How Will You Measure Success?

The key to weight loss is a simple balance between the calories you take in and the calories you burn. The more accurately you measure this, the better equipped you are to make the right nutrition and exercise decisions for you – and ensure the success of your fitness plan.

You're Not Average

Most fitness and nutrition plans are based on averages, which means the results you can expect to see are what an average person would see. Who is this average person? Are you anything like them? How can you know if those results will apply to you? Well, you don’t really. You just stay committed, keep your fingers crossed and hope like hell you’re… average.

But you’re not average. You’re your own unique and special you. Which means whatever fitness and nutrition plan you have will have your own unique results. At the end of the day – no matter what the plan – those results depend on the balance of calories you’re consuming and burning. And if you measure your intake and expenditure real time, you can tweak your plan as you go along so it works for you – not the average.

Your Calorie "Bank Account"

Managing your calories is like balancing your bank account – only in this case you want a negative or zero balance at the end of the day. If you know exactly what’s going in and out of your account, you can make the necessary adjustments to get to your target balance.

"Deposits" – You Are What You Eat

Every calorie you consume stays with you until you burn it off, so you want to make sure you know how many calories you’re depositing in the account. There are lots of “diet diary” tools out there that have food databases that help you track what you’re taking in. One of our favorites is My Fitness Pal—their huge food database makes tracking calories easy and their active online community offers tons of support. Best of all it is totally free.

"Withdrawals" – Burn Baby Burn

Now that you know what’s going into your calorie account, you need to know what’s going out. Most people don’t realize that you’re always burning calories – not only when you’re exercising. In order to get an accurate measure of what’s going out of your account, you need a full picture of your calorie burn: when you’re exercising, when you’re at work, when you’re on the couch, when you’re having a coffee with a friend - whenever. That’s why we created the Active Connect. All you need to do is wear it and it’ll track your calorie expenditure throughout the day, no matter what you’re doing.

Not Just a Pretty Face

The Active Connect by MIO is the only product in a watch format that gives you a complete picture of your metabolic expenditure and calorie burn. And it still has all the other great features you’re used to on a MIO watch including:

• On-demand heart-rate monitoring without the chest strap
• Built-in pedometer measuring steps, total distance, calorie burn and speed while walking or running
• Five fitness timers for warm-up, walk/run, countdown, countdown, and stopwatch

Balancing Your Calorie Account

With your daily views of "deposits" and "withdrawals", you can now tweak your nutrition and fitness plan to suit you. Are you eating certain high-calorie foods in the day that are contributing to a positive balance in your account? You can easily see where these calories are and how many you need to eliminate. Perhaps your exercise routine isn’t burning the calories you thought it would? You can now adjust your fitness program to include more high-calorie burning activities. And when you’ve reached your weight target, you can adjust your plan again for a zero balance instead of a negative balance.