Joseph Hallaux

As previously mentioned in my initial post, the Fitbit is what started my self data collection. The device is .75″ by 2.125″ weighing .4 oz and only has one button. Having a single button threw me at first, but I have come to love the simplicity of it. I am able to cycle through the 6 displays with ease. While all of them offer unique information, they tie together well with the key data point being ’Steps’. The Fitbit screens are:

Disclaimer on the below photos: it is a huge pain taking photos of the Fitbit due to the screen brightness. My apologies for the poor picture quality.

Time – The first FitBit didn’t have the time display and while it seems like a basic feature, I use it all the time.  

Steps –  It is impressive how accurate the device is with counting steps.

Distance – After a day with a lot of steps, it is always fun to see how many miles (or kilometers) it translates to.

Calories Burned – Similar to the above, it is interesting to see how many calories burned in a day with a lot of steps and/or flights of stairs.

Flights of stairs – One of my favorite additions to the FitBit Ultra. Having this is a great encouragement to take the stairs over the elevator.

Flower – The flower is a good indication if your current status is active or not. The bigger the flower the more active your being. The smaller means get up and start moving.

I try to wear the device 24 hours a day, only removing it for showers. During the day I wear it in the small pocket of my pants. At night I wear it in the sleep sleeve that comes with the device. It took me a bit to get used to wearing it at night but having the sleep data has become just as valuable to me as activity data.

One of my favorite features of the Fitbit is the wireless syncing. As long as I am within 15 feet of a base station and relatively still (think sitting on the couch), my data automatically uploads to the Fitbit website. As you can imagine, the base station has to be connected to a computer with internet access for this to work. I have a base station at home in the living room as well as a base station at work. The reason for the additional base station at work is because I also track my food intake with MyFitnessPal and my available calories for the day adjusts as I take more steps throughout the day. Without syncing during the day, I was having to guess on where I was at with my available calories and was coming home to find myself way over my daily limit. I found that having this being updated throughout the day helps me judge if I can have that snack mid afternoon or if I haven’t done enough exercise to allow it. I plan on doing a separate post on MyFitnessPal in the coming weeks as it has been a huge factor in me getting healthy.

Once my data syncs through the base station I am to view it on the Fitbit website. This is particularly helpful when I am looking for more detailed analysis of my sleep or an overall breakdown of my day. As you can see from the screen shots below, I was stuck at my desk a lot this day and didn’t sleep particularly well the night before.

Where it starts to gets interesting is when you look at how the lack of activity and poor sleep begins to affect other aspects of your life such as mood. Below is the chart from my mood tracking app AboveStress that shows a lift in my stress levels from the same day as above.

I would be willing to bet that my poor sleep and lack of exercise added to this elevated stress level and this isn’t factoring in if I had been eating healthy or if my water intake was sufficient.

As you can see the layering of data is where one can gain a great insight into the different elements that create your overall being.

The 2nd portion of this post will cover the Fitbit website in more detail and discuss the added benefits of being a “Premium” subscriber.

My wife and I became pregnant in October 2009. Trying to be a supportive husband I thought having a vanilla ice cream cone from McDonalds each time that my wife craved one during the pregnancy was a good idea. I put on about 15 pounds by the time our son was born. In the year following his birth, I put on an additional 10 pounds due to not eating healthy, not exercising at all, and sleeping poorly (aka having an infant). Once he turned 1 and things started to get easier, I soon realized I was not in a good place having gained 25 pounds in a little under 2 years. As my recent Pathway Genomics report confirmed, I am in the high risk category for having a heart attack, high blood pressure and diabetes due to my family health history. I needed to start loosing weight.

I have been a fairly active person most of my life, but with the recent additional responsibilities of a child and a new position at work I knew I had limited time and needed to start small. This is where the FitBit came in. I had been reading about the FitBit for a while, but had my reservations with how accurate it was, loosing the device, and how I would really use the data. But given the situation, it seemed like it could help jump start my weight loss. I was heming and hawing over it while on a trip to San Francisco. While checking my iPhone for directions the wifi dialogue box appeared (the one that always annoyingly pops up while you are trying to do something else) and an option to connect to the FitBit wifi came up. It was a sign, I was standing right below their offices. I proceeded to Amazon and ordered my device right then.

From there I began tracking my steps, setting activity goals, and tracking my nutrition. I quickly realized that by being aware of myself through data, I could improve myself. Reaching my goal of 10,000 steps a day turned into a game. I walked more at work, ran at lunch and if I had a busy day that prevented me from reaching my number of target steps, I would pace around my house in the evening until reaching my target number of steps. The FitBit was my gateway drug to the world of quantified self.

From there I have began tracking many elements of my being (within reason of course) including exercise, moods, and sleeping using a range of devices and services. I have all this data flowing from the individual services into RunKeeper’s awesome Health Graph.

To date, I have lost about 20 pounds in about 5 months and am feeling great. I have tested a handful of devices and services and am ecstatic about what is to come.

I plan on writing about services and gadgets that I use to quantify data about myself on this blog. This is an emerging sector and I know new apps and sites will be launched frequently.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.