, including use of the web site. You can, however, use the web site without purchasing a FitBit.

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Cheers!
Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.