Whilst I'm not exactly massive, I have since stopping running in Feb 2011 put on over 10kg and started to fill out a little too much. So to get myself back into shape i decided a little running was called for....and it seems to be working!
Towards the end of last year we purchased a rather snazzy set of Withings scales that not only measures body fat %, but also automatically uploads the data to a website and a free iPhone app.
Now whilst scales that measure body fat are not exactly revolutionary, the fact that these wirelessly transmit the data to a website and allow you to link this to 3rd party software (such as SportTracks, Runkeeper or Training peaks to name but a few) results in a very convenient and almost seamless way of keeping track of these body metrics.
I'm not about to start diving into a full product review as Ray has an excellent in-depth review here and I agree totally. This is a quality and useful piece of kit that really lives up to it's desire to look like an apple product. It functions well and despite a few issues that Withings have had with recent server attacks, I haven't lost any data and their customer and tech support crew have been great at keeping users informed of what has been going on.
One of the great features is that the scales auto sense users by intelligently matching to previous weights, thus enabling multiple people to use the same device without any complex menu interactions or button assignments.
Anyway, the long at the short of it is that the running seems to be doing it's job.
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| Weight in Blue, Fat Mass in Red |
So through January both my weight and my fat mass have shown a downward trend. I'm not quite sure why there are so many spikes, but suspect it is due to the variety of workouts and me not being brilliant and always maintaining optimum hydration.
Fingers crossed this will continue. I know I need to start looking a little more at nutrition...and stop all of the biscuit and haribo munching that I can be prone to, particularly after a long run...but it's heading in the right direction, and along with the gradual increase in mileage I hope that this will continue to improve as the year goes on.
3 comments:
Gadget man! I was tempted by the wifi scales but decided it was no great effort just to weigh myself and i've got access to Body fat thing anyway. The sleep gadget is intriguing. I'm interested to see how you get on with that, particularly whether you can use the information to improve things.
I really wanted some of those WiFi scales, but they are horrendously expensive.
I also have the issue that BF% scales are excellent, except when you have a large muscle mass and body fat mass, and they struggle to be accurate when reading through only the feet.
I've had a BF analysis done by the Sports Cantre at the Uni and my BF% was scored ~4% lower than standard BF scales stated.
If i was significalty smaller framed and (a fair bit lighter) i would invest in some of thos Wi-Fi scales.
But for now i'll stick to my (£9.99) Lloyds Pharmacy scales and take the BF% results with a pinch of salt.
There isn't much difference in accuracy with any of the methods that measure by an electric current. And calipers are not much better either.
The only methods recognised to be accurate are DEXA scanning or hydrostatic weighing. However they are all pretty good at measuring the change in body fat% if they are used consistently. So just measure at the same time each week, under the same conditions.
The only real advantage with the wifi ones is the ease of tracking, and if you can track easily that helps motivate for weight loss.
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