Over the past few weeks I have been able to use the BodyBugg® and get a feel for what it does and how it works. After seeing it used on the Biggest Looser I figured I would write a review about it incase anyone else is interested. To give a little bit of background on how I got the device (since I will not spend the 400 dollars for the 3 months to use the device) I talked with a local company and am doing a study with some new dietary supplements they are coming out with and they are bundling the BodyBugg with their new supplements. In other words I did not pay for this device but have the chance to use it for free for the next few months.
We will start off with the pros of the BodyBugg:
1. It counts calories. In the simplest form it calculates the amount of steps you have taken in a day and does some calculations against your weight.
2. The user interface has some menu ideas that are easy to follow.
3. There are graphs that show you your daily nutritional intake and where you are at.
And now the con’s:
1. The price. The cost of the device is 400 dollars for a 3 month subscription and the device. If you want to keep on using the site it is an additional 200 dollars for every 3 months. I don’t know about you but that is really steep for me.
2. Entering in the food you ate can be difficult, meaning there is no item list view. It is based on queries of what is commonly used. For example, if I had corn with my dinner I do not get the choice of the vegetable until I get passed the first 20 items. I have learned it takes some creative queries on food in order to get what you want. Also the query is a form of AJAX, meaning after so many letters it will bring back a list of items. This has some design flaws in it. If you misspell a word and go back and fix it there is no way to force it to do the query.
3. Ummmm did I mention the price? 400 dollars for 3 months and then your device is useless.
4. Error messages are ambiguous. When I got the device I had to register it on the website. In the registration process I got an error message saying unexpected error please try again later or call customer support. So I called customer support which, surprisingly I was only on hold for a few minutes (2 – 3) waiting for someone to answer. After talking with customer service for over 20 minutes and having them try many different things they finally realized they changed the way things work and I had to fill out a few surveys first before I could register the device. They should not let you register your device until you fill those out or give better error messages.
5. The device is a glorified pedometer. You can find much cheaper software on the internet that will do the same thing, the only difference is the BodyBugg has a interface that will plug into the computer and show you a graph of the steps you have taken throughout the day and at what times.
After using the device I would not spend the money for this device or will I suggest others to do so. I find it to be a waste of money and could think of better things to do with my money and could write a better interface for the device.