[aaronem]

> most likely if you are trying to solve a health/lifestyle problem by purchasing something, that is just symptomatic of yet another unhealthy aspect of your lifestyle

Tell that to the thirty pounds I've lost, over the last couple months, by dint of using a Basis band to track calories out, and logging what I eat to do the same for calories in.

[gordjw]

Could you have done it without the band though?

[aaronem]

Not and have any idea how close I am to my target deficit; I'd either err low and fail to lose the weight, or err high and badly endanger my health via malnutrition. With the band, I know exactly where I'm coming in on a daily basis, and I can, for example, plot calorie deficit over delta-weight and see where I should be aiming for best effect.

In general, I'm surprised to see such a Luddite attitude espoused on HN. What kind of engineer doesn't see the value in collecting the necessary data to characterize a problem or a process accurately? That's Step One.

[gordjw]

Yeah, I love to collect data on my running, for example. But my point is I'd (and probably you would also) be doing it anyway, with or without the data.

The basis band you mention looks pretty cool though, going to check that out further.