Life Hacking: GoWear Fit

I wanted to update everyone on my latest toy: the GoWear Fit. I'm all about numbers, analysis, and tweaking of my body (hence all my research into nutrition). While my 6/7 nutrition plan, which may once take a big part in the MS Health Program, is working well in the sense that it lets me easily understand my calorie intake, I've long been missing the flip side of the equation: my calories burned. What's my standing, basal metabolic rate? How many calories do I burn in a day when I don't exercise? When I do? When I do "slow cardio" or when I do high intensity interval training?

I've never known the answers to this question, but recently I purchased a GoWear Fit, which straps onto my arm and measures how many steps I take, how well I sleep, and most importantly, how many calories I burn during a day. Then every week or so, I will download everything to my computer, which then uploads to the web site, and I can visually see my progress.

This is completely amazing! I'm all about it. I think this will be great for my own education, but I also think it's a part of an ongoing trend in computing to provide biocentric feedback. Apple has been pushing its Nike+ solution for athletes to track their foot steps and calorie burn, their most recent iPod nano has a built-in pedometer, and the GoWear Fit measures not only calories but also sleep quality. What will we see in the future? Maybe we will be able to measure cortisol levels and warn people when they are heavily stressed. Maybe better non-intrusive sensors will be able to detect cholesterol levels or dangerous substances. Who knows! The possibilities are endless and I think it's going to lead to an amazing, health-conscious future.

I've only had the GoWear Fit for a day so I'll need to hook it up to myself for a few days before I post back anything. I intend to post something next week so I can show how many calories I burn each day (I'm injured right now so I can't even run, so no exercise for now, and when I'm better I'll see how my levels spike).

Onward, life hackers!