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The challenge of measuring "fitness" is that is a vague concept. If you want to take specific measurements, you need specific goals. As an example of vague to specific: I want to get in shape. I want to lose weight. I want to lose 20 lbs. I want to lose 20 lbs. by my 25th high school reunion. I want to lose 20 lbs and fit into 30" waist pants by my 25th ...

You are interpreting too much into too little data. You will always have daily peaks with no apparent reason, this depends on how well you digest, how much you drink (and let go) etc. I weighed myself over the past year - sometimes more than once daily - and as you can see only the long term curve really is interesting. Note the peak around the holidays ...

Ok, as fredob requested, this is an n=1 style of writeup, for my experiences and what I consider to be the core kernels of a lifetime fitness program. Note, this is not a design for specific competition, this is fitness in general. Obviously if you compete, you would need to tweak the physical component and nutrition components to support that. NUTRITION ...

Check out the book "Practical Programming for Strength Training" by Rippetoe and Kilgore. It is aimed at the college educated professional strength coach and covers every aspect of developing training programs. While overly detailed for the likes of us, it is the basis for lifetime learning. BTW I'm over 60 and started lifting in my teens. I've always put my ...

There's some good discussion of this in John Walker's book The Hacker's Diet. Here's a quote from a chapter called "The Rubber Bag". Consider this view of human as rubber bag presented at a NASA conference on the exploration of Mars. From this all-inclusive perspective, which accounts for the oxygen in the air we breathe, moisture lost ...

Lots of hardware out there, usually in watch format with wirelessly connected remote devices. You get the main watch with time, alarms, stopwatch, often computer download modes. Then the accessories. Heart Rate Monitors almost all use chest straps, (lick/wet the strap to get it to work at first, once you start sweating you will be fine, but when you first ...

Lifting heavy weights. Everything else you might do depends on strength, so if you don't have that, you'll be limited. If you do have it, everything will improve for you. You'll be more flexible, have better endurance, will be less injury prone and will recover from injuries faster. It's also very sustainable. You can do one short, high intensity lifting ...

Here's how I do do it (I have a fitbit one). When I'm doing an activity that I think the fitbit won't track properly (biking, or a sport), I switch to recording/sleep mode (they're the same). I only do this so that I can remember how long that activity took. Then, using the web interface later, I enter the actual activity, time, and duration (using info ...

Tracking your waist measurements will give you some of the most important information about your health gains as you get back in shape. Your goal is for your waist to measure about one half of your height. Central obesity is a big factor in many health problems so your waist measurement and waist ratios are a key measurement. Tracking your body fat ...

I find it useful to track things I want to improve. So, when I want to do the workouts my coach set me in a programme then I track that. If I want to get my body fat or mass down then I track that. There's no point tracking something just to track it. So, figure out what you want to improve.

Are you specifically looking for software to run on an Android? If not, the handy-dandy notebook never fails. Instead of spending all your time filling out data, though, I'd suggest picking one day a week to dedicate to making data entries. There are too many fluctuations from day-to-day for daily measurements. Also, I've found that taking daily ...

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ has some great tools. Your diet is probably as important as anything, so start there. It also has tracking of exercises by calories burned, and you can save your measurements and update them daily/weekly. Like, how many inches around your neck or waist is. I can link to mine if you want to check it out. Fitbit would only really ...

I would check out the Polar line of Heart Rate monitors. They have been in the business for longer than most. There are several higher end models with computer interfaces that can download data. Failing that, many of the new running watches that have GPS allow computer connections to download and some of them now come with HRM straps, so I imagine it ...

The problem with GPS and heart rate and all the data that the little gizmo's give you is that they are short term metrics, that are generally only applicable to that day and point in time. Yet everyone wants to use them to change the way they train tomorrow, and it doesn't work like that. Take your heart rate. Today you go out and you run a 6 mile out and ...

In general, most portions are about the size of a deck of cards, or a closed fist. 1 portion of meat is roughly 20g of protein 1 portion of starches (potatoes, etc.) is roughly 20g of carbs The tough thing is to estimate the amount of fat in things, which can easily sneak up on you. Deep fried potatoes (all variations of fries) contain lots of fat. ...

With free alternatives, you aren't going to come across too many that can rival a Nike premium app. In reality, you would probably need to use a combination of one or more different apps to do so. If you wanted randomly generated circuit training or workout routines, try: sworkit.com. It randomly generates workouts based off of your desired program level, ...

Until my MOTOACTV I used a Garmin Forerunner 305; loved it, despite it being the size of my head. I've been pretty happy with the MOTOACTV, plus it plays music. I just use my old Garmin chest monitor; I didn't buy anything new. It also connects via BT to my phone, which is convenient on occasion. And it can do BT audio. IMO their website is a little lacking ...

The pulsmeter market is very big with a few global brands (Polar, Garmin, Suunto) and lots of local brands. I have been using Suunto for 5 years now, both a "R to R" recording belt and a watch for feeback during the actual practise. If you are about to buy one, here are some simple checks regarding service and maintenace: Check their service agreement, ...

I personally don't like basing workouts on heart rate. There are too many external factors that can artificially raise or lower your heart rate for it to be reliable enough for me to base my workout around it. I know there are entire industries based around heart rate zone training, but I've never felt comfortable either doing or assigning an entire workout ...

Instead of instrumentation, I would recommend taking a weekly photo to show your progress. Unless you're a top athlete, monitors and tracking tools are more of a distraction than a help and any time spent on them instead of the workout is not helpful UNLESS you're an intermediate or top level athlete.

It all comes down to your goals, but I'm a fan of moving the numbers away from the subjective world of yourself (pounds, waistband inches) and into the objective world of achievement. Time - finishing a 5k, or running a mile in less than 8 minutes, or 6. Weight - deadlifting your bodyweight, or squatting 150 or 300 pounds. Mobility - touching your toes, ...