Fit Bug Reviews

Editor's Star Ratings:

Diet Features:
Fitness Features:
Community Support:
Expert Advice:
Extras:
Customer Support:
Ease of Use / Navigation:
Value for Money:
Overall Star Rating:

Joining Fee:

• There are a number of membership options available with FitBug:
• • 3 Months: £49
  • 12 Months: £84
  • 12 Months (pay monthly): £9/month.

Features:

• Diet features:
  
  • Keep your Bug with you to record everything you do and check where you are against your daily activity targets.
  • Connect your Bug to your PC and send Fitbug your achievements in seconds.
  • View your progress online. Log your food, receive feedback, advice & encouragement.
  • Achieve your personal goals by following realistic weekly activity and healthy eating targets which advance at a pace that suits you.
  • Check out around a hundred FitBug recipes to boost your weight loss by controlling your calorie intake.

• Fitness features:
  • Your 'FitBug' keeps track of all of your daily activity to feed back into the system.
  • FitBug sends you weekly exercise targets based upon your activity levels in the previous week, either by SMS or Email.
  • Check out a range of helpful exercise tools, including a range of 'workout programs' tailored to different levels of ability.
  • Try the walking program, running program, front room workout or the beginners 'swiss ball plan'.

• Expert Advice:
  • Get your questions answered by a group of online nutritionists, dietitians and fitness experts.
  • Read a range of useful articles on a range of nutrition, diet and exercise based topics - written by leading industry experts.

• Community Support:
  • Use the FitBug member forums to get in touch with other members and get motivated to continue to lose weight.
  • Read other users' success stories to boost your own motivation.
  • Member of the Month feature lets you know what other FitBug members do to keep fit and eat healthily.
  • Keep up to date with the latest FitBug news by reading the weekly e-newsletter.

• Help Files / Technical Support:
  • A set of Frequently Asked Questions lets users (and prospective users) get any of their questions answered.

• Extras:
  
  • Take part in the FitBug weight loss challenge for additional motivation.

Editor's Verdict:

FitBug is a great new diet and healthy living management program, designed for 'real people, in real life'. The program began in 2004, and in 2007 became part of the private health organization BUPA, boosting its public image and giving fitbug a platform from which to grow. Fitbug came about when the company's founder, a young executive with Accenture, wanted to devise a program which could help to 'coach' dieters and healthy eaters online and provide them with guidance and tailored goals. This unique program has grown in popularity in recent years, and is now available in the US too.

The foundation of the FitBug system is the small piece of technology known as 'the bug'. 'The Bug' is a kind of advanced pedometer, which records steps taken, calories burned, exercise and more. Dieters either carry the 'bug' in their bags or pockets, or clip it to a belt or strap, and use the 'bug' to record data about their exercise and fitness regime. Users begin the diet by living life as they normally would - eating and exercising as normal - while the 'bug' records information about your lifestyle. At the end of the week, dieters connect their 'bug' to their PC, link up to FitBug online, and receive tailored advice and goals based on their lifestyle and activity. Each week, as you work towards your healthy eating and fitness goals, FitBug adjusts your weekly targets to accommodate the changes in your lifestyle and exercise regime, so that being part of the FitBug program is just like having a real fitness coach. Each week, FitBug sends you custom goals by email and SMS, updates your healthy eating plan and sends you a target number of steps to achieve during that week. As FitBug offers a truly personalized, tailored service, FitBug really is suitable for everyone - from children and the elderly, to pregnant women, the very overweight and those who simply want a health boost to their lifestyle.

As well as the FitBug system's trademark 'bugs', dieters using FitBug also get access to a wide range of resources that are intended to support them as they progress through their healthy living plan. Users can try healthy recipes from a range of a 100 or so balanced meals and contribute recipes of their own using the active community features (message boards, chat rooms and forums). Users also get access to a range of articles and newsletters written by industry experts on a wide range of useful and informative topics. There's also a range of helpful tips giving dieters information about how to adapt the plan for injuries or ill health, so that the FitBug plan continues to be effective throughout your life.

We were extremely impressed with the FitBug system, as we found it effective and exciting. The tailored health, diet and fitness plan is produced from the information gathered by your 'bug', meaning your plan evolves constantly to ensure that it is challenging and effective. The FitBug system isn't the cheapest plan we have come across, but it does still represent good value if you're willing to take on board a change of lifestyle. Our only real difficulties were the fact that there aren't as many recipes hosted online as we would have liked, and also, that the FitBug system isn't compatible with the Mac OSX operating system. Overall, though, the system is great for introducing dieters to a total lifestyle change and for motivating users to lose weight and get active.

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