Tag Archives: fitness

Bill Schuller on Quantifying With Kids

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Alexandra Carmichael

Bill Schuller started tracking his exercise and weight in 2010, and got into the habit of talking about his numbers each night at the dinner table. Before long, his kids got interested in tracking too. In the video below, Bill talks about what he learned and tells some fun stories, including one about a tracking game he made up with his five-year-old son to clean up the house while his wife was away for the weekend. (Filmed by the San Diego QS Show&Tell meetup group.)

QS San Diego: Bill Schuller – Quantifying with my Kids from Ernesto Ramirez on Vimeo.

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Andy Leigh: Around the World on an Arduino

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Alexandra Carmichael

Andy Leigh wanted to row around the world from his bedroom. Why? To lose weight and to do some kind of project with the open source hardware Arduino. He chose rowing because it’s a low-impact activity that he can do with his injury. But manual tracking in a spreadsheet was too cumbersome. In the video below, Andy walks through his hardware hacking in fascinating detail, and reveals his route around the world, which he is plotting on a Google map as he goes. (Filmed by the London QS Show&Tell meetup group.)

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Rob Portil on Weight Loss and Muscle Gain with FitBit

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Alexandra Carmichael

Rob Portil is sixty-six years old and has been overweight twice in his life. He’s been using FitBit for the past four months, and has reached his target weight. In the video below, he describes how he experiences the daily tracking, how his sweetheart experiences it differently, which Four Hour Body workouts he does, and some key eating tricks he learned along the way. (Filmed by the Bay Area QS Show&Tell meetup group.)

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Dave Kil on Optimizing Workouts

Posted on December 25, 2011 by Alexandra Carmichael

Dave Kil runs marathons. He has detailed records of all his workouts for the past year and a half. Recently, though, he started feeling that running was getting boring, and he wanted more variety in his workouts. So Dave helped create sensors that can monitor different activities passively, including cycling. He also added high-intensity training and social running to his routine. In the video below, he shows the results on his body fat and muscle mass. (Filmed by the Bay Area QS Show&Tell meetup group.)

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Robert Carlsen on Riding Through Mountains of Data

Posted on November 4, 2011 by Ernesto Ramirez

Robert Carlsen, a recent graduate of Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU, created a really neat little iPhone application called MobileLogger to better understand bicycle commuting behavior in New York City. Like many other activity tracking applications MobileLogger samples and stores data from the phone’s GPS and accelerometer. What makes MobileLogger unique is that the raw data from each activity log can be exported in a variety of different formats for analysis. Check out the video below to learn more about Robert’s project and read more about the MobileLogger application here. (Filmed at the NY Quantified Self Show&Tell #7 at NYU ITP.)

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Cedric Yau on The Well+Tuned Life

Posted on July 31, 2011 by Alexandra Carmichael

Cedric Yau trains in kung fu 12 hours a week. He wanted to track his his activity and energy levels, so he created a text-messaging service called Well+Tuner, where he also records notes for how he feels on different days. He learned how to time his food intake and 50 daily supplements for maximum energy, correlated his dating success with his mood, and discovered which exercises were most helpful for healing from an injury. A great self-experimentation story! (Filmed at the June 2011 New York Show&Tell meetup)

Cedric Yau 6-2011 from Steven Dean on Vimeo.

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Announcing: the Quantified Self Forum

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Alexandra Carmichael

By popular request, we have just launched a global QS forum at: http://forum.quantifiedself.com/

Gary, Dan Dascalescu, and I took some exciting topics from the conference and turned them into forum discussions, with expert moderators to help explore ideas and answer questions. You’ll find discussions on:

- Apps & Tools, moderated by Dan Dascalescu

- Data Ownership & Privacy, moderated by Ryan Calo

- Design, moderated by Steve Dean

- Habit Change, moderated by Ernesto Ramirez and Gary Isaac Wolf

- Fitness, moderated by Alexandra Carmichael and Dan Dascalescu

- Learning & Cognition, moderated by Nick Winter

- Medical tests, moderated by Dave Asprey

- Mood, moderated by Margie Morris

- Nutrition, moderated by Alexandra Carmichael and Dan Dascalescu

- Sleep, moderated by Alexandra Carmichael and Gary Isaac Wolf

- Self Experimentation, moderated by Seth Roberts

- QS Startups, moderated by Eri Gentry and Ernesto Ramirez

- QS Research & Media, moderated by Rajiv Mehta

- QS Open Forum for any Quantified Self topic not covered above, moderated by Alexandra Carmichael and Gary Isaac Wolf

Please join in the conversations, ask questions, share what you’ve learned, and come play with us!

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FitBit vs. Body Media

Posted on May 1, 2011 by Alexandra Carmichael

This is a guest post from Ted Vickey. Thanks Ted!
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As part of my PhD in physical activity, social networking and technology, I have been wearing two devices that have monitored my daily activities – FitBit and Body Media.

Image002 vs. Image006

This post is not about discussing the devices, you can find information about each on their websites. I am interested in comparing the data collected on the same day, doing the same activities.

For April, this is what was collected with regards to the number of steps I took per day:

Each device was worn as suggested per user directions.

In all but two days, FitBit recorded more steps on the day than did Body Media.  The average difference per day was around 589 steps per day, two days showed a greater than 100% difference in the number of steps.

To early yet to determine why.  I will continue to wear both and look at additional data as it become available.
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Has anyone else noticed this discrepancy in step measurement? Ted is currently talking to the CEOs of Body Media and FitBit, and will report his findings at the upcoming QS conference.

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Amy Drill on SensorySport

Posted on February 17, 2011 by Alexandra Carmichael

Amy Drill is working on a new innovation in applying sensors to sports, specifically muscle training. In the video below, she talks about the spectrum of body metrics that are available now, and how measuring muscle fatigue and giving people real-time alerts can help prevent injury and increase performance. Amy’s startup, SensorySport, integrates lab-grade sensors into clothing. The product is currently a prototype and should be released to the public in 2012. (Filmed at the New York Quantified Self meetup held at Google Health).

Amy Drill -SensorySport from Steve Dean on Vimeo.

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Bay Area QS Show&Tell #17 – Recap

Posted on January 17, 2011 by Alexandra Carmichael

With so many exciting developments in the QS world, the air at Adaptive Path was full of energy for the 17th Bay Area QS Show&Tell last week. The theme this time was health and medicine.

I watched on the livestream (big thanks to Robin Barooah and Justine Lam for setting this up!), so I missed all the cool projects displayed during the “science fair” hour, but here’s my recap of the five fascinating talks. Videos will also be posted soon.
Continue reading →

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