My Fitness Pal / Jawbone UP24

So, I think I told you that over the summer I got a Jawbone UP24 band and I have had it on ever since
measuring my daily activity and nightly sleep.  It actually is incredible from the point of view of measuring my sleep as I can use the data set to show my neurologist who I see for sleep apnea.

Recently, I got sick of looking at my puffy-ness, which is a basic definer of my age group and decided to go on a diet. I went to look online for a fitness plan and I found a great app.  My Fitness Pal (MFP) allows me to set calorie goals and have my Jawbone UP24 "report" in to it.

I love the interface.  For example, if you go to Wendy's and get a Southwest Salad, you can put that into the interface and it comes up with all of the nutritional info for it including calories.

I said that I wanted to lose 15 pounds by the first of the year and I have already lost 4 in a month. The way it works is you put your physical info into the interface including your weight. Then you say how much you want to lose and by when.  I said 15 lbs in 3 months. I'm well on my way.

figure 1

MFP works with a number of different measurement devices (see figure 1) and it is truly easy to connect and setup. What's great about this is the way it works. So, for example I am allocated 1750 calories a day. And so let's say that I have coffee and Cheerios for breakfast (240 calories), but I splurge and have a triple decker BLT and fries for lunch (580) calories, that means I only have 930 calories for the rest of the day, but I want to go out to dinner and have a couple of glasses of Chardonnay with my steak, potatoes and veggies. That might come to 1200 calories. So — knowing that — I go out for a jog that afternoon and the Jawbone says that I have burned 295 calories, therefore I'm still hitting my goal because it automatically "deducts" the calories — or I still have 25 calories to eat an apple.

Check it out, this truly is when technology becomes a great asset to your every day life.