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.
Let’s start with the Bodybugg. If you watch The Biggest Loser, you most certainly know what one of these are! If not, it’s basically a small computer with skin sensors that you keep strapped around your upper left arm to record your calories burned throughout your day. It is touted as being the most accurate form of tracking your calorie burn.
The Bodybugg not only tracks and records all your calories burned, but has a companion website that you use to record the calories you have consumed. You add your food intake throughout the day (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks).
They finally came out with a mobile version that you can access with your iPhone or iTouch to easily enter food on the fly. This came out just a couple weeks ago. It makes it sooo much easier. I used to use the notepad feature on my BlackBerry to keep track, then enter it on the website later. What a pain having to enter everything twice! This has been fixed with the mobile site access.
The website is subscription based (you pay). It charts the difference of calories in and out for the most basic formula of weight loss or maintenance. Simply put….burn more calories than you eat = lose weight! If you kept up an accurate record of what you eat (ie. weigh all your food), and you eat 1000 calories less than you burn each and every day, you will lose 2 pounds per week.
This is tough. It’s so hard to be 100% accurate with the calorie logging. I really tried my best, and found it difficult. The website does have a lot of popular food items already in their database, but i found myself having to enter food label information a lot to start out. As time went on, a lot of my normal stuff was already pre-entered so it made it easier each time to search my foods.
The Bodybugg also tracks your steps throughout the day! This I loved. I didn’t have to wear an additional pedometer. It was pretty accurate too. Most pedometers can be inaccurate.
The way the Bodybugg works is that it has metal sensors on the surface against your skin that measures the temperature, moisture, movement, etc of your arm to calculate your burn. There’s a whole big scientific explanation on their website if you want to read further.
Pros
-Accurately tracks your calories burned throughout the day.
-Accurately tracks your steps throughout the day.
-Companion website with charts and graphs to see your difference of calories in/out
-Website to track/log your daily food intake to compare to your burn
-Track your goals easily
-Track your body and weight measurements weekly
-Easily see the nutritional breakdown of what you have eaten (cals, protein, fat, sodium, etc) if you need to track more than just calories.
-Includes a built in nutritional plan should you need it.
Easy to set and track goals and see your progress vs where you should be at per the goals.
-Community Forum to connect with other users.
-Can now enter food through mobile websites on your iPhone or iTouch (this is new)
-Able to manually add activities for when you are not wearing the Bugg such as swimming, biking, or elliptical work where the arm movement is restricted and not measuring proper motion. It’s best to take the bugg off and manually add these activities from a list in your online program.
-Track your weight and other body measurements weekly to see progress on all planes.
Cons
-Community Forum has no way to search previous posts. You have to page through everything. After about 3-4 pages it gets old.
-No mobile support for Blackberry and no word on if they are in developement.
-No way to check progress throughout the day without syncing it on your computer or purchasing a Digital Display for $75 addition to the cost of the Bodybugg and subscription.
-Need a monthly subscription to access your info. Most new Bodybuggs come with 6 mths to a year, but the cost can carry on longer if you use the bugg longer. I don’t care for this so much.
-If you are OCD or have OCD tendancies like me, the constant calorie counting can consume you and in the end sabotage your progress. This was one of my own downfalls…..certainly not the fault of the product.
-If you have sensitive skin, you may develop a rash.
These last 2 cons are why I stopped wearing mine. I ended up getting a rash. I took the bugg off for a week. It cleared up. I put it back on, and two days later it was back. I have very sensitive skin. Again, not a fault of the product, but something to watch for if you have a sensitive skin condition.
So that’s pretty much my review. All in all the Bodybugg is a great tool. It just wasn’t for me. The true cons (not the last 2) were very minor in the grand scheme of things. The biggest thing they improved in the time I started using it was the mobile web access!!!
With that said, I have one gently used Bodybugg and Digital display for sale. I will also give you my login info to use the remaining time on my subscription. It does not expire until 1/6/2011 (just over 8 months left).
A new Bodybugg with Digital Display and 6 month subscrition costs $278! I will sell mine for $200 including shipping to anywhere in the lower 48. 
Part 2 talking about the Gruve will come next within the next few days.
**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 pro list
Written by
Thanks for this…I have been looking for this type of comparison!
Angie Reeves recently posted..Madisen