My own time machine : data collection

[Anonymous]

Hi guys,

I read this blog post recently. And I'm thinking that it could be interesting to build my own time machine.

I'm going to try to collect as much information/data about my health and wellbeing as I can.

Can you guys recommend me any apps or data collection software?

The kind of things I would like to track are:

•  nutrition:  How many calories do I eat per day? How many cups of coffee do you I drink per day? Etc.
•  work: How many hours do I spend at the computer each day? How many breaks do I take? How long does it take to get to work in the morning? 
• exercise: How many steps ? How many kilometers do I run/cycle/job a week? Etc.

[Anonymous]

Very interesting project...although a bit "intense" if I had to track everything. I'd go mental.

I can recommend an app I have used in the passed to track my exercise and food intake...

It's called my fitness pal https://www.myfitnesspal.com and it's super useful!

[Anonymous]

Really?? 

No recommendations? 

[Curr946]

Well, you can use the MS health apps to track just about everything. They even link in with the fitbit app and all fit bit bands etc. I hear good things about the ms band 2 and it pairs with windows, ois and android.

[gmarkj]

it very much depends on what platform you want. as I know more about android, i'll focus on that...

on android there are a number of apps that you can do most of that on:

• google fit tracks activity, and works with most activity trackers and some other apps (fitbit, myfitnesspal, lifesum.
• lifesum also tracks food and water intake, so you can track what you are eating and drinking but can also cover activity.
• I use to use WWDiary as a food tracker - works similar to the weight watchers programme that tracks what you are eating and scores it with points. depending on your height, weight, age and gender you get a base number of points you can use each day, plus earn more doing exercise.
• My Fitness Pal is mainly a food tracker (looking at their Play store details) but again can track exercise and will work together with other apps (google fit, map my fitness, runtastic among others).
• withings health mate is more for tracking activity, but syncs with a band to track activity and sleep.

one of the main tools most of these apps use is an activity or fitness tracker - such as the fitbit, the mi band or one of the many others.

these vary depending on what you want it to track, and how much you want to see on the band itself - some just have leds that light up as you meet goals; others have an lcd or oled screen so you can see how you are doing and get notifications; some can also measure heartrate and skin temp; some are waterproof and others are not.

until recently I was looking at the mi band pulse (or mi band 1s, depending on where you look) which is a relatively basic one, ie no screen, but can track activity, sleep and heartrate plus you get notifications of calls/messages through vibration and is "waterproof". they go for £20-30 depending on where you get it and if you get a second band.

now I am tempted to try one of the ones with a screen to actually see what the notification is for - some of these are ridiculously cheap on amazon (£10-15) but you do worry about reliability for that price.

in reality, it may be worth just trying a couple of different apps to see how you get on with them and adding a tracker if/when you want.

[sheepdog]

You could try My Tracks on Android for walking/cycling/running. That gives speed, calories and a map of the travels, takes photos (I think) and apparently links to Google Fit and you can export all the data for viewing against Google maps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyTracks

I just use it to see how far I've cycled so it works simply enough for me! Somehow I don't think I want to record the post-ice cream treat 

[Anonymous]

@sheepdog my ears always prick-up when I see a post of yours ... ... ... & ... ... ... the one above  ^  ^  ^  is no exception ... ... ... ty to you & to @gmarkj ... ... ... I intend passing on the info in the posts of you both above  ^  ^  ^  to my son & my future daughter-in-law ... ... ... they are into trying to loose weight by altering their diet, & have not that long ago (1) spruced up my son's mountain bike & (2) bought a bike for my son's partner ... ... ... they live in 'old' Leeds ... ... ... & ... ... ... like to go cycling around the Derbyshire Peak District, off road ... ... ... its something I could perhaps include with their Christmas prezzies ... ... ... ty again to you both ... ... ... & ... ... ... ty to @Anonymous / @Anonymous for asking the original question 

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much for the recommendations, i'm still doing some research and I will try some of the ones you've recommended. Thanksssss!