We asked the community if they were tracking several aspects of their health, and if they were ready to share their experience. Within minutes, many emails landed in our mailbox! Here’s the second testimonial we received. Beyond the simple tracking habits, this one tells a touching story. By the way, if you feel like sharing your own insights with us, please contact us on community@withings.com.
Stefan Ivarsson (Gothenburg, Sweden)
It was in the autumn of 2012 that I realized I needed to lose weight. A couple of years earlier I weighed 103 kg and went on a VLCD (Very Low Calorie Diet) and got down to 83-84 kg.
In 2012 I had gained a few kilos and wanted to get back in control. I started weighing myself every saturday morning and to keep track of my progress I searched for an app and came across an early version of the Health Mate app. The app introduced me to Withings and to the Quantified Self movement. I soon wanted to start growing my butterfly and was not content with only seeing a quarter of it filled in. I bought the Withings Blood Pressure Monitor and started to regularly measure my blood pressure.
” I now had a collection of apps that allow me to follow my weight, see how I slept, log how many steps I took daily ”
Super-charging my self-tracking experience
I then started exploring the ecosystem of interconnected health services and apps and realized that if I connected a number of services with each other I could create a pretty large picture of my health. I started using RunKeeper to log my gym visits and got an activity tracker to measure primarily sleep but also steps.
I now had a collection of apps that allow me to follow my weight, see how I slept, log how many steps I took daily.
Walking to clear my mind
During the autumn 2102 and spring 2013 I went through some tough months with my company that ended with me selling it to my business partner. During this period I started taking long walks as a way of keeping active and think, instead of just working. Every day and every week became a competition to walk more and more steps and more and more kilometers. I walked everywhere I could and I went longer and longer routes. Every activity I tracked with RunKeeper. 25000 steps a day and 50-60 kilometers per week was a good week.
Going further in self-tracking…
The autumn of 2013 I needed a new challenge and focus. I was sure that my fat mass was too high and that I needed to get it down to about 20%. I then started using MyFitnessPal to record everything I ate. My mental competition got even fiercer and -3000kcal (intake-burned) per day was not uncommon.
A couple of weeks ago I bought a Withings Smart Body Analyzer and realized that my old scale had overstated my fat mass with about 5%.
I now weigh 73 kg and have a fat mass of 16%.
Want more?
• Click here for another “360° Withings self-tracking experience” testimonial, this time by Draper Harlow.
• Other Withingers explaining how they use their Withings devices with a particular partner app? Clickhere and here.
• To read a few comments of the made by Withingers on social networks, click here.
