Bodymedia and You (Part 2)

First off, if you haven’t checked out part 1 you might want to do that HERE. Otherwise let’s keep going!!

Setting (and meeting) your goals

So by now you know your BMR and have a good idea of what you burn each day. Now here is the (not so) fun part...setting goals! There are two routes you can take. You can either A) setting your nutritional goal first or B) setting your physical goal first. Because each person is different it’s hard to explain which route you should take, but because of how I did it I’ll explain doing physical first.

If you are not at all active I would start trying to increase your daily burn by around 15%. I know, MATH >_< you really do need to use this stuff after High School! Lets say your average daily burn is 2500 cal.,  an extra 15% would be 375 calories. An extra 375 should be relatively easy to achieve. Walking around whenever you get a chance is a nice way to get this done. An even better method is to do a quick 30min workout in the morning and take an afternoon walk. Of course your goals are just that, yours so it’s OK if you throw out what I say and go with your own thing, I won’t hold it against you.

Physical activity is of course, just part of the puzzle; nutrition is also another very important part. The way the Bodymedia activity manager (BAM) works both parts work hand and hand. Once you figure out what you want your goal to be with your calorie in or out, the BAM will set the other.

Setting up Activity

Your activity plan is a “blueprint” if you will, to reaching your goal. Selecting the right plan will help make sure you meet and even exceed your daily burn goals by pointing out how active you should be each day. By default BAM gives you plans ranging from Lightly active to Extremely Active. If none of the default plans work for you, you could always create your own under “custom”. I’d suggest either going with “Lightly Active” or add a couple minutes to the average moderate activity time you've had and keep the 5k steps with 0 vigorous activity (Vig).

I'm leaving out Vigorous activity because for some (especially newbies) it can be hard to obtain. It is possible to adjust your METs to make it easier to get to Vig. however, I don't really suggest doing that. I'll touch on that a bit later**

Review and Renew

Your first set of goals shouldn't really last but a month or so, after that revisit your goals and see what you can adjust. Try to look over your goals every month. see if you can challenge yourself! The best way to push your body forward in weight-loss and fitness in general is to keep your body guessing. With that said, know your limits!! Don't push so hard that you break. Most of all, keep a good support system around. It could be IRL (in real life) or virtual. It's very easy to give up if you don't have others to share in the joys/frustrations of fitness, heck in life in general! Remember, even if you "fall off the wagon" just remember you can always get back on, you simply have to make that decision.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

** = possible future topic