Female Cage Fighter Weighs In with BodyMedia FIT(TM) Armband

    ST. LOUIS, MO, September 22, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Five-foot-five Laura Marcusse weighs 117 pounds and needs to get down to 105 before her next mixed martial arts match.

For the next twenty-eight days she will consume an average 1,057 calories and burn 2,267. It's a respectable training program for a highly trained combatant, but hardly a dietary regimen for mere mortals. She wears a BodyMedia FIT Armband to monitor her energy intake and expenditure every minute of the day.

While driving to the gym after logging her high-protein breakfast in her personal Activity Manager on the BodyMedia website, data transmitted via Bluetooth from her Armband to her iPhone shows her burning less than one calorie per minute. But by 10:00AM, she's up to 3.2 during a conditioning session with her teammates.

As she works out, a pair of heat sensors in her Armband detects both her increased skin temperature and the temperature a few centimeters away from her body to calculate her heat flux. Two galvanic skin response sensors detect increased perspiration as she pummels a 120-pound heavy-bag. As she runs for 2.5 miles, her Armband's three-axis accelerometer converts her speed and foot-falls into a burn-rate of 9.2 calories per minute.

Thirty-two times per second Laura's BodyMedia FIT Armband senses nine heat, perspiration and motion indicators to calculate her energy expenditure. Once a minute the processor's algorithm analyzes and summarizes over 17,000 data points and sends them to the memory chip for subsequent analysis on either the BodyMedia website or by smartphone.

The morning of weigh-in, she's overweight - 109 pounds. She retires to the sauna until she makes weight. Laura wins with a rear choke hold. With an amateur record of two wins and one loss, she's thinking about turning pro in a year or two. If she does, she says her BodyMedia FIT Armband will definitely go along for the ride.

Since 1999, BodyMedia, Inc. has pioneered the development of clinically validated, user-proven wearable body monitoring systems which are unparalleled in the marketplace to help people lose weight, improve performance, and lead healthier lives.

For images, information or interviews:
Tom Imerito
412-892-9640
[email protected]
www.BodyMedia.com

# # #