My husband recently got a Direct Life Activity Monitor. I wasn't sure it was the right purchase for me. So I'm waiting a bit to see how motivating his is before purchasing my own. I've been looking at the different monitors like the FitBit, Bodybugg or the Gruve. If anyone has any first hand knowledge of any of these or the other devices, I'd love to hear about it!
The DH has already worn his Direct Life for the introductory week. It doesn't want you to change your daily habits for those first days so that it can accurately read your normal activity level. Then at the end of the week, it tells you that you're a lazy slug, or something like that. =)
DH is on his second week, meaning he has a daily goal now and he's trying to make sure he burns enough calories to keep the dots happy. See those green dots? There are 9 of them. The first 6 are each 15 % of your weekly goal. You want to get at least 6 dots. The last 3 are bonus dots.
Your weekly goal increases in small increments. It's supposed to be easy enough that you can keep up with it, but still challenging so that you will be losing weight. When you sync your monitor with the website, it has plenty of stats for you to see, like what time of day you're most active. It also gives you a rank against other people, though we're not sure exactly how this feature works yet.
You have to pay for the website after the first 4 months. But you get a fitness coach who supports you and provides advice on how to step it up.
So far, my DH seems happy with it. And I can tell it's motivating for him. This is just his first week, so it might be the newness, but he's been wanting to go on walks and work harder during his tae kwon do classes. All to keep the dots happy. =)
