The Fat Loss TroubleshootThis is your place to troubleshoot your fat loss problems from nutrition to training. This section is led by Leigh Peele, author of "The Fat Loss Troubleshoot," the ultimate fat loss manual. If your results have slowed or stalled this is the place to come for advice for all your fat loss needs.
Hi I'm new here and have had my GWF since last November. At the office and here at home I bounce on my swiss ball quite a bit. Do you guys suppose it overestimates calories burned? I average 6 cals a minute on the ball, and walking briskly which sure feel like I'm engaging more muscles and breathing more deeply shows around 5.
Overall the calorie deficit correlates with my weight loss pretty well so ultimately it doesn't matter, but wondered what you all think.
Take care,
Robin
I seem to recall that Leigh found that bouncing on the ball ALL DAY increased calorie burn by about 200kcal, so that definitely would not be 6 cal/min. The GWF might think you're jogging.
I sit on my ball once in a while for a change, but I always remember the OTHER side effect Leigh found - flare up of hemorrhoids!
__________________ "My yoga class had me trembling and sweating and I feel MUCH better." - Fang
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tenacious Training and Tweaking (the A lotta Alitteration thread)
my question:
When I walk, I seem to always carry something in my left hand: it might be my purse and a folder or shopping bag, such that my left arm does not swing when I walk. Do I need to switch my purse and bags to my left arm to get accurate measurements of my walking steps and calories burned? I am enjoying the GWF very much and though not perfectly accurate, it surely shows if my deficit is 300cal or 800cal or 1200 cal, and that has helped me with success in my diet.
REPLY FROM BODYMEDIA:
"Accurate measurement while walking, carrying in left hand"
The accelerometer in the armband track the motion of your overall body. Not swinging your arm will not affect the accuracy of the armband. Typically the armband is within 90% accurate.
My second plastic "armband" holder broke. It cracked all the way through. I had ordered a couple of spares when the first one broke, so it was not a crisis. I also superglued it to be a spare. When the first one broke, I superglued it and it broke in another spot. It is now superglued in 4 different places, but I'm keeping it in case the company wants to see it. I think the plastic is either defective or just plain crappy. I have also noticed cracks appearing in the unit itself, near the metal sensors. And the sensors are getting to where some of the spots won't come off, despite gently cleaning it every day. I guess you'd say they were pitted. I am not happy with these things, since I've only had the GWF since late July.
In case it crossed your mind, I do NOT wear my GWF tight at all. It is mainly held on by the suction of the curved unit. I don't get an indentation in my arm from the strap. I don't abuse it in any way. I remove the unit from its holder once a day MAX, sometimes only every 2 or 3 days. Anyone else have quality issues?
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Moondust The older I get, the older old gets.
I wear the display clipped to the hem of my shirt/s, and at least 3-5 times a month the clip falls off. I first tied a hair-band which I safety-pinned as added security, just recently found a "cell-phone charm lariat" which is thinner than the hair band and I safety pin that to my shirt.
So the teeth of the display clip are not fail-proof. I lost one whole display, had to get another one. Customer service was at first poor, but I pursued and then they were very helpful. So they sent me a new display with clip and wristband, and this new display clip had plastic prongs that just broke off immediately with rotten weak plastic. But company replaced the clip again.
I find that it syncs better if I hold the button down for a full second; I used to just press it down good, but quick, but holding it down for 1-2 sec works better.
So they sent me a new display with clip and wristband, and this new display clip had plastic prongs that just broke off immediately with rotten weak plastic. But company replaced the clip again.
It appears that this company needs to find a different type of plastic, or maybe a different supplier. Very shoddy. How long is the warranty? - I can't remember.
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Moondust The older I get, the older old gets.
Moondust, I wore mine for about 9 months and never had a problem. And that included wearing it to karate class and getting slammed around quite a bit...
6 months here and pretty much no issues, other than the one time I dropped it and now the sounds are much quieter. Which is kind of nice.
I take it out of its bracket 2-4x weekly and take the armband off (not sliding off, but undoing the velcro) at least daily or twice daily, and only now is the velcro near the end of its life. I'd love to get a new band that is a more neutral color - like beige. Maybe I'll make my own.
__________________ "My yoga class had me trembling and sweating and I feel MUCH better." - Fang
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tenacious Training and Tweaking (the A lotta Alitteration thread)
I am on my 3rd plastic holder....and no karate here! This last time I emailed the company just to alert them to the fact that I have had 2 of them crack in 7 months, and they might want to work on making it more durable. I received a prompt email back and they sent me a new one free of charge. I wasn't looking for a handout, but it was nice anyway. I am still using my superglued/masking taped broken one until it really goes. The thing that annoys me most is that shipping is more then the actual holder.
That's weird because mine doesn't show any signs of wear. When I took the survey about new colors, they showed new plastic holders in different colors and the actual unit itself with new face colors. Maybe the newly colored plastic holders will be made out of different material. I think the new colors were white, pink, green, shiny silver, camo, and matte silver.
Maybe they just had one batch of bad plastic and only some of us got it. beesknees, thanks for the info. I will try a complaint to see if they will send me a free holder. I almost lost the GWF unit when the first holder broke, so I'm leary of wearing a broken one even if it has been "repaired", now that I know they will break again. When the first one broke, I ordered three more (because the shipping was so high for just one). Only two were medium, though - I ordered a large when someone said maybe wearing on the leg was more accurate for biking. So now I'm on my last good medium and the large is too long to wear on my arm.
I sure hope the snazzy colors are more durable!!
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Moondust The older I get, the older old gets.
Sorry if I haven't figured out this quote thing yet...
But I have not had any issues with the armband unit. My display did break, the one that clips on your pants or shirt. It wouldn't come out/off of the clip! CS was very helpful, told me I'd have to pry the clip off the display with a slotted screwdriver and they sent me 2 new ones right away to replace the broken one. I was quite happy with the service.
When adjusting for the error margin, does anyone use a different percentage on days on which you are less active? Lets say you are ill and barely move at all, do you use 5% instead of 10%? My reasonsing for this would be that because you are moving less, there is less room for error.
When adjusting for the error margin, does anyone use a different percentage on days on which you are less active? Lets say you are ill and barely move at all, do you use 5% instead of 10%? My reasonsing for this would be that because you are moving less, there is less room for error.
no. it doesn't work like that.
the possibility of a 10% margin of error applies regardless of how much you are moving.
I just uploaded my GWF for the first time since the time change last night. The activity manager does not seem to recognize that there has been a change. All my activities for today are shown an hour later than they actually took place (i.e. the time they would have been, yesterday). Does anyone know if/how to adjust it for the time change? I assumed when I uploaded it, the company would have updated the firmware with the change, but apparently it hasn't yet. Has anyone had the GWF over a time change yet, and know what to do?
I just uploaded my GWF for the first time since the time change last night. The activity manager does not seem to recognize that there has been a change. All my activities for today are shown an hour later than they actually took place (i.e. the time they would have been, yesterday). Does anyone know if/how to adjust it for the time change? I assumed when I uploaded it, the company would have updated the firmware with the change, but apparently it hasn't yet. Has anyone had the GWF over a time change yet, and know what to do?
Mine seemed to update itself yesterday, so it seemed to have taken a day to adjust.
If I remember right from last spring, it did on its own as well and I don't think there is anything to change other then manually changing your time zone.
I got my GWF last Friday and have been wearing it since it charged up, I'm hooked! Very motivated to get up and move instead of sitting at my desk all day, love to see the numbers change.
So here's my issue...how do I figure my calorie deficit to lose weight?
Until 7 weeks ago I did no exercise and I have a sedentary desk job. I joined a gym and hired a trainer and have been doing strength training 3x per week and cardio 3x per week. My trainer told me to stick to 1300 calories and eat 122 grams of protein. I started at 182 lbs and 41.7% body fat (measured with one of those hand held devices). Since then I've lost 3 lbs and about 2% body fat. Most of that came in the first 4 weeks.
On average I am burning 2600 calories according to GWF. If I subtract calories from that number to get my deficit that means I need to up my calories at least 300 from what I am currently doing. The trainer said that I should only up if I am hungry (what's that when you eat every 3 hours?) and by only 100 cal.
Then I read that I could figure out my maintenance calories by multiplying my lean body mass by 15 which leaves me somewhere around 1600 and that would mean that 1300 cals is fine.
My next weigh in/measuring session is next week and I don't have high hopes for progress. Not sure if I should just keep on or up the calories. I appreciate any input.
maintenance = daily cal burn, so if you're burning 2600 cals, eat 2600 for maintenance (you don't lose, you don't gain).
i think your trainer is giving you good advice, enough protein to protect your muscles while you diet (so you lose fat and not muscle) and a good-sized deficit of 1300 calories (2600 burn - 1300 eaten = 1300 deficit). See how great the GWF is? No more guess-work.
A pound of fat is 3500 cals so if you have a 1300 deficit for seven days = 2.6 pounds a week. However, women can gain or lose a lot of water so your scale weight may fluctuate. It's why you get a huge number at the beginning of a diet and may gain a couple pounds overnight due to sodium, carbs, TOM.
Just make sure your workouts aren't too much, especially the intensity of the cardio, or you'll burn out really bad.
P.S. make sure you weigh your food instead of measuring it with teaspoons/cups. Weighing makes a BIIIIIIIG difference in accuracy.
hello everyone
I have a sensewear wms which is owned by BodyMedia as well. So, if you have GWF it's the same company. I've had mine for over a year now and have mixed feelings about it. Anywho, I wanted to mention that with sensewear their policy was if your device cracked or got damaged (not by misuse) within 1 year, they would replace it free of charge, no questions asked. My SW got a hairline crack starting from the metal to the edge of the device 6 months after I bought it. Since, GWF is owned by bodymedia also you might want to check it out by calling them. The hard part is getting someone on the phone.
Had my GWF for 2 days now and i know my question is likely answered somewhere in this thread but i don't want my GWF registering me as lying down while i read the entire 46 (?) pages!
It records me lying down a lot. I am thinking it is when i am using the computer (which is a few hours a day). I have a reclining sofa so is it confused? Or does it just say lying down when you are not active?! Because, i don't want to show people my stats and it says i lie down 10 hours a day lol!
Also, can you change what you put in as average calories. I use Daily plate to get an idea of intake because they have more pre-programmed items and i am getting a little more than i estimated.
It is amazing to see how little i actually sleep despite how long i am in bed. Last night i went to bed at 11:15 and it had me lying there until 1 am and i sure am tired today. And i get up a lot in the night to pee too lol
I will read this thread at some point, it look like it has lots of info and comes up every time i google for something about GWF.
Oh, one more final question, can you change the name you registered with? I thought there might be a forum included with the subscription so didn't use my name, same type of name as this forum, so now my display etc say Hello Just....it's a tiny thing but annoying me still.
Before I completely forget, I wanted to post an observation about uphill/downhill with the GWF. Several of us have noticed that it says we burn more going downhill, possibly because we are going faster? But a few weeks ago I hiked a few miles downhill first, and up the same hill 10 hours later. The GWF registered a greater effort and more calories burned on the uphill portion, despite a slower step rate.
Edit: my GWF doesn't even register lying down when I fall asleep in the passenger seat of the car on the drive home. Maybe you need to sit up straighter. Another note -- I burn more calories sleeping than I do while driving or watching TV.
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Moondust The older I get, the older old gets.
justanother, my GWF will sometimes think i'm sleeping while i'm reading or watching tv. I get so still and relaxed while doing so that i guess it is the same calorie burn as sleeping. pretty scary tho, sometimes i'll read a good book almost all day long and i guess my calorie burn is diddly-squat!
WRT the uphill/downhill topic, I'm thinking that it's not so much if you are going up or down but that this is taking place later in the same workout. I have noticed that if I exercise with the same level of exertion for an hour the 2nd half hour shows more calories burned and more METs. I think my body is working that much harder to keep up the same level of exercise the longer that I do it. Does that make sense to anyone else?
Also, can you change what you put in as average calories. I use Daily plate to get an idea of intake because they have more pre-programmed items and i am getting a little more than i estimated.
{snip}
I use Daily Plate as well since I find so few food items are in the GWF database. I find the items on Daily Plate and then manually enter them into my GWF food area. Yeah, somewhat of double-entry but I find it keeps me VERY honest!
Looks like they're making updates to the nutrition section, to be launched tomorrow. Look forward to seeing the changes!
One thing i am disliking more than anything right now is the difference between what my display says i am at and what is uploaded to the site. None of the numbers are the same, some are just a little off others put me under target despite the display saying ive reached target each day! Guess i just need to do more to get them to co-operate!
Linear Mode
