How Accurate Is BodyBugg? A Review

I have been a BodyBugg volunteer for almost one month now and I must admit that I am thrilled at how accurate the thing works.  I put it on my arm and for the most part I forget it is even there as I go about my day and perform the daily rituals of my life.  When I first started to use BodyBugg I must admit that I thought it would be a drag to have to enter all of my foods that I eat into the online food journal.  I thought that it would bore me to tears and I would regret ever agreeing to try using BodyBugg.  About one day before I received my BodyBugg I was thumbing through a book by Bob Harper titled Are You Ready!when I came across in the very start of the book where he was talking about doing a food journal himself.  He spoke of how important a food journal is when trying to lose weight.  It was at that moment that I realized how important it would be for me to also keep an accurate food journal, if I was to write honest reviews about BodyBugg.    This is when I was able to get over my first BodyBugg obstacle, which was my lack of desire to keep a food journal. 

When the BodyBugg came to my desk I opened it up and was a little surprised when I read that many people who kept their food logs underestimated their caloric intake by as much as 40%.  This point was stressed over and over again that too many people do not factor into their journal the quick office donuts, or the candy from the bowls or even the right information from a restaurant.  After realizing my initial reluctance to keep a journal and then reading from 24 Hour Fitness BodyBugg that the biggest problem is that users do not enter in accurate information, I decided that I was going to keep as perfect a food log as I could.   Loving my iPhone I found some free apps that helped me do this. (Great Food and Restaurants) these two downloads have helped me not only find good and healthy places to eat, but also helped me make better choices.  What really has helped me is that I try to decide what I was going to eat before I approached the counter.  I also have learned to not be bashful in my requests for things to be cooked a way that serves my weight loss better.  I began to be stuck on being so accurate in my food journal that I always adjusted my caloric intake with a “thumb on the scale.”  I always made sure that if I was not sure of something, I would add more than enough calories consumed.  After using BodyBugg a few weeks I have the following to report.

What BodyBugg Saw and Reported
This first screenshot off my BodyBugg file shows that for the week time I had an average of 4,272 calories burned daily.  This includes everything from sleeping, exercising and even blinking my eyes.  This was the average total amount of calories I burned daily for the one week period that is reported.

Below that it shows that, on average that the BodyBugg recorded the average daily calories eaten was 3,072.  This number is arrived at by simple math, after I entered my new weight after one week.  This is the actual difference that I did eat based on what I actually burned and what I actually weighed.

Below that there is a number which shows that my daily calorie deficit, or my daily calorie burn was 1,200 calories.  If you were to take the average amount daily and multiply it by the seven days in one week I should have burned a total of 13,804 calories during the course of the week.  Knowing that one pound of fat requires the burning of 3,500 calories, I actually ran a calorie deficit because I lost 2.4 pounds, which means I actually burned 1,200 calories a day, over 7 days.
The information reported on the above screenshot is the reality of my weight loss efforts.  I cannot deny these results because it is what it is, and that is what is the end result of my week of weight loss attempts.  I lost 2.4 pounds.

What I Reported To BodyBugg

Now, looking at the screenshot below, you can see that I reported I burned 4,272 calories.  That number really does not change.  That is the number of calories I burned on a daily basis.

Below that  is the number of calories I entered into the online food journal.  This number is arrived solely by the information that I entered into my computer.  As you can see I diligently reported that I ate, on average, 2,300 calories a day.  With that information I reported a daily average deficit of 2,300 calories, which means I should expect to lose 3.9 pounds this week.  (1,972 x 7 (days) = 13,804 divided by 3,500 = 3.9 pounds.) What this means is that I reported I burned enough calories daily that if I entered the food journal information correctly, I should have lost  3.9 pounds last week. 

I only lost 2.4 pounds while the information I gave BodyBugg projected me to lose 3.9 pounds.  Why the big difference?  What was I not losing the amount of weight the BodyBugg predicted? This made me wonder how accurate BodyBugg really is?  Have I been scammed or is the thing a waste of money? 

One quick phone call to BodyBugg brought a delightful sounding lady to my ear.  When I told her my worries about the accuracy of 24 Hour Fitness BodyBugg, she instruced me to get a loaf of bread, and a scale.  I went and retrieved the itmes and then I was asked h0w many calories in one slice of bread.  Being the knowledgeable weight loss type, I looked at the food label and said one serving is one slice and one slice is 100 calories.  I knew how to read the label and I was proud of that fact.

I was then asked to look at the nuber of grams in one slice of bread, the little number I never noticed next to the serving size.  After getting my glasses I saw that the nutrition label said that one slice was one serving and one serving weighed 26 grams.  I then was asked to place one slice on my scale, with the readout set to grams.  To my amazement, one slice of bread really weighed in at 30 grams!  That meant that for each slice of bread I ate I was getting 4 more grams of a serving than I was counting.  Having had 2 sandwiches for lunch, I had 16 extra grams of bread than I reported, which was almost another slice, or 100 unrecorded calories.

As the conversation went on I was then educated about how horribly inaccurate ALL of the restaurants are when it comes to reporting nutrition.  I was amazed at how many hidden calories I had in all of the foods I was recording.  BodyBugg has shown me that food labels are incorrect and that I am the one responsible to ensure that what I think I am eating, is really what I am eating.

So……how accurate is BodyBugg?  I think it is really accurate because my goal is to lose 2 pounds a week and because of BodyBugg I lost 2.4 pounds.  Despite my inability to record accurately, BodyBugg still was able to nurse me along to achieve my weekly weight loss goal.  As far as I am concerned the information I just revealed to you has been a major awakening to me.  It is no wonder so many people have difficulty losing weight when the food labels are so inaccurate.  This tidbit of information has been a major revalation to me and I want to thank not only BodyBugg, but also my personal online coach.

I have started to lose weight for the first time in my life and it is because of BodyBugg.  What I have learned is that I am the one that has not been accurate at all and it is the accuracy of BodyBugg that has opened a new world of weight loss possibilities to me.  Thank You BodyBugg!`

For the latest BodyBugg info;