175 will definitely trigger some sort of reevaluation, but I am not planning to toss out my workout routine or attention to what I am eating. By also continuing frequent measurement I hope to avoid bouncing back.
Strongly considering the Fitbit Charge HR due to recommendations from a few friends with them. Do you have any experience on these?
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)
I have habitually recorded my weight since February of this year.
This is great because historically “paying attention to my weight” has lead to the desired weight-loss.
Recently I moved beyond reading about Spaced Repetition to actually downloading Anki and creating some notes.
What are your notes about?
What is your weight and target? (and height + gender)
Have you considered an automated system for weight tracking like fitbit scales (which syncs with your phone)
Chemistry so far. Control theory next.
I had weighed at most 200 and at least 150 pounds since 2007. I set my target at 175 pounds as a 5′10″ male.
Absolutely, but I decided that I could not justify it. I travel for work and would prefer not to have the extra weight and space of it.
excellent work on the notes,
I would suggest a number lower than 175 pounds, but that depends on your muscle vs fat composition.
sounds like a good call. What about other fitness/activity trackers? wearables etc. To further manage the health-balance
Thanks!
175 will definitely trigger some sort of reevaluation, but I am not planning to toss out my workout routine or attention to what I am eating. By also continuing frequent measurement I hope to avoid bouncing back.
Strongly considering the Fitbit Charge HR due to recommendations from a few friends with them. Do you have any experience on these?
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)