Updated Thoughts on the Microsoft Band
If you recall, I wrote a not so impressed blog quite a while ago about using the Microsoft Band.. You can review that blog here.
Well, I’ve continued using it since then and it has grown on me substantially.. Let me explain why.
Heart Rate/Calorie Calculation
I kept wearing it in different ways.. Tighter, looser, left hand, right hand, near the wrist, higher up… etc.. I finally found that the band lined up well with my chest heart rate monitor.
This was a substantial breakthrough. The benefit of the band over the chest HRM is that the band can be worn for days, and also tracks your sleep!
Noticing the changes!
When I am in a period with lots of cardio, such as running every other day, I would burn almost exactly 100 calories per hour according to the band, on days I didn’t work out. So, roughly about 2400 calories. Usually it was +/- 30, so really dang routine. Like clockwork!
Now, when I went a few weeks on vacation, no running, poor eating, I noticed my daily calorie burn went down to about 90 per hour… So I was only getting about 215-2250 per day! Actually seeing this real change in my body was awesome and was the moment I became completely set on having this band!
The Data!
I’ve loved watching the data get better and better as time goes on… New datasets, new displays… Take a look!
Why it’s the best for fitness:
- 24/7 heart rate monitoring
- Sleep tracking
- Guided workouts
What I want to see with Band 2:
- Slimmer… It’s a bit hard to fit into some dress shirts as is.
- Waterproof… I swim a lot and I want to track those calories!
- More continuous heart rate tracking.
- Voice control from Android.. Hopefully this occurs with Cortana coming to Android.
