Will catching the Fitbug keep me motivated?

Posted on May 16th, 2010 in Diet, Exercise, Health, Review, Strenua's Challenge, Training, Weight Loss

Whilst it is easy to decide to start being more active it is hard to keep motivated after the initial enthusiasm has worn off. Fitbug is a web based service which aims to keep you motivated to keep moving. Described as ‘a personal health and well-being coach’, Fitbug is a unique system that’s been designed to help individuals to achieve their weight, fitness and health goals within their everyday routine.

This week I received my Fitbug ‘bug’ which I am going to trial for the next 3 months. Fitbug.com is a place where you can record your nutritional intake, connect with the fitbug community through its forum and take part in activity challenges. You also have a ‘bug’, a more sophisticated type of pedometer which then talks to fitbug.com to update how active you have been.

Day one was just the ‘getting to know you’ phase. For the first week the program likes to get to know your normal activity level, what you normally eat and what your goals are. I had to complete the online questionnaire, admitting to my poor diet and as my goal is to tone up I had to record my hips, thighs, waist, chest and arm measurements.

I also have to record what I eat for at least 3 days in the nutritional area. This is an area that took quick a while to complete, although that I imagine it will get quicker as you develop your favourite food tab. The nutritional information for nearly 18,000 food products are already listed to select: 6,000 from Tesco, 3,000 from Somerfield and 4,600 from ASDA with 1,400 non branded food such as fruit and vegetables. However, I had to personally fill in the nutritional information from my Sainsbury’s Pizza and my Mars Bar (I admit my diet is bad) had more calories than were written on the packet. I presume this is down to brands shrinking the size of their products rather than the fitbug data being entered incorrectly so I will have to check the calories are correct when I add new foods to my nutritional diary.

The interesting part of the fitbug program is the ‘bug’. I’ve called it a pedometer but it is more sophisticated than just a step counter. It records what time you achieved the steps as well as if they were aerobic steps such as going for a brisk walk, or if they were just walking around the house. After 24 hours I had accumulated 23,000 steps with 16,000 being aerobic steps. This was achieved by my 3.2mile walk to work that took around 7,200 steps each way and 3 hours of teaching swimming that involved 5,000 steps. It does however highlight when you have been lazy or sitting down as I was on Saturday watching the F1 qualifying and then the FA cup final on TV. It clearly shows I didn’t do much between 1-5pm. But luckily I don’t have to feel too guilty this week as the program just likes to record a baseline of your average daily activity, although all the steps do count towards the community challenges. These include the Mount Everest Challenge and the Fantasy Footfall where your total monthly steps can pit you against other people from your country or county. You can also set up a mini league for your friends or Family so I have set up a league for Stenua’s World and I hope readers will join the league for some friendly rivalry and motivation.

I’m planning on reporting back on how I get on with the Fitbug program over the next few months and will let you know how I have got on after my first assessment week. If you wish to join me Fitbug.com are offering a 25% discount to all new customers, simply enter this promotional code ‘SPRING10’ in the appropriate section which is valid until 30th June 2010.