Setting up my GoWear Fit Armband & Display

I received my GoWear Fit armband and display today from Body Media.  Thus, it is time to get it set up and activated.  The GoWear Fit came with a free 3 month subscription to their online Activity Manager where I can track my food, activity, and overall caloric intake and expenditure.

You are prompted for standard information: name, DOB, time you go to bed and when you wake up, and if you smoke. Asking whether I was right or left handed was interesting...I wonder if I burn more calories being right handed? :)

Then you can are given the option to choose between if you want to get active or manage/lose weight.  I want to manage or lose weight with the help of the Body Media GoWear Fit, so quickly got started. This will help me balance my caloric intake vs what I expend in order to help me get to or maintain my target weight. When choosing this option, users can log their food, daily activity, and step targets.

You then enter your weight, target weight, and the rate at which rate you want to lose.  I am officially putting the GoWear Fit band on notice...I am going to see if it can help me reach a weight that is 5 pounds lower than I have been able to achieve prior to now.  In order to do so, I chose to lose 1.5 pounds a week.  I need to have a 750 caloric deficit each day in order to achieve that.  Right now I eat about 1200-1300 calories a day.  The Activity Manager says I can eat 1950 if I can burn 2700 calories.  That is super high compared to what I currently do so it will be interesting to see what happens.

The Body Media Activity Manager calculated my Basal Metabolic Rate to be 1418 calories, which is pretty standard for a result.  That is basically what I would burn each day if I did nothing.  Whew - thankfully we have a BMR, huh?  In order to get to my target weight, I have to burn 2700 calories a day by doing 30 minutes of moderate exercise and taking 5000 steps.

My GoWear Fit Armband is currently charging and I already entered my food into my Activity Manager for the day.  I am really looking forward to seeing how this compares with the food and activity logging I have done before and if it assists in my journey toward improved health and fitness.  Keep checking back for more!

Disclosure: Body Media sent me a GoWear Fit Armband and Display for me to review.  This does not, in any way, affect my thoughts and reviews expressed on my blog.  They are exactly that...my thoughts.