Customer Reviews

GoWear fit Display Device

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

I ordered this a day after I ordered the GoWear Fit body monitor. It synced up right away- no charging necessary, it runs on a replaceable watch battery. When it synced, it printed out "Hello Denis" and immediately the previous day's information was available to me.

This display does exactly what it's supposed to do. It displays your target for the day and progress in calories burned, number of steps taken, and minutes of moderate to vigorous activity. It also shows the previous day's numbers.

And while the strap is unattractive, it also shows the time. Which is handy, because you don't want to feel stupid when someone asks you what time is it because they saw the watch band and all you can tell them is how many calories you've burned today.

If you've purchased the GoWear Fit body monitor, then I recommend this product as a necessary accessory if you don't want to log in to the Management System every time you want to see your numbers.

I have had my GoWear Fit (GWF) and display for 2 weeks and all the great reviews are correct. I am not going to list all the positives, because I totally agree with all of them.

I do have a few comments for you to be aware of:
1. I almost lost my display today. That would have been a really expensive shock/disappointment. I was not using the wristband since it is pretty big and clunky for all day, and I have a pretty Chico's watch I prefer to wear. So it has a clip feature, to clip it on your clothes (the face comes off the wristband). I had mine clipped on different shirts for 2 weeks, and it was fine. Today I had it clipped on a silk sweater and it slid off. I thought I had lost it somewhere on my way to work. This display is NOT inexpensive!!! I was UPSET!! Luckily, it must have fallen off in the bathroom, and I found it slipping down my pants leg.

I am going to construct some chain and safety pin set-up so I can double-clip it onto my shirt, so I don't lose it. Maybe they will improve the display clip feature, but I suggest you think about this. Alternatively, you can just leave it in your purse in a safe place, and look at it from time to time.

2. The velcro armband is sometimes uncomfortable, and I do not have skin allergies. I loosen it and it still works, but in the future, maybe they'll design an armband of cloth instead of elastic and velcro... I don't know if this will become a nuisance. It is something you really wear all day and night every day and night.

3. Suggestion: Amazon.com had a sale where you could buy the GoWear Fit and get the display for an additional $19.99 which was a GREAT price! You can see that now the display is $69.99 (too expensive). So if you can wait and watch; put it in your cart and wait a month and see if there is a sale.

I am really really happy with this. I have had a very hard time losing weight, and even though my calories were low: 1350, I didn't realize how inactive I was during the day other than my 1-hour of weights or cardio. (Some days I only move/burn 1600 calories)... not enough of a deficit. This gets me moving during the day! It's terrific!

I decided a long time ago it was time to lose weight for the 2nd time in my life. The first time I lost weight, I lost 70 pounds in 4 months while popping Ephedra pills. I gained ALL of the weight back, plus 20 extra pounds about 4 years later. What I didn't realize was, in order to maintain my weight, I needed to still watch what I was eating and how much I was exercising. Ephedra gave me a false sense of security since I thought that if I gained weight, I could just take the pills again.. WRONG! Not only were the pills taking a toll on my body, they were expensive and finally they were banned from the US.

Here I am, 10 years after my first big weight loss, and I am trying to lose 70 pounds once again. Without pills and crazy shakes, without starvation or fad "no carb - high fat" diets, I am doing this my own way, and the way I can live with for the rest of my life.

I purchased the GoWearFit armband and monitor together, I thought that the price was a bit high, but now that I am using these gadgets, I see that they are well worth it. It was pretty easy to use, but I am web and gadget savvy and I work on a computer all day, so I was able to hook and sync everything up pretty easily. You need to make sure you charge the armband first via the USB cord into your computer before you can do anything. It takes about three hours to charge! Read your booklets and get to know your device. RTFM!

I went to the [...] website and signed up for an account. I used the special code that came with my device to sign up for the membership, I think I got three free months with the purchase of the product. Please note that I use a PC and I find that the website ONLY works with Firefox. I tried to use the Activity Manager in Internet Explorer and it wouldn't load.

Once I logged into the Activity Manager, I filled in all of my info (weight, age, height, etc.) and synced up my armband to the monitor. It was a little tricky at first try, but I held the button on my sensor for a few seconds and the "happy beeps" followed, meaning it was synced up.

I LOVE knowing my sleep patterns because now I am seeing that I wake up several times during the night. I also see that what the treadmill says as calories burned is actually LOWER than what I am actually burning (and vice versa on other machines) so I am extremely pleased to finally get an accurate count of calories burned during my workouts. The monitor lets me know when I've reached my goals such as steps taken, calories burned and I can also set reminders that help me remember to take my medication everyday.

As far as logging in your calories for three days to get an average count, please, oh please, do be honest with yourself. I ate good for the first two days, but bad on one of the days (didn't plan that!) so I feel like my goal is pretty reasonable, and with hard work everyday, I do reach my goal. The only adjustments I've made was cutting down bad snacks and eating fruit instead, no bread during dinner time, I don't cut my portion size down, but what I do is give myself half of what I'd usually eat and fill the rest in with cooked cabbage as a filler. For instance, I made whole wheat penne pasta noodles last night with marinara sauce, and ground beef, served myself half of the portion I would normally eat and put cabbage and zucchini mixed in with the noodles. My husband hates vegetables so I couldn't make any for him, but he's very thin, so it's okay! For people trying to lose weight who do not like vegetables, I gotta say, you really need to try to eat them unless your doctor says you are allergic, you really have no excuse. I pan fry my cabbage in "I can't believe it's not butter" spray and it turns out fantastic. You can shake a bit of Mrs. Dash seasonings in that and make it zesty or spicy. I swear, it's good.

Everyone I show this product to is very impressed and wants one for themselves. When I was walking to my friend's car last night after watching movies, my monitor beeped to let me know that I reached my goal of burning 2913 calories for the day. I was so happy! This is an excellent motivation tool! If I come home from work and notice I need to burn 400 more calories before midnight, I start dancing in my living room or go out for a brisk walk around the neighborhood to make sure I get closer to my goal.

I am so happy that I decided to order the Display in addition to the GoWear Armband. It has been great to know my progress throughout the day without removing the Arm Band to transfer information to my PC. Can be worn on your wrist or clipped onto your belt like a pedometer. I usually just carry it around in my pocket.

My GWF display device arrived yesterday, along with the armband (which I love). I charged the armband up for the recommended time, followed the instructions for syncing the device by pressing the Mode+View buttons then the armband's status button and... NOTHING.

I saw different instructions on the company support area that for first-time setup. So, following them, I pressed the status button on the armband and then the Mode+View buttons on the display device for four seconds and... NOTHING.

After reading a prior negative review based on the same problems, I ran around the house (burning calories, at least) turning off wireless devices, cell phones, etc. Then I tried both sync methods again and... NOTHING.

Lather, rinse, repeat a dozen or more times. Honestly, I probably burned up the most calories yesterday cussing out the dang thing.

I've sent an email to customer support, but since they don't work on the weekend I'll be waiting until tomorrow. Then I might just call the company rather than waiting for an email reply.

But, hey, if anyone knows HOW to get the thing to sync, please, please, please let me know. I'll be happy to edit/amend my one-star review if I can just get the thing to work!

UPDATE: Not only did I receive an email from the company's customer service on the very same day I sent in a request for help (which was a Sunday, btw), but they even shipped me a replacement display the very next day. Turns out my original display was indeed defective, and within moments after receipt of the replacement I was synced and ready to work out.

I am VERY pleased with this product, and thrilled with the company's customer service! (Wish Amazon would let me update this to a 4-star review.)

I LOVE this product - for me, the display makes using the armband the most fun. Very motivating to see in real time the fruits of your labor. The ONLY complaint I have is a big one. The dial has fallen out about 6-7 times in spite of my efforts to get it to lock in. Finally, yesterday I lost it permanently because I didn't feel it fall out. Seems that they should either make it a watch or a pedometer style -not both - trying to do both jeopardizes the quality. Am now faced with the dilemma of whether or not to spend another $80 to replace this if the same thing is going to happen

UPDATE 5/28/09 - Contacted the GoGear Customer Service department and they immediately agreed to replace the display device. Just received it in the mail - only took 5 days to get it replaced. Excellent customer service!

I love the armband and the concept of this item....problem is that it wouldn't sync with the armband. So basically, it didn't work! I really wanted it to work, so I emailed the customer support AND called customer service. Customer support basically told me in an email (along with some advice that was right out of the user guide) that sometimes it doesn't work if there are "competing" wireless devices in your home. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? This is 2009: Wireless internet, blackberries, keyboards, mouses, phone handsets, baby monitors....who doesn't have wireless devices?? I tried again to call the customer service line (during business hours), only to receive voicemail. VERY POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE. My advice: Don't bother

I had wanted to get the gowear fit for quite some time, since I expected the constant display of information would greatly help me to be motivated. It certainly has, and I've been able to get myself to make a million little choices that have added up to a lot of success. So far, I've lost 7 pounds in 2 weeks, just through the constant feedback of this display device. I have been psyched, and able to picture this taking me all the way to my goal of losing about 100 pounds.
The display device beeps reminders when I meet my daily goals for steps, calories burned, moderate activity, and vigorous activity. This adds a simple reminder to my day-to work a little harder, cut out calories, and add a little exercise. For me, this whole program isn't too much effort, and it's fun to see each goal reached throughout the day. The constant, small reminders based on information that I see as quite accurate are the best motivator I've found.
Now, the one problem- the display device is a separate piece from the "watchband". It twists into place, and is clearly supposed to lock with a slight "snap" in its final position. In the two weeks I've owned this, it has fallen out of the band three times. Since you still feel the band, you don't feel it fall- you only discover that it has fallen out when you happen to look down. That moment is pretty scary, since it could be anywhere, and it's $80 to replace. The first time it fell out, I thought that I must not have locked it in place properly. I decided to be extremely careful, and start checking that it was fully rotated into place every time I look at it. Look at the display, grab it and rotate to the fully-locked position, again and again. I noticed that it often was slightly twisted towards the "unlocked" position, and thought that my constant re-locking of it every time I looked at it would take care of that. The second time it fell out, I figured out that it was going to be an ongoing problem. I decided to be even more careful while I figured out how to "glue" it into place in a non-destructive way. It fell out again before I could achieve that. This time, I couldn't find it. So now, I have a system that is not nearly as useful, and I need to buy another $80 display device. I would suggest that if you purchase this device, work out a way to "glue" this in place that won't cause harm- I was thinking a little bit of silicon seal might be strong enough, but removable. I've yet to verify this with GoWear.
Overall, the GoWear system can be very effective, especially when combined with this display device. Be careful to do something to insure you don't lose the display, and go get healthy!
<UPDATE>I got ahold of GoWear, and they said it seemed likely that it was a defect, and gave me a return label to return the "watch band" part-and they will ship me a new display device and band. Outrageously good customer service form the manufacturer, effective ongoing reminders- if you want to improve your fitness, go get this system now. If you're having any problem, call GoWear and give them a chance to fix it.

I bought this item after researching both the Bodybugg and Gowear fit. Gowear is the same model as the body bugg, it is just cheaper. This addition is a bit more than I wanted to spend, but it is worth it! I am addicted to watching how many steps I have walked, how many calories I have burned and catch myself looking at it all day long. It is a neat little gadget. If you have the arm band, definitely splurge and get this too, it makes the data immediately accessible and then you can choose better choices about eating or moving more. I have been using it for a week, so I will update the review as I have used it more.

well... not really. But I definitely use the display as a motivator when I exercise. I've set targets for both "vigorous" and "moderate" exercise and only the display lets me know how what I'm doing is counted -- sometimes the "moderate" seems as tiring as the "vigorous". I would hate to put in an hour at the gym and find out only after I downloaded the armband that I hadn't met an exercise goal for the day.
I agree that it looks clunky and I have a watch I like better, so I usually just put the display in my pocket, on the waistband of my gym shorts, or on the table next to my exercise bike.
as for the cost: not expensive for a piece of calibrated equipment. its more than a pedometer, cheaper than a good heart rate monitor. the Armband is a great piece of equipment, but the display allows you to monitor yourself during the day to progress toward your workout goals.