The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

[nickieluv]

How does the BodyBugg work? Does it somehow calculate exactly how many calories you are burning, even while at rest? Seems kind of sci-fi that this little thing you strap on can be accurate. I can imagine it would be motivating, though - has the price come down any since two years ago? I remember you saying it was a couple hundred bucks or more. You know me and my tricks and toys - no results but lots of money in someone else's pocket!

[DogMa]

It's still really expensive, which is why it took me so long to finally buy it, although it's cheaper if you don't get the digital display. We can see how THAT plan went, though.

You strap it on, and it somehow takes four different measurements to calculate calories burned. It does it when you're sleeping, too - assuming you WEAR it when you're sleeping. Otherwise it guesses based on the other measurements throughout the day.

So then you upload the info to their site, and it shows your calories burned so far that day (or for multiple days), how many calories you'll burn if you do nothing else all day, etc. It also graphs it out so you can see how much you burned in specific time periods.

Then you log your food on the site (this part is annoying if you're used to a better site, like The Daily Plate) and it keeps track of that, too, and calculates your calorie deficit (or surplus) for the day. Plus it gives you the nutritional balance (carbs/protein/fat), but it doesn't include as many nutrients as TDP does (just the basics, plus sodium and calcium).

Before all that, of course, you put in your personal info and your goals, and it gives you targets (for calories to burn and calories to consume), to maintain the balance you need to meet your goals (a 500 calorie deficit each day if you want to lose a pound a week, etc.).

And then you also get a phone coaching session. I'm not sure what happens with that; they said it's better to wait two weeks to do it, so they have some data to look at when you talk to them). Mine is scheduled for a week from Friday.

[DogMa]

OK, so a week and a half with the BodyBugg, and three days of maintaining a 500-600 calorie daily deficit (instead of the 800-1,000 deficit I had at the start) ... and I'm down 2.5 pounds! I think I'm finally starting to believe that I need to eat more.

[dede4wd]

That's awesome Robin!

I have been eyeing the bodybuggs as I have a membership at the gym that pushes those. I think I'm going to save my pennies for a while (at least until I start plateauing!)

Eating more might be the answer!

[nickieluv]

Yes! Robin, I think you have a mental block about eating more. Not that I blame you - when I'm down to my goal weight it would be hard NOT to have a fear of eating too much (and possibly ballooning up all over again). And not that you don't recognize the block - but if this little gadget is helping you feel confident about what you need to do to lose a little more like you want to, then I think it is money VERY well spent!

[DogMa]

Yeah, I still have my doubts about it. But I've been eating what seems like huge amounts for a week now, and I seem to still be losing (or at least not gaining; I had a small sandbox issue the past couple of days, so my weight was up a tiny bit - but still down from two weeks ago).

What I like is that I can adapt my day's food intake to my day's exercise. Run in the morning? Eat more all day. Add a lunchtime walk? Have a little more at dinner. Take the day off? Cut back on calories all day to maintain my deficit. And if I do that and want more to eat, well, then I just have to get off my butt and burn those calories first.

So, like, last night I was craving steak or lamb chops or just something like that, which is more calories than I normally have at dinner. But it was a walking day, so I really didn't have enough calories for that. So instead of either eating it anyway or depriving myself, I just saved it for tonight, because today was a running day. And to make sure I had enough calories by tonight, I took an extra walk at lunchtime. So now I have enough room in my calorie budget for a nice, big lamb chop. Yum. But I can't have the second one in the package till Friday, when I run again.

[nickieluv]

This sounds very normal, to me. I think this must be what naturally thin people do, but perhaps without having to think about it as such an exact science. It's like financial responsibility - don't spend the money if you don't have the cash. Don't finance something for the windfall tomorrow that may never come. Same idea - don't 'spend' the calories if you don't have the burn in the bank. It's all tied to instant gratification and lack of discipline. I mean really, how many people were fat a hundred years ago? Back when values were different? (Slight tangent there I guess.)

[DogMa]

I don't know, there were fat people centuries ago, weren't there? Ancient Rome, the Middle Ages, etc.? Look at Renaissance paintings - plenty of fat people there.

The jury's still out on whether this will actually work. Two Fridays ago, when I first started using the BB, I was at 130.0. After a week of 800- to 1000-calorie deficits, I was at 129.8. After three days of 500-calorie deficits, I was at 127.6 on Monday; but I was at 130.4 for no good reason today. I'm going to TRY to stick with it for four weeks to see how I do, although that might be hard if my weight doesn't drop back down soon.

[nickieluv]

Sure, there were fat people - but they were rich and decadent and spoiled anyway. Although it's also true that standards of health and beauty were different then. They'd probably think our ideal body type today was sickly and at death's door being so thin. That settles it. I should have been born in whatever era and culture existed where fat equalled beauty. Maybe there's some hidden tribe out there somewhere that wants me.

[oksoonergirl26]

I want a Body Bugg! I don't have a membership to that particular chain of gyms, but I think you can get on online. Keep us posted on how well it works.

[DogMa]

I don't belong to that gym, either. I got mine online (although you can also buy 'em on the 24 Hour Fitness site, without being a member, I learned; I'm told they even offer deals sometimes).

So it was my official weigh-in today. First week, with big deficits, I lost 0.2. Second week, with smaller deficits, I'm officially down another 0.6, although I think it's actually more but I'm fluctuating a little. Either way, I lost more with the smaller deficits, so I'm going to continue what I'm doing and hope it speeds up a little. I'm such a slow loser, though, that this might be the best I can hope for. Which would actually be OK with me.

It's SO much food on my running days, though. I'm trying to get better about spacing it out during the day. On Wednesday, I got caught short and had to eat a LOT for dinner and dessert. I'd rather try to get more of my calories in earlier in the day, so today I'm loading up at lunch.

[horsey girl]

Robin, I haven't been around here for a long time but I decided to see if anybody I knew was still here. Nice to see you are still around. Are you still with the Star Telegram? It has shrunk alarmingly! If memory serves you were once the queen of slow loss and plateaus, but look at you now! Still fabulous. Never heard of a body bugg. Interesting.

[DogMa]

Hey, Horsey, I remember you!! Welcome back! And nope, I left the paper a little over a year ago, right before all the massive layoffs started. Yay for having good timing, for a change!

And thanks. I've maintained pretty well (never got more than about 6 pounds over my goal weight), but now I'm working on losing 5-10 more. It's very slow going, but I'm hoping the BodyBugg will help. It's definitely affecting my habits and teaching me a few things. Yesterday, my workout got cut short because my handyman came earlier than expected. But after a kind of sedentary day, I saw how low my calorie burn was and I hit the treadmill to burn a couple hundred extra calories. And a lot of days, my dinner is determined by how many calories I've burned that day.

[katieb920]

Hey robin,

Wow you are such a ATHLETE. And I am glad I came to your journal. I re started today. Because of reading how well you are doing after maintnence. Thanks

Oh by the way I have a quick question. I started a walking/running program. I walk for 4 minutes then run for 1 minute. Problem is after a 1/2 mile my left arch KILLS me. But it only hurts when I am walking. NOT running I went out and got a really good pair of sneakers. Do you know if they make anything for arch support.


Hope you are having a great Memorial Day

[DogMa]

Hi, Katie! They do make arch support stuff, but you might actually have the opposite problem. Have you had your feet and gait checked at a running store? That would be my suggestion, because that will make a huge difference on what kind of shoes you need.

Some running shoes offer more support (usually called stability); those are for people who kind of turn their foot in when they walk or run (they usually have flatter arches). Then there are shoes that have almost no support but instead have a lot of cushioning; they're for people who roll their feet OUT when they walk, or who have a neutral gait and don't do either. (One is overpronating and one is underpronating, but I forget which is which.)

So, for instance, I have high arches and an almost neutral gait, but I roll my foot out a little bit (a quick way to tell is to get your feet wet and walk, and then look at the footprint). So I need to wear cushioned shoes with no stability; if I wear something with arch support, my arches hurt like CRAZY.

Any good running store will do this for you, and of course you're not obligated to buy from them.

Good luck!!