When I joined 24 Hour Fitness they had a new member program in which if you did a certain number of things you got a BodyBugg (http://my.apexfitness.com/) for free. The BB is, in short, a device that estimates how many calories you have burned that day. It also tells you steps, estimates the amount of time you have spent in moderate to vigrous activity, and has a "trip" feature. Reset it before a class and look at the numbers after the class. It needs a web subscription program for $10 or less a month depending on how many months you pre-pay and the website allows you to track your food and has charts and graphs.
I got it and started using it in January. Around May or so I got the challenge to stop using it and measuring life, and I did. After a couple of months, it came back on.
So there's the two camps, the camp that thinks that you shouldn't measure life and the camp that thinks you should. Which is the right answer? I honestly don't think there is one. I have tried it both ways and I think both sides have merit. I think the BodyBugg can be used as a convenient tool. I like 1000 calorie deficits so I just eat 1000 less than what the BodyBugg says I burned that day (and after all this time I can now estimate how many calories I have left to burn pretty accurately and what different activities burn). Before the BodyBugg I used a Polar Heart Rate monitor to measure calories burned during exercise and the 24 Hour Fitness website to estimate calories burned throughout the day, and when I did one day comparing both, I ended up with a difference of about 25 calories using both methods. Pretty darn accurate.
I also think there's a point to enjoying life without measuring, to living in the moment. To run just to run, to swim just to swim, to exercise just for the heck of it, without worrying about how many calories you are burning. And there definitely is a point to not swap one unhealthy way of living for another.
In the meantime, mine stays on. Maybe it will be different once I'm a goal weight. I'm always of the mindset that things are not "forever," just for "right now," and something that may be "right" now may not be right in the future and vice-versa. I found that when I took the BB off I still kept tallys in my head. After 16 months I just know how many calories food has and how many calories I probably burned in a certain hour of exercise. You just become accurate at estimating. All the BB does is it actually lets me not worry about all the calculations and just gives me a number, and so does the food logging website. So for me it actually makes it simple and faster.
I think it's a great weight-losing tool and can be functionally used in a healthy weight. Once at goal weight, however, it may be time to let it go. The good thing about it? It's always there if needed.
