A wearable: No one does it superiorly better than anyone else.
Fitbit, basis, apple watch, pebble, android wears, moo (or something?). There’s a long list. To see what it might be like; you can probably download an app that step-tracks via your phone’s gyroscope. There is a limit to the usefulness and really it depends how much you pay attention to it. I found the notifications to be unmotivating to get me to move, but that might be different for you. Each system is trying its best to be the best.
The biggest factors seem to be:
charging—do you want to charge every day, 7 days. or yearly. Quality comes with the price tag. Forgetfulness comes with data loss (if its flat it doesn’t record). Generally having a routine to charge the wearable while you shower or sleep seems to work for the people I know, even with the daily-charge wearables.
push notifications—fitbit flex has no notifications, pebble is all about the notifications. You really can’t know how you might use it till you have it.
Peripheral data. I got a Basis B1 because it had heart rate, body temperature and perspiration. Now that I have the data I have literally no idea what to do with it. trying all kinds of experiments on my data to see if I can find something interesting. But now that I have it; I probably couldn’t have been convinced that the data would be relatively useless; but I wish someone would have told me. What kind of use will GPS tracking be. I don’t know, if you can justify it then get it; otherwise consider the cheaper alternatives.
sleep tracking. This is something that frustrates me because a lot of wearables are designed to charge in a dock overnight. which means they can’t track you while you sleep. I have no solution for this, other than find out where the charging port is before you buy it. some of the heart rate monitors have the charging port on the bottom, so they can’t be charged while you wear them.
A new rule for myself when quantifying: have a purpose in mind before gathering data for data sake. Its great to track skin perspiration but without a purpose for the information, its as good as not tracking it.
As for burn rates due to exercise, look into MET’s, Base metabolic rates and caloric intake. You might be surprised with the difference between exercise/not to weight loss. (Important note: the benefits of exercise extend beyond weight loss. You should exercise for all the benefits of improved health and decreased chance of disease)
A new rule for myself when quantifying: have a purpose in mind before gathering data for data sake.
From doing a lot of different QS myself and talking with other people about it, I think that’s a key point.
You actually have to care. If you don’t care about what you are measuring you are unlikely to get any return.
I always wanted more data to play with, now I have data and I have no idea what I am going to do with it. It’s like I personally suffer from the “big data” problem. (which I find hilarious)
A wearable: No one does it superiorly better than anyone else.
Fitbit, basis, apple watch, pebble, android wears, moo (or something?). There’s a long list. To see what it might be like; you can probably download an app that step-tracks via your phone’s gyroscope. There is a limit to the usefulness and really it depends how much you pay attention to it. I found the notifications to be unmotivating to get me to move, but that might be different for you. Each system is trying its best to be the best.
The biggest factors seem to be:
charging—do you want to charge every day, 7 days. or yearly. Quality comes with the price tag. Forgetfulness comes with data loss (if its flat it doesn’t record). Generally having a routine to charge the wearable while you shower or sleep seems to work for the people I know, even with the daily-charge wearables.
push notifications—fitbit flex has no notifications, pebble is all about the notifications. You really can’t know how you might use it till you have it.
Peripheral data. I got a Basis B1 because it had heart rate, body temperature and perspiration. Now that I have the data I have literally no idea what to do with it. trying all kinds of experiments on my data to see if I can find something interesting. But now that I have it; I probably couldn’t have been convinced that the data would be relatively useless; but I wish someone would have told me. What kind of use will GPS tracking be. I don’t know, if you can justify it then get it; otherwise consider the cheaper alternatives.
sleep tracking. This is something that frustrates me because a lot of wearables are designed to charge in a dock overnight. which means they can’t track you while you sleep. I have no solution for this, other than find out where the charging port is before you buy it. some of the heart rate monitors have the charging port on the bottom, so they can’t be charged while you wear them.
A new rule for myself when quantifying: have a purpose in mind before gathering data for data sake. Its great to track skin perspiration but without a purpose for the information, its as good as not tracking it.
As for burn rates due to exercise, look into MET’s, Base metabolic rates and caloric intake. You might be surprised with the difference between exercise/not to weight loss. (Important note: the benefits of exercise extend beyond weight loss. You should exercise for all the benefits of improved health and decreased chance of disease)
From doing a lot of different QS myself and talking with other people about it, I think that’s a key point. You actually have to care. If you don’t care about what you are measuring you are unlikely to get any return.
I always wanted more data to play with, now I have data and I have no idea what I am going to do with it. It’s like I personally suffer from the “big data” problem. (which I find hilarious)