About Dominique

If it's something new (you didn't get it previously when performing the same activity), maybe you should seek medical advice. ... View more

Thanks for the suggestions! I had never heard of Yonanas, but I see even Amazon UK has them (I'm in Europe). I now have ten bananas duly bagged in the freezer. Live and learn. ... View more

I believe you can try it for one week for free. Since you're new to Fitbit, I'd suggest you wait a little before starting the free trial. This will let you have a better knowledge of the way your Fitbit account works.   I personally wasn't convinced of the benefits of the Premium plan. If you want to download your data, you can do so for free via a third-party solution. Benchmarking yourself against your peers is nice, but once you've seen where you stand (which you can do during the free trial), things aren't going to change dramatically from there. ... View more

What's wrong in walking/running outdoors? It costs nothing, doesn't take up valuable real estate in your home, you'd get fresh air (well, maybe not if you live in a very polluted city) and the landscape/terrain keeps changing. I'd be bored to death if I had to use a treadmill. Bad weather is a lame excuse for not going out IMO. With proper gear, you can walk/run outdoors in almost any weather condition. ... View more

How new an activity is walking for you? How long are your walks? If you haven't walked longer distances for many years, you should start slowly, so as to allow your body to get used to it. Do you use proper shoes? Are you overweight? Wendy Bumgardner has great tips about walking on about.com. You may want to sign up for one of her free newsletters, for instance her Let's Get Walking 28-Day Course for Beginners. ... View more

@LDog wrote: I am stuck at 185; I need to go to 165. What was your starting point and how long did it take to reach 185? What is your current BMI and what your BMI would be at 165? How (diet, exercise) did you reach your current level. Can you increase your step count and VAMs from the current level? ... View more

@Lovelizabell wrote: Personally, i freeze them, and use them as a dessert swap for ice cream or frozen yogurt 🙂 I wouldn't have thought of that! I assume you peel them before freezing them, right? How long do you need to take them out of the freezer before they can be eaten? ... View more

Thanks for the link, I highly appreciate it! Amidst the low carb craze, it's good to know it's still OK to eat them. ... View more

Difficult to say without some background information about yourself. Aiming for the standard/default goal of 10,000 daily steps (or 70,000 weekly steps) would be a good start, if you're physically fit enough for it. When I started nine months ago, I was in terrible shape, but wasn't overweight and could walk 10,000 steps, so I made a point to achieve at least that every day. As I got fitter, I progressively increased step count and speed. At some point, I started to run, first alternating with walks, then increasing the length of runs. I can now run for one hour at 11 km/h (6.8 mph), while I could hardly run for more than a couple of minutes. Just listen to your body, start slow and increase your activity progressively. ... View more

@Lovelizabell wrote: bananas have a type of carbohydrate called resistant starch, and unlike other carbs, resistant starch resists digestion, and isn't entirely broken down by the body. It actually digests kinda like fiber. But resistant starch may even be more benificial than soluble and insoluble fiber because it ferments by the time it reaches the large intestine, and this creates butyrate (fatty acid). Butyrate blocks your liver's ability to use carbohydrates for fuel, thus causing stored body fat, and recently consumed dietary fat to be burned as an alternative source of fuel. Interesting stuff! Are there other common food items that include "resistant starch", in addition to bananas? ... View more

@Neillenszqui wrote: Isolate: 90% purity%, best bang for your buck Concentrate: 80% purity  What's the 10-20% remaining part in "isolate" and "concentrate"? Harmful stuff? ... View more

You got an excellent start by clocking in three consecutive days with 12 to 15,000 steps, just keep it that way! rather than setting yourself an absolute weight loss, set a weekly step count goal, stick to it and see where that takes you. Take your current fitness level into account, so as not to overdo it. As you exercize more, your body will get used to it and you'll be able to increase your activity level and its intensity. Weight loss will follow in due time. You may also want to record body measurements (eg. waist, thigh) and follow them up over time. I found I lost centimenters before losing kilograms. It also took me two months before I saw any noticeable changes in weight, but then it dropped fast. This is why having a linear weight loss target isn't necessarily a good idea. Getting healthier and fitter is a worthier goal than losing weight. ... View more

I've been using one for the past six months. I don't know how accurate the body fat measurements are in absolute terms (because I have nothing to compare them against), but they have certainly been consistent over time (no huge swings from one day to the next). I always use the Aria first thing in the morning, after going to the bathroom. This means body fat % will be higher than at other times of the day, because my body is less hydrated then (I don't drink during the course of the night). I may step on the scale in the middle of the day, but the measurements are I keep are the ones made first thing in the morning (you can delete individual measurements from your account, once they have been synced to it). I have the same goals as you: not interesting in losing weight any more, but rather further lose fat, whether in absolute or relative terms. I've found the Aria to be a good motivator for that. ... View more

@adcase2003 wrote: I am also new to fitbit... But no active minutes either day. However one day I had better sleep maybe that's why? AFAIK, Fitbit doesn't take into account your sleep duration/quality when calculating calories burned during the time you are awake. The calorie count depends on the intensity of your activity, as perceived by the tracker. Because Fitbit trackers are essentially pedometers, they will be better at detecting activity when you walk or run than when you are more stationary (even if you are exercising). In order to get active minutes, you need to get moving, and fast enough. No active minutes during the entire day would suggest your steps were taken at a rather low pace. ... View more

Not all steps are created equal: the steps I clock in moving around in the house don't burn as many calories as the ones I get power walking outdoors. If you record activities of similar length and intensity on consecutive days, you'll probably see very consistent calorie figures. Also keep in mind calories burned as reported by your Fitbit tracker are just an estimate. ... View more

I'm pretty happy with the way things are right now, but I'd prefer to set myself a challenging target rather than stay stuck where I am. Fitbit has worked very well for me as a motivator and I intend to keep it that way. I'm not questioning the body fat % returned by the Aria scale: I don't care whether it's accurate in absolute terms, I'm mostly interested in trends. So if it says I'm 16.5% fat now, it could as well be 18.5% or 14.5%, I don't care. Bringing it down by 1.5 percentage point would make a good new year resolution, I'd just like to know what would be the smartest way to achieve it. As to the training I currently do, as I said, I'm mostly power walking and running outdoors, about 1.5 to 2 hours per day. I don't have a gym close to where I live and I'm not into weight lifting anyway. I've started doing TRX at home, mostly for my upper body. ... View more

@es wrote: just the cold and the short days during the week days in winter...  Where do you live? I live in Finland: it's cold (though we have had a mild winter so far) and the days are short, but I still spend 1.5 to 2 hours every day outside. I'd hate to use a treadmill, it's much more enjoyable walking / running outside. It's just a question of using proper gear. ... View more

For body fat %, the old dashboard included the chart below. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find it anywhere in the new dashboard. New users don't have access to the old dashboard (which was better IMO and which I'm still using).   ... View more

I think you'd be better off looking for a smartphone app and a basic HRM that can talk to it. Runtastic Pro is quite versatile, so is Digifit iCardio. If you have a recent smartphone (iPhone or Android), a BLE-compatible HRM would be a good choice (BLE = Bluetooth Low Energy, aka Bluetooth 4.0 or Bluetooth Smart, it's what Fitbit trackers use to communicate with your computer and/or your mobile device).   I have the Polar H7 chest belt and the Mio Alpha watch. Both are BLE devices and work with my Nexus 4. I find the Mio Alpha more comfortable and practical, but both are accurate and work as advertised. ... View more

Your current BMI is 22.9, which is within the normal range. 50 kg would translate into a BMI of 17.9, probably too low for your own good. Do you really want to look like one of those anorexic teenage models fashion magazines are (unfortunately) full of? ... View more

Maybe suspension training (TRX) would be something for you? I'm doing it for my upper body (lower body is taken care of by walking/running) and I like it. ... View more

The area where I live is the opposite of crowded, so I don't need to worry about people wondering who's this crazy guy doing things the wrong way ... View more

Metabolism is a very complex system: so much so maybe even a matematician can't put it into an equation   On the way exercising affects your metabolism, read the very end of the following blog post by Jeff Galloway:   http://jeffgalloway.typepad.com/jeff_galloways_blog/2012/12/why-diets-dont-work-.html ... View more

@kitten1231 wrote: Keep in mind, the fitbit has a running stride length AND a walking stride length Sure, but this doesn't help people who walk fast, for the reason mentioned by Doug. If you are walking fast AND running, Fitbit won't let you get correct distances (and calories) for both activities. ... View more

@JenniLacey wrote: A HRM is *not* a good indication of how many calories you're burning during weight lifting because calories burned during this type of activity cannot be determined by HR: http://livehealthy.chron.com/can-heart-rate-monitors-measure-calories-weight-lifting-4910.html It's not exactly what the article says (underlining added by me):   "While heart rate monitors can be relatively accurate for calculating calories burned during exercise, they may not be as accurate when used during weightlifting."   If a HRM is found to consistently overestimate calories burned during weight lifting (which is what the article says), why not reduce the value it reports by a suitable factor? ... View more

@Scimajor wrote: It just seemed too good to be true that I could eat around 1500 calories in a day and still be on target to lose weight at a reasonable but fairly rapid rate.  1500 calories per day sounds very reasonable for a male your size. How many calories do you burn in average per day? @Scimajor wrote: Right now I'm at about 850 for the day. I assume that's too low (man 51 years old 191 lbs)?  Yes, 850 calories sounds extremely low for someone your size. I'm about your age (52), smaller than you (67 kg = 148 lbs) and I burn an average of 2600 calories per day. I don't measure calories in, but since my weight is stable, I assume my intake roughly equals what I burn. 850 calories would be one third of that, I'd be starving if I'd had to eat that little! @Scimajor wrote: I'm also wondering it the fibit is over estimating the number of calories I am burning and steps I am taking (set to non-dominant hand and it is on the non-dominant hand). Today, for example, it shows 8,300 steps and 1077 "activity calories". Now granted I did "work out" for half and hour which invovled continuous running movements for all of those 30 minutes but that still seems a bit much. It takes ALLOT to burn 1077 calories.    I agree 1000+ activity calories for only 8,300 steps  in the day and 30 minutes of "real" activity sounds a lot. To give you an idea of the kind of calorie burn I get, see the snapshot below. These are activities I recorded this afternoon: 15 minutes of running, 60 minutes of power walking, 10 minutes of running, for a total of 13,243 steps. I was credited with the full amount of VAM's for them, but they only amounted to 626 calories in total, and that includes BMR calories. Btw, I have a Fitbit One, which I believe gives less distorted calorie data than wrist-based trackers like the Flex or the Force. ... View more

Which Fitbit tracker do you use and where do you wear it? Which style (traditional vs. skating) do you use when skiing? I'm not sure whether it makes a difference from the point of view of your Fitbit registering activity, but you never know. It would make sense to me your Fitbit wouldn't register steps (especially with the traditional style, as there'd be less impact), or at least not as many as you'd like, but it should certainly detect you're moving. Have you tried to record your skiing as a separate activity with your Fitbit? ... View more

Digifit (maker of the iCardio app for iOS and Android) has some great info on their site:   http://blog.digifit.com/2012/07/why-should-you-know-your-personal-heart-rate-zones/   If you have a heart rate monitor and a compatible smartpone, you may want to use their app to determine your personal heart rate zones. They have several fitness assessment tests for that purpose. I used the Cooper test and found the personal HR zones it gave me differ quite a bit from the generic ones based on age.   When actually working out (mainly walking and running), I prefer Runtastic Pro, which provides a lot of HR related info during and after the workout. ... View more

Record activities if/when you are walking on purposes on some days of the weeks. This will give you a rough idea of your calorie burn, step count etc. for a given period of time (eg. 30 min., 60 min.), a given distance etc. Also monitor your VAM (very active minutes) score. A higher VAM score should translate in more calories, even if the step count is lower. And remember the calorie burn is just an estimate. ... View more

@ContessaCat wrote: Now I just need to choose between the One or the Force. 🙂 I'd personally take the One over the Force, but if you want a wrist-mounted model, you may want to consider the Flex instead of the Force. The hefty premium currently commanded by the Force (mostly for the novelty factor) isn't justified IMO: except for counting floors (not essential IMO), it doesn't offer much added value compared to the Flex. I believe sensors and connectivity (BLE) are exactly the same. ... View more