The future of life changing technology
Providing insight into the body’s exercise and nutritional requirements is the Ki armband, a high-precision calorie-counter and pedometer. Developed in America to monitor patients in intensive care or comas, it has just arrived in the UK as an interactive support tool for everyone from serial dieters to professional athletes.
The armband comes with a log-in to the Ki Performance website (www.kiperformance.co.uk), where you create a profile based on your vital statistics, levels of activity and average daily calorie intake. The software tots up the daily calorie deficit or surplus you need to lose or gain your desired amount of weight and the amount and intensity of activity required. Every day you log what you’ve eaten on the site and plug the armband into your computer to upload your activity data, resulting in an array of charts tracking your progress.
For people, like myself, who work on the Bridget Jones assumption that you burn no calories outside a gym and are therefore prone to doomed-to-failure starvation diets, it’s an empowering piece of kit. You see the visual proof that it is perfectly possible to offset the odd treat with incremental lifestyle changes such as extra walking, and it comes with a pocket display unit to keep you updated on your stats.
Rhiannon Harries, extract from The Independent, 25.10.09
