The Gruve Activity Monitor: A High-Tech Way to Get in Shape

The Gruve™ is a little device that can help you battle a sedentary lifestyle, improve your physical fitness level and lose weight. It was developed by a company called Muve, in cooperation with the Mayo Clinic.It’s a tri-axial accelerometer that captures, filters and interprets motion information 1,200 times per minute, based on your metabolic parameters, which are figured through your gender, age, height, weight and a week-long assessment period.

I’ve been wearing the Gruve lately, and it has been learning a lot about my activity level and how it might be impacting my overall health and well-being. It clips onto my waistband like a pedometer (though more securely than any pedometer I have ever worn). I put it on as soon as I get up in the morning (often on my pj’s) and wear it till I’m ready to get into bed at night.

It gives me three interesting forms of feedback:

1. Calories burn progress: Having set a goal with the help of Gruve’s online program, my Gruve device progresses through a series of colored lights, telling me how close I am to reaching my goal for the day. When I reach blue, I know I’m close to the finish line, which is green.

2. Metabolism check: If I am inactive, such as sitting at my computer or in front of the T.V., for more than 45-50 minutes, the Gruve sends me a warning via a slight vibration that only I can feel and hear, to get up and move for at least 5 minutes.

3. Analysis: Gruve’s online program gives me some interesting and motivating graphs that allow me to analyze my hourly, daily and weekly activity via calorie burn. Not only can I clearly see the value of even standing rather than sitting, but I can better plot meaningful burst of activity into future days.

What’s so fascinating and motivating about Gruve is the research that launched this product. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic discovered a clue to why so many Americans may be exercising for 30 minutes to an hour, daily, but not able to keep weight off as they age, or lose weight – something I’ve struggled with for years. It turns out that our metabolism comes close to shutting down when we’re sedentary for too long. We practically go into hibernation. In fact, sitting at a computer, reading or watching T.V. can burn fewer calories than sleeping! Our ability to metabolize fats and sugars takes a nose dive. To correct this, we don’t have to get up and go for a run or a brisk walk for 30 minutes. We need to move for 5! Get up, walk around, do a task, stretch, make the bed, walk to the water fountain — just get moving for about 5 minutes, and your metabolism comes back to life again. Mayo tags this kind of daily activity as N.E.A.T., which stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis. And it may be the missing ingredient in your effort to offset age-related weight gain, or to lose weight.

Oops! There goes my Gruve buzzer. Time to do something active. Be back in five…

Okay, back again. I went outside and filled the bird feeder, not only completing a task but jumpstarting my metabolism again… Now back to this article!

During the winter this year, my activity plummeted. Between getting back to back colds that developed into sinus infections and the frigid weather, I moved a lot less and started gaining weight. That’s why I decided to try Gruve. I wasn’t well enough to get back to my full-fledged exercise program but I could at least keep moving. Over the next two months, despite few visits to the gym or my usual hour long walks, I managed to lose three pounds, without restricting calories. (In fact, between Christmas and Valentines Day, I know I was eating way more chocolate.)

Who knew? As I responded to my Gruve reminders to move and looked for more ways to stay active during the day, I could see patterns of activity emerging from the graphs displayed online when I downloaded the info from my Gruve to my computer.

If I’m trying to increase the amount of time I spend doing non-exercise activity, where’s the only place in the house that I never sit down? My kitchen! I started to see that food preparation and clean up was a major mover in my life; it’s my “mini-gym.”

But it’s something I do without thinking. So I started to look for ways to break up my normally long days of sitting at my computer. Instead of trying to do things in the most efficient way, I’d spread an activity out. For instance, instead of picking up big piles of laundry, I’d make 3 or 4 trips.  I started to eat my lunch standing at the kitchen counter. Simply standing burns more calories than sitting. I leave my cell phone at the other end of the house, so I have to walk to answer it. I even stand at an improvised computer desk for emails. If I don’t have any particular task I can perform (Though, working at home, you can imagine there is always something that can be picked up, cleaned or reorganized) I simply move — walk in place, dance around, do some active yoga or walk up and down the stairs a couple of times.

The Gruve tracks my progress every day and averages out my calories burn for the week. If I meet my goal for one week, it ups the goal to move me forward at a steady, safe pace. I’ve increased my goal by 200 calories a day, on average so that I’m now averaging about 550 extra calories a day compared to the 350 I was burning when I started about 8 weeks ago. That’s the equivalent of about 2 miles of brisk walking, but it was done in spurts of activity that for the most part, without leaving home and was productive and task related.

Sounds good, but it’s not enough yet to sustain the kind of weight loss I’m looking for. Based on Gruve’s assessment of my basic metabolic rate (The amount of calories a burn every day just to stay alive) I can lose weight burning an average of 500 extra calories a day if I eat about 1,500 calories a day. That’s doable, but I know from experience it’s not realistic over the long haul — it would not be a permanent lifestyle change. We can all improve our diets and eat healthier, but crash dieting only brings rapid weight loss followed by rapid gains when you stop dieting.

I eat, on average about 1,800-2,000 calories a day. So my goal is to get back to my normal, hour a day walk and 3-days a week weight training (plus gardening and other active pursuits) plus keep up the N.E.A.T habits that have kept me stable over the winter.  Doing so should keep my diet less restrictive but still allow me to lose weight.

Gruve sells $199 with the online 1-year subscription or $99 with a subscription you can pay monthly for $9.95. But right now, you can get a 30% discount on any purchase at the Gruve Store by using this link and the promotion code WALKTODAY.

While I am finding the Gruve and the online graphs and information very motivating, I realize it may not be in your budget. Just trying to remind yourself to move more often and to not sit still for more than an hour can help. Set a timer to remind yourself get up during commercials on T.V. or to move from your computer. Plan activity into you day and record your efforts in a daily log until it becomes a habit. Use a watch alarm to signal that it’s time to move!

If you’re trying to lose weight, activity and healthy eating are the keys to success. But you can also give yourself helpful nutritional support with specific vitamins and herbs that have been proven to support weight loss. Supplements can help with things like preserving muscle mass, improving metabolism, blocking the absorption of some of your carbs can all help to make your weight loss battle a weight loss victory.