I am not a professional product reviewer. This won’t be a fancy schmancy review with all sorts of screen shots and visual goodies. This is just me composing my thoughts on each product since I have purchased each and used both items. I hope in the end that questions are answered, and you get more of a feel for which one you would prefer for your own use.
GRUVE
The Gruve is a fairly new fitness tracking tool that I recently discovered from the raves of some of my tweeps on Twitter. The Gruve works on the same concept of tracking calories as the Bodybugg, but in a totally different way.
The Gruve works entirely on motion. It estimates your resting metabolic rate (RMR) and records and tracks what you burn over and above that whereas the Bodybugg calculates the RMR and adds that into your tracked burn rate.
That is really where the big similarities end.
The Gruve sits on your waistband and by using it’s internal accelerometers measures your movement throughout the day. It’s focus is on Non-Exercise Activities (NEAT). Any movement that you make burns calories therefore, the Gruve is a tool that encourages you to keep moving and adjust your sedentary lifestyle to be more active and burn more calories each day.
The way the Gruve works is simple. It cycles through colors as you get closer to your burn goal for the day. It starts the day as red (0%), and cycles through orange, yellow, blue, then green when you hit the goal. You start by wearing it and the first week go about your business as usual. It evaluates your normal activity to come up with your initial green goal. Mine was roughly 735 calories. Week after week as you continue to meet your goal it increases your goal to get you moving more and more. I have used it for about 4 weeks now and my goal is 813 now.
Like the Bodybugg the Gruve is subscription based and you get 1yr with the standard purchase of the Gruve. It retails for $199 w/a 1yr subscription. There is the option to purchase 2yrs as well as the option of purchasing insurance in case of losing or damaging your Gruve. I highly recommend purchasing the insurance. It clips to your waistband and does not have the most secure attachment. I can see it easily coming off.
While the Gruve does not include food tracking within it’s program, it’s easy enough to use a website like SparkPeople (supports, iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android) to track your calories consumed throughout the day. The Gruve program does give you a recommended intake based on your weight and activity information given in its program.
Certain activities such as biking and elliptical machines do not track well on the waistband since your core isn’t moving much during these exercises. I found it tracks pretty accurate when placed in the hip pocket of my workout pants. The Gruve website and instructions recommends attaching it to your sock. I tried this and it seemed to record calories double time. The hip pocket is a much better choice.
It does not track upper body weight programs at all. This fitness tool’s main goal is to track movement. These exercises aren’t movement based.
Pros
- Discrete and fits on waistband of clothing rather than against your skin.
-Easy to check on your progress by pressing the “halo button” to see your color.
-Calculates your RMR and tracks calories over and above while increasing your goal each week as you continue to hit goal.
-If you sit for too long, the unit will set off a vibration to remind you to get up and move.
-Easy to read progress chart when you sync to your computer.
-Accurately tracks calories burned. (I was pleasantly surprised at how accurate).
Cons
-Easy to fall of/lose (I recommend the insurance purchase)
-While you can find Gruve on Twitter and Facebook, there isn’t any organized discussion forum for users to discuss use and ask questions. I usually get a decent response via Twitter, but it’s hit or miss if the person behind the @gruvesolution account sees my question or not.
-It does not track steps. It seems like it would be an easy fix to add this functionality to the Gruve. This is the only thing I miss. I don’t want to have to wear multiple appliances to measure all the fitness parameters I want to track.
-ongoing subscription cost
-Cannot manually adjust to add activities such as swimming where you would not be able to wear the Gruve. or when you forget to put it on.
The Gruve retails for $199 w/1 yr subscription. They occasionally have sales. be sure to follow them on Twitter to be in the loop the next time they have a sale. I purchased mine for 1/2 off during a Happy Hour Sale! They also have occasional giveaways on Twitter and Facebook as well!
Well there you have it. My take of two very popular fitness tools for tracking your calories burned. A very unscientific comparison and review of each one. They are both great tools. Depending on your habits and preferences one will be better than the other, but only you can decide that for yourself.
My personal preference is the Gruve. It’s easier for me to check my color throughout the day. I often tweet my excitement as I move from one color to the next and when I hit green early in the day….this happens on the days I play tennis!
I bought both these tools myself. I am a self proclaimed gadget geek! I am desperately trying to be patient while waiting until I qualify on my cell phone plan with AT&T to upgrade my phone! hehe
I was not paid to do these reviews. I am not a regular reviewer of products. I don’t do this for a living. I just wanted to be able to help others out in making the decision for themselves.
If you really want to add to the confusion as you choose, there is a 3rd tool out there called the FitBit. This looks like another handy gadget and appears to have a lot of the good qualities of both the Bodybugg and the Gruve…Alas, it seems to be on a 3+ month back order though. 
I would love the opportunity to try this one out, but it won’t be anytime soon.
If you use any of these fitness gadgets feel free to leave your thoughts on them in the comments section. If you have questions before purchasing, ask away and I will see if I can help by answering them for you.
**I like the Gruve so much, I signed up to be an affiliate. Link to Gruve is my affiliate link.
ETA 4/20/10 – Added to the con list
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These reviews are great and very helpful! I’m not sure that I’m really in need of either but I’m a gadget lover as well. What I really want is someone to develop a GPS running watch combined with something like this so that you can have it all in one place… like you said I’m not interested in “wearing multiple appliances” lol I did however just purchase the Nike+ running shoes and am really impressed with the shoes and the interaction with my iphone – really quite amazing!
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You are absolutely correct. Both these tools aren’t really needed. People have successfully lost weight without them for years!
If you have the focus to get the job done, all you need is the proper mindset and the personal drive to lose weight.
BUT, if you are like me and easily side tracked by either too many goals and confusion in your motivation, having a tool that helps you to focus and gives you a way to check your progress may help you over come those barriers that pop up in front of you blocking your forward progress.
I do not have an iPhone, I do have an iTouch and am jones-ing for the phone. lol Doesn’t the iPhone have GPS capability? So you’d have your iPhone as your mp3 player anyway, you’d have your GPS. I have seen apps that use the GPS to track running distances and pace on iTunes. None come to mind since I only have the lowly iTouch though.
The Nike+ is a neat concept. I have used it for walking. I don’t run much yet since I am still quite heavy on my knees and ankles, but it does not work for elliptical or Biking…..funny since the voice is Lance Armstrong’s and he’s know primarily for his biking accomplishments. lol
Thank you for taking the time to read my reviews/comparisons. I appreciate the visit!