Having a barbell – also known as a dumbbell – around isn’t a dumb idea. Doing a little lifting during the day can keep arms toned up, help utilize muscles to reduce repetitive stress and reduce mental stress as well. But you don’t need to have an ugly weight lying around when you can have the Alias Barbell to lift. Designed by Philipp Starck this could make a nice paper weight for those times when it isn’t being lifted!
Tag: weight
Withings Goes from TMI to Weight Game
The scale that tweets your weight and BMI now has a game on Facebook. “GuessMyWeight” is a Facebook app created by Withings. When you do your weigh-in, your friends can guess your weight on Facebook. Really? What are the two things you don’t ask a woman? Age and weight. And now my friends can laugh when I gain a pound?
It’s helpful that Withings can send your latest stats to pages such as Google Health, RunKeeper and DailyBurn so you can chart progress. But tread lightly when a friend on Facebook challenges you to guess his weight. Withings co-founder Cedric Hutchings said the idea of GuessMyWeight “started as a joke amongst our team.” He says it’s a “playful and an entirely new way to take the drama out of your weight.” Though we think it has potential to add some drama.
Weigh In With Wi-Fi
For many of us progress isn’t the distance we went, the time we spent or even the fun we had. At the end of the day, or more likely first thing in the morning, we judge our results with a scale. The problem with this madness is that the method can be flawed because we only judge what the scale tells us at that point. To get a fuller picture we need to track gain and losses with the activity we did. After all, how can you judge fat lost vs. muscle gained?
The Withings Internet-connected Body Scale ($159) lets you track your results by sending the data to a web account via Wi-Fi. The thin black-metallic scale features a backlit display to provide your pounds clearly for you, while wirelessly sending the data to a Withings Web account. Here you and up to seven others can track progress over time – and you can (when you reached a goal or mark) post the results to Facebook and Twitter. Alternatively, if you need a push you can send them to DailyBurn and RunKeeper to monitor your progress over time. Time to weigh in.
Withings its Strange to Broadcast Your Weight
Every appliance in your home will connect to the Internet some day. Today, the Withings scale connects to the Internet via WiFi. Step on the scale, and it sends your weight, lean and fat mass, and BMI readings to your computer. It will post your loss or gain on Twitter if you opt in to that feature. Now, it will integrate with Microsoft HealthVault.
Microsoft HealthValut is a personal health application platform. This is a good application for a WiFi scale. HealthVault is a place where you can create a profile for you and your family to track the basics, the history, and helps you keep up with the management of any illnesses or conditions. As the user, you get to decide who to share your profile with, and how much that person sees. At some point, maybe we won’t have to fill out forms at the doctor’s office before each appointment.
As for Tweeting about your weight and other stats, you can set up your profile if you want your vitals on Twitter. I think I’ll stick to my personal profile.
Withings scale, $159
Microsoft HealthVault