We are so thrilled to have a large base of BodyMedia FIT users on Earndit. You have shown yourselves to be a friendly and encouraging group of people and you lift the positive vibe of the Earndit community.
There have been several questions as to how BodyMedia points are calculated on Earndit and we’d like to provide an answer to everyone at once. First, some background on our philosophy with awarding points:
We accept data from many different types of tracking services. Some are devices worn all day (BodyMedia and Fitbit), other devices are worn for a specific workout (Garmin and Nike+ chip), others are apps used for specific workouts (RunKeeper, Nike+ app and Everytrail) and another is just used once to signal you’re about to workout (Foursquare). It’s important that we create an even playing field with all of these services so that someone who uses BodyMedia could compare themselves to someone who uses RunKeeper. We’re trying to draw apples-to-apples comparisons among apples, oranges and bananas. Not an easy task! Additionally, we like to celebrate each tracking service’s unique capabilities by leveraging the specific data it records.
With BodyMedia FIT, we look at each and every minute of the day in which the device recorded activity. For any minute in which your MET level is at a 3 or higher, we assign that minute a point value of: 0.1 x (MET – 1). For example, if you spend 10 minutes at a MET level of 9, you’d earn 8 points for those 10 minutes of activity.
If you were to go for a run with a BodyMedia FIT device while also tracking the run using RunKeeper, you’d certainly get more points from the RunKeeper tracking than the BodyMedia tracking for that one event. HOWEVER, because BodyMedia FIT is worn all day long, you’re also earning points for all your other activities throughout the day (e.g. walking around your home, doing the dishes, etc). As you can see, if we tried to make BodyMedia FIT points equal RunKeeper points on a specific workout, then BodyMedia users would get far more points throughout the day. This wouldn’t be “fair” to RunKeeper users.
Finally, there have been some concerns that people aren’t able to reach 60 points per day. Trust me, it’s okay if you don’t get 60 points in a day. It’s meant to be hard to do. I’ve only done it a couple times in the past year!
As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any feedback. You can also email me directly at dremoran@earndit.com.
Be active, get rewarded, you earndit!
Andres
Meet Jilly Bienkowski. She’s the mastermind behind the trophy designs you’ve been seeing lately on Earndit. Hailing from Brooklyn, Jilly considers herself a geek and a fan of cheese. Ha! She graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.) with a degree in Graphic Design, and previous work includes designs for greeting cards and for some local bands. As dogs are near and dear to our hearts, we were happy to learn that Jilly has a mix of a German Shepherd and Chihuahua (woah!) named Nala — yes, named after the lioness in The Lion King.
Some of you may have noticed a few new trophies showing up in trophy cases over the last week. It’s no mirage, we really are adding new trophies to Earndit. We added quite a few last week, will be adding a number more this week, and will forever be adding additional ones.
