13.5.2012

This product is like having your own nutritional coach, motivator and fitness coach at your beck and call every day. I have actually been using it non stop for 20 months. I've used 3 pedometers - one lasted 15 months and only stopped working because I water logged it when my method for using it in the swimming pool failed me and the water got into the unit. I lost another and am now on my third. I've finished the challenge once and am now just under half way along again - just short of Liverpool. I lost 2 and a half stone using this product, recommended it to my daughter who used it regularly for nearly a year then became pregnant and since then has used it intermittently trying to lose the baby fat gained during pregnancy.My friend saw my success and so started using it herself and was amazed at the fact it really showed her what her diet contained - all the bad things like too much salt and excess fat - and she lost weight because she was motivated to walk more, she started taking a friends dog out!! Two of my other friends also started using this product on my recommendation and both lost weight - and reached John of Groats, much quicker than i did.It is versatile too - I am not sure why one reviewer said it was inflexible. It is completely flexible when you use the PDA included in each section. Don't just use the set items like drink, breakfast etc, always use the PDA by dragging onto your desktop and it gives you so much scope for entering food its amazing. the option to add up to 63 custom items, including calorie counting your own recipes, is brilliant - but this is the only problem, I'd like more pages to add my own items because every time you make a meal you keep wanting to add each ingredient and count the calories so you can get an absolutely 100% accurate calorie count. however, at the end of each week, Carol tells you how you have done and then when she's done her round up and you start a new week, you can delete any custom items you aren't likely to use again, and this frees up space for more. You can add things by nutritional information included on the outside of every product we buy these days, or by totting up individual items to make a whole product. For the £12.90 I paid, and 20 months continuous use, this really is the most cost effective method of losing weight ever invented - and it works too. Absolutely first class, fantastic. Wish they'd bring out another version with a few more options - but really not sure what they could do to improve it.Its simple to use1) Wear the pedometer everywhere, everyday. I find the best place to wear mine is tucked inside my bra. No one can see it, its part of my routine for getting dressed every morning. It can be worn whatever I am wearing - even that little black dress!! And it is 100% accurate - I've checked it against a much more expensive GPS pedometer and it was spot on.2) Download your steps and use the option to add steps from the lists for those things the counter wont count - but do so conservatively because this is really its only failing - an over estimation of the number of steps used doing some of the things other than walking or running. for instance it estimates 45 steps a minute for gaming. Yes you can get quite active playing computer games and if so you are using more calories than sitting still watching TV for instance, but be honest - if you don't think you've notched up the exercise, don't enter the steps3) add your food - everything including drinks - again be honest, if you aren't, the only one losing out is you.4) Listen to Carol's advice - except when you haven't reached your step target for the day and are updating the record at 11.30pm, its absolutely pouring with rain and Carol helpfully suggests You are nearly there, why not reach your step target with a short 25 minute walk. Then it motivates me to do some exercise in the house and use the session tracker - some aerobic exercise and jogging on the spot soon notches up the required steps and its so, so good to see the little lights light up as you reach your step target.And thats it. At the end of every week she assesses your progress, gives advice and motivates you to keep going. If you've done well, you can get one of 4 medals, but if you don't do so well, she motivates you to try and reach your targets in the coming week.YOU get to set your step target - Carol sets it but you can amend it if you think its too ambitious, and this way, if something is happening which means you know you won't manage an ambitious target, you can set it lower for a week, giving you the chance to reach a target and so keeping you motivated.Its the best pocket calorie counter I've ever seen, it goes everywhere with me - even to Barcelona for my 50th birthday - and I'd whole heartedly recommend it to anyone.

22.4.2010

I have been on this programme for 6 weeks now and here is what I can say about it:As other reviewers have mentioned, the pedometer is great as it easily fits -and stays-in your pocket, a clip is also provided if you prefer that. It is quite discreet- unlike the one provided with My Health Coach. I would give it five stars.As for the "game", it sets a number of steps per day -but what counts is what you do per week, which allows you to do more on one day and less on another- and a number of calories per day. It is up to you to accept that or not and you can adjust your goal for the week manually if need be. You have to enter what you eat everyday and to download your steps or enter alternative physical activities manually,you are then given some feedback and encouragements to carry on like that or to do better the next day. At the end of the week, an assessment and medals are given and a new goal is set for the following week depending on on well you did. Again this can be readjusted, the aim is not to set a goal that you will feel impossible to meet !I read a review saying you have to enter your weight everyday but that is only true if you want to gain a few more points -who cares, really...- I enter my weight just before the weekly assessment and that is perfectly fine for the programme.I found the food list easy to handle (you get quicker after a few days and it then takes almost no time at all) and the programme motivating and pleasant to stick to.I feel a tad silly in saying that I am enjoying the challenge of walking all the way from Lands End to John O'Groats, but I really am and I hope to complete it some day (day after day you can check how far you have reached), so that worked for me too, every little helps to keep one's motivation!The reason why I don't give the product 5 stars is that although I must say that it has exceeded my expectations -I bought it for the very handy pedometer more than anything else- is that it is not perfect on the nutritional aspect. In other words, it does not teach you how to eat a balanced diet, it "only" checks your salt, fat and sugar intakes and calories based on processed foods -and the actual values can be quite different when you eat home cooked food...- not the balance of your intakes (ratio meat, veg etc..)Still, it is not too much of a problem as you can find info elsewhere and it is easy to recognise when the assessment of your intakes is wrong (re: home made versus processed). The main point for me is that it has really encouraged me to be much more active and to stick to my "negotiated" goals.The programme does offer menu suggestions for those who want a helping hand but then it feels like a diet to follow and the whole point of this programme is that it does not feel like a diet although it definitely encourages you to monitor your food and to boost your fitness level.So although it has some limits I do think that this "game" is definitely worth buying if you want to get back to fitness smoothly (ie: no bootcamp or fitness class)Results in 6 weeks? Well no miracles: little weight lost (3kg) but the ole body is slowly but surely firming up (6% less fat according to my scales) and I am proud to say that I have walked 153 miles in 6 weeks and as long as I am proud of myself I will keep going (yep, definitely smug self satisfaction!)... John O'Groats here I come !18/8: Just a little update for fun, I have now walked 350 miles -Wrexham- and lost 8kg in spite of my love for cakes and bakes. Not half way to John O'Groats yet but the incentive definitely keeps me going...

26.9.2009

Finally, I have found something which actually encourages me to keep fit, and monitor my eating habits. Firstly I would not class this as a game. The Wii fit is a game compared to this. I love the step monitor, I just stick it in my pocket and away I go. Took me awhile to figure out that you can actually manually input what you eat, using the PDA function, this is nothing to do with the design structure of this software, but more of a case of I did not look at each function properly. Another great feature of this is the walking challenge. Annoyingly, I lost my old DS along with all the data and had to start again, but I am well on my way to reaching St Ives, but the ultimate goal is to reach John O Groats.The other feature I like about this is that it only has room for one profile, my partner is also hooked to this, and unless we had both bought it we would be constantly fighting over it.I think this is the best out of similar software out there as this is based on English measurements. I have my fitnes coach, plus others, but they are too Americanised for me (no disrespect to America). Afterall we use stones and pounds, grams and millilitres, whereas on other software it all seems to be cup this and cup that.The other good thing about Carol Vodermanns package is that she designs a meal plan for you, and although I am not using this yet, it gives me an alternative to what I usually eat. She tells you if you have had too much sugar etc, and also tells you if you are not eating enough and doing too much exercise.It gives you a review at the end of each week and awards you a bronze, silver or gold medal depending on how well you have done. This is another great incentive to keep going with it along with reward points for everything entered, you get 10+ reward points if you exceed your daily step target, which opens up new colours, music and obviously the walking challenge and the session tracker which means if you go to the gym or know you are going to be doing an activity for a certain amount of time you can input the data and it will keep a record for you and then you just point the step monitor at the games console and there you go, all the data is entered for you. You can also manually input data aswell, for example, if you do a weight circuit at the gym, do housework or other activities you can go into the body section of the game and chose the option you require and Carol will tell you the equivalent in steps. It is quite amazing how quickly you can build up your steps just from walking around the house.At the end of each week it will do a review,so it is a good idea to keep monitoring your weight and enter this regularly. At the moment I am not to concerned about weight loss, as I am training for a physical test in October, but I have already noticed that i have lost a couple of pounds, although it is hard to tell as muscle weighs more than fat anyway.All in all a great idea, and I would recommend it to anyone.

22.6.2011

Bought this game on the basis of a lot of positive amazon reviews. I'm a person who perhaps doesn't need to loose a lot of weight, but I would like to shift up to a stone in my dream world. I would definitely say that this is a product to be used for people like me; people who would like to loose a few pounds. This game would not be suitable for those intent on dramatic weight loss, though it might be a nice supplement to a nutrionalist advised diet / exercise.Having said this, I do think this product is really great. In the pack you get the game, instruction booklet and a pedometer. The game allows to you put in your height and weight, and your BMI will be calculated.You are also asked on average how much exercise you do per week, so that this can be taken into account.The friendly cartoon Carol will then set you a goal amount of steps to walk (or run) per day (can be counted on the pedometer provided, any pedometer you have lying around, or you can manually input steps based on the time spent walking). You can also manually add in other exercise you may do, e.g. cycling, and this will be equated into steps and added to help reach your daily target. You can even put in time you have spent cleaning, if you like me feel as though you get a little work out as you vacuum the house :-) Exercise is totaled up over the weeks, and the game measures how far you have walked, the aim being to walk the equivalent of from one end of the UK to the other. This is amusing, and a nice little touch.You can also input all the food you eat throughout the day by looking on the list of existing foods on the game which have been nutritionally worked out for the game. If the food / meal you are looking for does not exist on the game you add your own. This can be easily done by looking at the nutritional info on food packaging and inputing the data into the game. Basically this acts as a fairly accurate calorie counter, but also helps you to steer away from food with high saturated fat levels etc by showing you the percentage of fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt you eat each day. There are even a selection of recipes and meal plans for you to follow.So basically, the game helps you set a realistic daily exercise target, and a realistic daily calorie intake. If you can stick to this then sure, the game will help you to lose weight. I've definitely lost several pounds so far, perhaps not form sticking rigidly to what the game tells me, but from building up more of an awareness of what goes into my food in terms of fat and calories. The game will certainly help you with this; as it gives you the motivation to bother to look. The daily calorie count is handy.10/10. I recommend.

16.11.2009

My brother bought me Health Active for my birthday. I also own the health coach which I've seen reviews saying is much better. I don't share this view. Health coach is far too American and you can't add custom items, also compared to this game it's very childish. Another thing I like about Health Active is it really makes you think about what you're actually eating rather than just concentrating on calories and fat, it has made me think a lot more about what I'm buying and I always check the labels now. If you're looking for something with lots of little games but little substance then stick with the american health coach. If you want to approach weight loss with an adult outlook then this is for you,

28.9.2009

I wont go into how the game works, as I'm sure you've already read about it, most people will read these reviews to find out: is it easy to use and will it help you loose weight. Well in my experience, Yes!.I bought this "game" 5 weeks ago and I am now 6 pounds lighter. I would recommend this game for anyone trying to loose weight in a healthy and controlled way. This isn't a fad diet and wont make you loose a stone in a day, it gives support and guidance to allow you to loose weight slowly, which means it isn't a massive life style adjustment and therefore its easy to keep the weight off. I have found I can still eat Chocolate, fish and chips, Chinese take away and still loose weight.

10.8.2009

THIS IS AN ABSOLUTEY BRILLIANT GAME. MY DS HAS SAT IN A DRAWER FOR THE LAST 12 MONTHS SINCE I GOT FED UP WITH BRAIN TRAINING !!!NOW I USE IT EVERY DAY, INPUTTING MY WALKING, FOOD AND WEIGHT.I LIKE THE FACT THAT NEARLY EVERYTHING YOU DO GETS YOU REWARDS, WHICH UNLOCKS SURPRISES, ONE IS TO UNLOCK THE WALKING CHALLENGE FROM LAND'S END TO JOHN O'GROATS, SO EACH TIME YOU INPUT YOUR STEPS, YOU CAN ADD IT TO THE CHALLENGE TO SEE HOW FAR YOU ARE MOVING UP THE COUNTRY. IT REALLY ENCOURAGES YOU TO WALK MORE.THE OTHER THING I REALLY LIKE, IS WHEN YOU INPUT YOUR FOODS IT TELLS YOU HOW MUCH FAT, SUGAR, AND SALT IT CONTAINS, THIS WAS A REAL EYE OPENER AS I USUALLY ONLY CONCENTRATE ON HOW MUCH FAT IS IN A PRODUCT,

19.6.2010

Bought this product after reading all the previous reviews, there were a couple of negatives but on the whole the positive reviews convinced me to give it a go. I have tried every diet you could think of and I am still heavier now than when I started all of them. Recieved the item last Saturday and done everything it told me to do although not perfect on the food side of it, I am apparently not eating enough food MUSIC TO MY EARS. I am a person that needs encouragement to keep going and it does that, there is constant advice given ie. telling me that certain items are too high in sugar or salt or fat which actually makes me think before I go ahead and eat them and 9 times out of 10 I go for something less high in whatever Carol tells me.

5.10.2009

This is the first review I have ever written but I feel compelled to do so!I am not going to talk about the overall game as the above do so just fine.I am a 25 yr old female and I have been getting steadily heavier since I was a teenager. I am proper lazy too which doesnt help with the fact that I LOVE food. I have tried the Wii fit, Weight watchers, Slimming world etc but I am too lazy to be bothered to do anything except watch Eastenders!!!I bought this game 2 months ago and as other people have said my DS had been left in the drawer for months. IT IS BRILLIANT!!!!! All you have to do is wear the pedometer and input what you eat and thats it.

9.9.2009

I have been losing weight steadily for almost 2 years now but I have always resisted exercise. I had been stalled for a month or two and knew I didn't want cut any more calories out.This game has really given me the motivation to up my activity levels in day-to-day life. I haven't joined a gym but I do go for a walk to the coffee shop at lunch, or walk to the shops on the weekend to meet my targets. The rest of the time I add "steps" just going about my business but more consciously.I also use the food diary to log what I am eating as it helps me balance food and activity levels. If I walk more, I can eat a bit more.

7.2.2010

I have to agree with the other reviewers who have rated this highly. I have found it very simple to use and most importantly - effective when used regularly.The captions and background on the screens are bright and cheerful but not distracting. The 'pedometer' is discreet and easy to use. And within the first few weeks of using this product I lost 2kg! I am aged 29, five foot six, and before i bought this, relatively inactive. But knowing i would be putting my steps and activity in to the DS made me want to do more! The great thing is it also converts other activities such as housework or swimming in to equivelant 'steps' and you can add them on. When you input your meals in the food diary(also easy to use)

2.6.2011

I use the "PDA" option to input my food diary - it takes longer but is more detailed and allows me to make better food choices. I can enter food I eat regularly once and then just recall them for next time. As a result of using this function (rather than just entering calories for instance) I noted, well Carol in the daily review function, that my favourite shop bought sandwich contains 54% of my daily salt allowance - and this was something I thought was healthy as it was low calorie (due to being freshly made the nutrition information isn't on the packaging, just the calories, so I was prompted to look it up on their website for the purposes of entering it on this DS "game"!!)As a result not only am I losing weight but I can make better food choices and monitor my fat,

4.2.2010

I reviewed this game shortly after I bought it back in August 2009 and said it was great. Well it's now the start of February and I have lost nearly 2 stone through using this programme, and I think I could have easily lost more but I'm not prepared to give up all my treats! What is really good about it is it makes you think about those treats and just how bad they are or whether they're worth it. I can have 6 days on 1700 calories but if on the 7th I eat 3500 (a bit of takeaway, a few drinks, etc) then I'm not going to lose any weight. The targets and medals you get given also seem a bit childish but they really do motivate you. Over Christmas I didn't get any medal at all, not even a bronze,

26.7.2010

I am in week 47 of Carol's Active Health regime, and I am nearly 3 stone lighter than when I started! After 2 children my weight had crept up to just over 12 stone and the sight of last years holiday pics was enough to make me decide I had to make some changes. I'm now the same weight I was when I left school over 20 years ago, and I have a whole new wardrobe! If you need a bit of support but have a bit of your own motivation, this can work for you. You get familiar with the "advice" Carol is going to give you on your day's performance, and you actually try and avoid her criticisms, cos you know what you did wrong! I am now so food aware that I hardly need Carol, that's not to say I'm obsessive,

3.9.2009

I bought this game two weeks ago and I have to say I think it's really good. You can enter all your own custom foods with exact nutritional values and it comes pre-loaded with loads of foods which give a fairly accurate estimate. On some occasions you have to guess their name for it as there aren't any brand names, so expect 'diet shake', etc but really good and a great way to ensure you don't forget to record calories.The pedometer is also very good and is very lightweight and easy to wear. You do forget about it. You can add in activities manually too and every time you hit a target you get a reward, such as a new recipe. Interesting, the second recipe I won was for Cornish Pasty - 950 kcal...

Active Health with Carol Vorderman (DS) - Reviews

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