BodyBugg vs Jawbone Up

"What's that on your arm?" If I could have a dollar, maybe even a dime, for every time I was asked that question I could buy the entire YMCA BodyBuggs.  So for those of you who don't know: the little (and admittedly unattractive) device I wear on my arm is a BodyBugg.  I typically only wear it when I work out to track my calories burned.  I have the previous model-the company is now better known as the Link or Core bands, made by BodyMedia.  It is essentially a VERY fancy pedometer.  This is the only fitness tracker (not to be confused by heart rate monitors) that actually has sensors.  It not only monitors steps, sleep patterns and activity, but monitors your galvanic skin response, heat flux and skin temperature.  This is a nice and easy to understand site that explains it in a little more detail.  Many clinical studies have been done; the list of reputable sources is actually pretty impressive.  

*fun fact: it's also the device they use on The Biggest Loser*

All that being said, I couldn't help but be tempted by all the latest, certainly more fashionable, devices out there.  I was interested if there was one out there that I wouldn't mind wearing all day and frankly, didn't draw as much attention.  The trick was finding out which one, if any, were as accurate as my BodyBugg.  I then began this insane research project and for the last 5 weeks have become literally OBSESSED with finding out which fitness tracker was overall the best and most accurate.  I boiled it down to 2 that seemed comparable to the BodyBugg: the Jawbone Up and the Fitbit One.  Without really seeing one in person, it was going to be hard to compare them so my poor sister in law, Elaine, was the guinea pig and took one for the team.  She had never owned a fitness tracker and like many of you, was interested in seeing how many calories she was REALLY burning.  We decided to try the Jawbone simply because I had heard more about it.  

It was clear after the first workout that although the Jawbone was pretty user friendly and had a very nice app, the "calories burned" accuracy was questionable.  We had just finished torture hour, also known as Charles' strength and conditioning class.  The class is circuit based and has a very good mix of strength and cardio training. It is probably as close as a CrossFit workout as the Y will get, spending roughly a minute at each station and little rest in between.  Point being, it kicks your buns.  Elaine had worked her tail off and eagerly plugged her Jawbone into her phone, preparing to be rewarded with an impressive calorie burn.  The look on her face when she read "206" was priceless.  The 5 year old version of herself would have probably cried.  We later found out that my BodyBugg reading was 330 and it was right then that we decided that I would wear BOTH devices for the week.  I then looked like a medical patient.  

Here's what we discovered about the Jawbone: 

In order to know the calories for a specific workout, you have to remember to set the "stopwatch."  Unlike my BodyBugg graph, you cannot select a certain timeframe and read the results for that particular time.  You must "time" the activity PRIOR to the workout. You CAN go back and manually input the workout, but you have to know your exact start and stop time and it does not show the breakdown of your steps.  Strike one. 

YOU have to tell IT what kind of activity you did and how hard you worked.  For example, we learned that the initial reading of 206 calories from our class was based off of an "undetermined activity" and the intensity level automatically set at "easy."  For every workout that you "time" it displays the results and you then give it a little more information. Below is my Zumba class from Thursday evening. It loads the results and I then have to tell it what kind of activity, how hard I think I was working, and correct any time differences. It then changes the calories based on what you input (I'll give you a full comparison to chart at the end).  When it comes to fitness tracking, I want IT to tell ME how hard I worked-not the other way around.  Stike two.

The sleep monitoring is pretty interesting!  It does give more clear results than the BB when it comes to sleep trends, but again-you have to tell it you're going to sleep.  I had never had my sleep cycles monitored and it was interesting to see how the deep sleep compared to the light sleep.  Here are four sample nights:

It never gave me any "tips" on improving my sleep, but congratulated me on meeting my goal-for what that's worth.  Haha.  I do hear that it will provide tips if it notices a place for improvement; however, I was hoping it would say something like "kids are due for a night a Grandma's."  

So.  Without further ado, here are the results of my week comparison:

*Ok, wait. One more thing you need to know: the Jawbone gives you 5 "intensity" options-easy, moderate, in the zone (which I'm going to call ITZ), difficult and gut-buster.  I highlighted the option I would have picked simply based on how I felt and didn't have the BB to give me the correct answer*

Day 1: 

40 Min of Boxing, 15 min strength training

BodyBugg: 362 Calories 

Jawbone:

-Set to "Moderate" intensity: 284  

-Set to ITZ: 367

-Set to Difficult: 419

Day 2:

Run

-2.25 miles

-6.5-8.0 mph

-20 minutes

-A good run. Consistent climb in speed, not overly exhausted.

BodyBugg: 244 Cal

Jawbone:

-Said 2.19 miles, 10.6 min/mile when set to "difficult."

-Mod: 218

-ITZ: 218

-Diff: 247

Ab/Core Work:

-33 minutes

-Pretty easy

BodyBugg: 164 Cal

Jawbone (differed based if you set it "weights" or "other" as your activity.  Another thing I didn't like...a core workout isn't exactly weights, but that's the closest thing it had):

-Weights/easy: 112

-Weights/mod: 138

-Other/easy: 119

-Other/mod: 154 

Day 3:

Warm up Run:

-5 minutes

-6.7-7.0mph

BodyBugg: 46

Jawbone: Said 10.5 min/mi when set to "difficult."

-Mod: 45

-ITZ: 45

-Diff: 53

Leg Workout:

56 minutes

-Working hard

BodyBugg: 217 Cal

Jawbone: 

-Easy: 193

-Mod: 237

-ITZ: 281

Zumba:

55 Minutes

BodyBugg: 386 

Jawbone: 

-Easy: 193

-Mod: 355

-ITZ: 432

Day 4:

Warm Up Run:

-5 Min

-6.7-7.5mph

-0.6 miles

BodyBugg: 50 

Jawbone (Said .53 miles when set to moderate):

-Mod: 51 Cal

-ITZ: 51 Cal

-Diff: 53

Back Workout:

-62 min

BodyBugg: 261 

Jawbone: 

-Mod: 259

-ITZ: 307

-Diff: 361

Day 5: No Workout

Total Steps: 

BB: 8187

Jawbone:14573

Total Calories burned (awake time):

BB: 1964 

Jawbone: 1637

So what does all of this mean, exactly?  Well, as you can see, the Jawbone was pretty accurate IF you happened to set it to the right intensity...that never seemed to match what I would have guessed, haha.  Who's to determine the difference between "moderate" to "in the zone" to "difficult?"  Take Zumba for example.  Some days I legitimately feel that it is "easy" and some days I feel like I'm more "ITZ."  Now because I wear my BB, I know that my calorie burn is consistent (within 20 calories), despite how I'm feeling that day; however, if I was relying on the Jawbone, I would have a 239 calorie difference!  

Here's the take-away: the Jawbone is not for me but I wouldn't write it off completely.  It is designed for someone who isn't consistently doing different workouts and is more interested in "lifestyle trends" than an individual "workout report."  It definitely kept me motivated to be active and I couldn't wait to wake up and see how I slept.  It would be good for someone who sticks to "step-based" activities, like walking, consistent speed jogging or other basic workouts that don't include strength or interval training.  However, what I want from an activity/calorie tracker is a report as to how hard I worked-otherwise I would just set the intensity to "difficult" every time ; ) I also like that with my BB, I can go onto my log and see the calories burned for any given time segment-whether I was shopping at Costco, cleaning house, or HIIT training. What I DON'T like about the BB (besides its appearance) is that you need a monthly subscription of $6-7 to read the monthly results, BUT Costco has a deal right now that offers a FREE YEAR subscription with purchase.  So basically, the products are the same price.

Final decision?  Elaine is returning her Jawbone and will be using my bodybugg to get a better reading of her calories burned.  Elaine-thanks for taking one for the team and listening to me give you CONSTANT result updates!  

In the meantime, anyone have a FitBit One I can test? ; )