Get Fit Using Math!

It would probably surprise a lot of people that I was a two sport letterman in high school. That statement becomes much easier to understand that this implies that I was a football trainer and a baseball manager. Essentially despite my love for sports I don't have an athletic bone in my body and as a result spent most of my life ignoring my body and my overall health. Four years ago as I started dating Kim I found myself weighing 215 pounds and edging higher. So I decided to at least make an effort at changing it.

I've gotten down to 180 pounds at times and am now in the high 180s, which actually puts me in the normal range on BMI. There is nothing better than going to the doctor and not being told to lose weight. As I look forty in the eye I am trying to continue to keep my weight down, work out and try to be healthier than I have ever been. In order to do this I have tried more than a few tools. Today's product review: the Nike Fuel Band because there is nothing your life needs more than math.

Now I should state here that I have two rules regarding working out. After spending years reading Men's Health, searching out websites, hiring personal trainers and playing Wii games I think you can break working out down to the following two points 1) doing something is better than nothing and 2) the best workout is the one you actually do. This won't turn you into a star athlete but it will create some level of benefit.

The Nike Fuel Band (a Christmas present from Kim for the record) focuses on the first part of that maxim. As you can tell it looks like a Livestrong bracelet without the need to feel like you need to take a shower after realizing that you are supporting Lance Armstrong. It weighs a little more than that but you don't really notice it. In essence it is a fancy pedometer, measuring steps taken, calories and the ever nebulous, but vitally important, Nike Fuel points.

What are Nike Fuel points you might ask (if you are one of the six people who probably got this far reading this post upset that I am not writing about Ted finally meeting the goddamn mother)? Well I've been wearing this thing daily for four months and I still don't have a clue. I've earned 1,797 points today. This theoretically is a measure of how active I've been today. Over the past few months I've realized that if I spend the day driving to the office, staring at the computer and only getting up to drink coffee before collapsing in front of the tv in the evening I won't break 1,000 points. A pretty active workday like today (where I walked around downtown and put in 40 minutes of yoga) can get me near my daily goal of 2,000 points. Working in the yard for a few hours or running puts me closer to 3,000 points. That said, drinking a ton of coffee and getting in an hour long conversation where I talk with my hands will earn me 300 points without even leaving my chair.

And that is what is great and what sucks about the Fuel Band all in one nice metric. It works great at giving me a quick sense of how active I've been for the day. Since I've worn it for months I know what my average activity translates to and I can try and beat it. However, since all it is measuring is if your arm is moving the actual measure itself is worthless. Weightlifting, yoga (which I will talk about another day) or anything that doesn't translate into a specific movement isn't captured. It isn't water resistant so the fact that I spent Saturday in the pool translated to my being incredibly lazy. As a motivation tool I really like it and it is why I continue to wear it.As a measure of fitness it leaves a lot to be desired. The fact that I haven't graphed my daily activity shows that even I can't find a use for Nike Fuel points.

(Oh and you can also share your daily information on Facebook which I don't because who would ever want to learn everything about me.)

One last benefit that comes with wearing it while you sleep. Not only do you earn points by sleeping it has an LED screen and a clock. As you age and become so nearsighted that you can no longer read a digital clock without glasses if it is more than six inches away from your face this allows you to actually tell the time. Sadly, this is now one of the things I look for most in sports equipment.