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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

How to Make the Most Of Your Fitness Tracker (Without Falling Off the Wagon)

April 10th, 2013Top Story

How to Make the Most Of Your Fitness Tracker (Without Falling Off the Wagon)

By Alan Henry

How to Make the Most Of Your Fitness Tracker (Without Falling Off the Wagon) Fitness tracking gadgets are everywhere. Even the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone will have a built-in fitness tracker. Whether they actually do any good is a hotly debated issue. Let's take a look at the types of people who benefit the most from fitness tracking gadgets and apps, and how how you can make yours work best for you.

Most fitness gadgets and apps are actually quite good at tracking your activity level. They've gone from simple pedometers to gadgets that can track floors climbed, calories burned, and even track your sleep. The latest models can measure your heart rate, sync wirelessly, rally your friends to support you, and more. Plus, they're affordable—most hover around $100, and most apps are free. It's no wonder that doctors recommend them to their patients (mine included), and their popularity has exploded. Eventually, they'll be everywhere: in our phones, embedded in our clothing, built in to our shoes.

Even so, the picture isn't all rosy. How many of your friends who obsessively tweet their latest Withings Scale weigh in or Fitbit daily progress score are actually making progress to their fitness goals? As soon as the luster wears off, we're back to our old habits. So how do we make the most of these tools, and benefit from the data they provide without falling off the wagon? We talked to Dick Talens, Co-Founder of Fitocracy, and Derek Flanzraich, CEO and Founder of Greatist, to find out.

Quantifying Yourself Is Not the Same As Improving Yourself

How to Make the Most Of Your Fitness Tracker (Without Falling Off the Wagon) The Quantified Self movement seeks to use technology to document and analyze a person's day to day activities in order to jump start positive change in their lives. We're pretty big fans of it here. After all: Accurate, externally-collected data is objective truth. You see what you're actually doing, not what you'd like to be doing, or what you wish you were doing. That information can be powerful encouragement to get off the couch and hit the gym, or go for a run. Photo by Tatsuo Yamashita.

For example, in matters of diet, studies have shown keeping a food log actually makes us more concious about what we eat, just because we're paying attention. That alone makes us stop, think, and make better decisions. When our own Adam Pash got in better shape with the help of technology, he explained that he was already motivated to make a change. He let his desire to get in shape and his love of data merge into an unstoppable force that kept him driven and motivated, turning into a feedback loop that fit in with his habits.

The problem with quantifying yourself, as even advocates of the movement will tell you, is that tracking every little bit of information is just the beginning. Next, you have to examine the data and actually make the changes required to improve your life. Part of your motivation may come from playing your life like a game, making changes to improve your "stats" and make the numbers look better. Some of the motivation may come from the stark reality of the numbers in front of you, and the message they carry. Here's the catch: all of those sources of motivation have to exist prior to the start of data collection.

Some Feedback Is Better Than No Feedback At All

If you're the type who feels data is its own reward, fitness tracking tools are great for you. They fit into the habit loop, which consists of a cue, a routine, and a reward. Unfortunately, not all of us love data enough to feel rewarded by it, and many people who invest in tracking gadgets give up as soon as the "new shiny toy" aspect of it (and the data it collects) wears off. In some cases, it can actually be counterproductive.

The type of activity that fitness tracking gadgets and apps encourage you to do (and spend their limited willpower on) may not help in the long term. Dick pointed to this study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, and explained: "The activity that most people partake in with a Fitbit can be characterized as 'Low Intensity Steady State' or LISS cardio. When people lose weight via LISS cardio, their metabolism adjusts and they actually need to keep that same amount of cardio up just to maintain their weight." Otherwise, he said, you'll just put the pounds back on.

There's more though: A recent study of diabetes patients, a category of people who have been told to use self-monitioring and testing gadgets to keep up with their health for over 30 years, showed that many eventually came to see their self-testing as "the enemy," and it made them less interested and engaged with their health, not more. This report on the issue in The Atlantic notes that in a vaccum, self-tracking can turn from empowerment tool to weighted shackles in short order.

Ultimately, using a fitness tracking gadget in isolation—that is, just looking at it on your own and hoping for motivation to be more active and improve your health—isn't always enough to make you healthier. All isn't lost, though: there are some ways to use your fitness tracking gadget to actually improve your health.

How to Make the Most of Your Fitness Tracking Gadget or App

By now, we've taken the shine off of fitness tracking gadgets and apps so you see them for what they are: data collection tools. So how can you make the most of them and the data they provide? Here are a few suggestions:

Get Your Friends Involved

How to Make the Most Of Your Fitness Tracker (Without Falling Off the Wagon) Both Dick and Derek explained that being social—that is, joining or getting into a community of people who will encourage you, is the best, fastest, and most significant way to get and stay on the course to better health. This is why people with trainers, couples who get in shape together, and workout buddies have more success than people who work out alone. Derek notes:

In my opinion, I'm convinced the killer app for health and fitness tracking is social. That's what I think can take health tracking to the next level, where regular people care. If we can do something fun with it, compete or work together to achieve certain goals with it, then we'll forget about the numbers and instead just focus on getting healthier.

Dick explained that this is partially the philosophy behind Fitocracy, and services like it that both compete with and complement fitness tracking tools. Eventually, the fun of logging steps, collecting badges, and maximizing stats wears off, and when it does, the community is still there to help push you forward and compare those stats with you. Photo by Mike Baird.

I'm a big fan of working towards your goals in public, but when it comes to fitness, you'll have to do more than just tweet your weigh-ins to try and shame yourself into losing weight, or having your Fuelband post your daily stats to a public page where all of your friends on the site can see:

  • Find like-minded people and really engage them. Talk to them, work out with them, share your workout plans with them, and discuss what works and what doesn't. Get a workout buddy, or convince your best friend or spouse to get the same gadget and compete with you. Whether it's an online community, a private Google+ circle or Facebook group, or even a mailing list of your closest family and friends, get people to help you out who'll be vested in your success.
  • Get people invested in your success. If you do post your stats and steps publicly, make sure you get friends and family to encourage you and coach you—broadcasting doesn't help anyone, but getting friends and family really involved with what you're going goes much further. Leverage the communities in these apps and around these gadgets. There's a reason why people who train for marathons solicit donations from friends and report on their training progress. It works.

Make Your Tracking Gadget or App Part of a Bigger Package

How to Make the Most Of Your Fitness Tracker (Without Falling Off the Wagon) Your fitness tracking gadget and your Wi-Fi scale (both of which I own, mind you) shouldn't be the beginning and the end of your fitness journey:

  • Choose tools that work well together. When I went shopping for a fitness tracking gadget, I wanted one that had a webapp (so I could use it on any system) and supported both iOS and Android (since I own an Android phone and an iPad). I settled on the Fitbit, but you should pick the one that has the features that matter to you the most. If you plan to track your diet and nutrition, make sure you pick a tool that works well with the app or service you use for that (I use LoseIt, which plays very nicely with my Fitbit and my Withings Scale). If you like to run, make sure your running tool plays nicely with everything else. You see what we mean. If you wind up with five different apps to log in to and services to enter data into every day, you increase the odds you'll never use any of them, or at least give up on one of them.
  • Share your data with experts. Remember, exercise and nutrition are individual sciences, and there's no one-size-fits-all diet or exercise plan that works for everyone. If you have access to a nutritionist or a fitness coach, share your data with them so they can see your progress. Get feedback from them on what you're doing right or wrong, and what you should try doing. Talk to your doctor to see if the types of exercises you're doing are right for you. Show them your food log and ask if the reason your progress has slowed has something to do with your diet. Even if you don't have quick access to a nutritionist or a personal trainer, some of the communities we've mentioned have a wealth of knowledgeable people who understand the importance of helping one another.

Don't Try to Improve Your Health in a Vacuum

Fitness tracking gadgets and apps have a lot of potential, but the science on them is mixed and lagging behind their explosion in popularity. Early reports are that our relationship with them is like it is with any piece of exercise equipment: We buy it because it's shiny and we have the best intentions, but eventually it'll end up dusty and in a corner because it doesn't solve the real problem that led us to the need to get in shape.

The core mechanic that you have to address is motivation. We've shown you how to motivate yourself into a routine you'll stick to, and explained how important it is to find people and communities that will help you stay motivated, cheer you on from the sidelines, and help you get moving again when you falter. Self-tracking has huge potential to be part of that habit loop—offering valuable data and insight into your progress, and even helping reward you for your efforts.

When used in combination with the things that do work, and as part of a bigger plan to improve your health, they can be valuable. However, on their own and without any of the other pieces of the puzzle, you should be wary. Otherwise they'll end up like that treadmill in the basement you've been meaning to dust off.

Richard Talens is the Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at Fitocracy, a fitness tracking site and social network that's makes tracking your exercise a real-world game that's fun to play. You can find him on Twitter at @dicktalens.

Derek Flanzraich is the Founder and CEO of Greatist, an amazing resource for health and fitness news and tips. You can find him on Twitter at @thederek, and follow Greatist at @greatist.

Both gentlemen volunteered their expertise for this post, and we thank them.

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The Last Months Of LucasArts (And A Glimpse Of Battlefront III)

April 10th, 2013Top Story

The Last Months Of LucasArts (And A Glimpse Of Battlefront III)

By Jason Schreier

In November, just after purchasing LucasFilm, Disney CEO Bob Iger held a company-wide meeting.

During the meeting, according to a source in attendance, a few people asked what was going on. What was going to happen to them? What was the future of LucasArts, the LucasFilm subsidiary and 30-year-old video game studio responsible for a number of beloved games?

"It's business as usual," Iger answered, according to our source.

Six months later, Disney shut down LucasArts. All games in production were cancelled. Business as usual.

***

In late 2011, then-LucasArts president Paul Meegan told the website MCV that he had overhauled the studio's teams and started production on a number of different games.

"We should be making games that define our medium, that are competitive with the best of our industry, but we're not. That has to change," he said. "Star Wars lends itself to all kinds of games – connecting players and giving them deeper experiences. Stay tuned."

When Meegan made those proclamations, LucasArts was working on a number of different games, multiple sources have confirmed to Kotaku. One of those games was Star Wars 1313. Another was Star Wars: First Assault. And then there were others, like Outpost, a social game that was to be the Star Wars version of FarmVille. There was an iOS game, and a project headed up by well-respected Splinter Cell designer Clint Hocking.

In the coming months, every single one of these games would be cancelled or overhauled. Star Wars 1313 shifted directions multiple times, while First Assault was scaled down significantly. Outpost and the iOS game were axed. Hocking left the company, and Meegan would go on to leave too.

Still, LucasArts intended to announce Star Wars: First Assault as an XBLA title in late September of 2012. They planned to release the game this spring. But hours before the scheduled announcement, word came down that it was on hold.

"We just got the worst case of blue balls," said a source. "We had no idea what was going on."

A couple months later, Disney announced that they had purchased LucasFilm and all of its subsidiaries, including LucasArts. That's when staff started to worry about their future there. "Everything Disney would tell us would be, 'business as usual, business as usual,'" a source said. "We lost any transparency we had to the executive level."

We reached out to Disney and LucasFilm this morning, but they declined to comment for this story.

In the coming months, up until just a couple of weeks ago, LucasArts staff were working on three projects: Star Wars: First Assault, Star Wars 1313, and a smaller project internally referred to as "Version Two," according to two sources familiar with the situation.

Kotaku has obtained video footage of this "Version Two" project, which you can see below:

Click to view

In the video, you can see all sorts of vehicle combat: the player, looking from a first-person perspective, zips around in X-Wings and AT-AT Walkers while shooting down TIE Fighters and other Star Wars-y vehicles. The art isn't final, but the combat looks very cool: one section, for example, shows multiple players riding on hoverbikes and shooting lasers at everything in their paths.

First Assault, as we reported a few weeks ago, didn't have any vehicles. Version Two did.

This is because, according to multiple sources, developers at LucasArts planned to turn Version Two into Star Wars: Battlefront III, the highly-anticipated third game in the Battlefront shooter series that has shuffled from developer to developer over the past few years. This time, LucasArts hoped to make it themselves.

"[There's] a very vocal audience that's clamoring for Battlefront III," said a source. "We were hoping to eventually give it to them."

But over the past few months, morale has been low at LucasArts. Due to the freeze on all hiring and game announcements, staff at the company had no idea whether their games would ever actually come out.

In January, a month after the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, Disney's Iger came out and said they would be taking a close look at the violence in their video games.

This was a red flag for the developers at LucasArts. Here they are, working on a first-person shooter and a violent action-adventure game, and Disney says they're re-evaluating the amount of violence in their games? Not a great sign.

"It was very clear that we were kind of the redheaded stepchild," said a source. "We kinda came along with the hot mom being the film properties."

Next, Disney closed Junction Point, the studio behind Epic Mickey and its sequel. This was another ominous sign for LucasArts staff, a source said. "We understand that Epic Mickey 2 didn't sell that well, but I mean, they tried to make a musical," the source said. "We didn't know what was happening there either."

There were two more events that led LucasArts employees to believe that the end was near, a source told me.

The first was in March, when Kotaku leaked details and videos from Star Wars: First Assault, which still hadn't been announced.

"When Disney didn't make lemonade out of lemons there, they didn't use that as a marketing opportunity. They didn't do anything," a source said. That's when they knew things were bad.

The day after Kotaku put up video footage from First Assault, LucasArts had a meeting, that source said.

"They said 'Okay, look, if anything else happens, we're gonna take legal action, we're gonna find you,'" the source said. "Nobody wants Lucas and Disney lawyers coming after them... nobody could even publicly acknowledge that the stuff [Kotaku was] showing was tied to us in any way."

The second point when LucasArts employees knew that something had gone wrong was just before GDC, when, according to a source, they were given strict guidelines about what they could and could not say. First Assault developers were allowed to say they were working on a first-person shooter in the Star Wars universe, that source told me, but they couldn't name the game, even though it was already out there.

By this point, rumors had already been circulating that LucasArts might shut down. According to one source present at the pre-GDC meeting, executives acknowledged that rumor but wouldn't confirm or deny it.

"Luckily, many of us saw the writing on the wall and took GDC as an opportunity," said the source.

Last week, Disney shut down LucasArts. Although LucasFilm says they could license out games like Star Wars 1313 or First Assault to be finished by other developers, I've talked to three sources who don't think that's likely.

"Disney says they're shopping [First Assault] around to other outlets to see if they want to finish it, but we don't think that's gonna happen," a source said.

The big rumor floating around LucasArts circles—something we have not been able to confirm, but that has been relayed to us by two different sources—is that EA was considering buying LucasArts, but that some combination of the SimCity debacle and CEO John Riccitiello's departure put an end to those plans. We reached out to EA two days ago for comment on this, but they haven't gotten back to us.

UPDATE: EA has responded with a statement from labels president Frank Gibeau: "The entire game industry is in transition as we build more efficient organizations to deliver games on popular new platforms like mobile and consoles. EA is not currently considering any major acquisitions."

The shutdown of LucasArts has left the fate of Star Wars video games unclear. Will Disney license Star Wars to other publishers? Will they publish games made by external developers? Will we see more games like Star Wars Kinect? One thing's for sure: it won't be business as usual.

Clarification: An early version of this story implied that Bob Iger's meeting was only with LucasArts. It was actually a company-wide meeting.

Kate Upton and Diddy Are Reportedly Dating; Great Work, Everyone (UPDATE)

April 10th, 2013Top Story

Kate Upton and Diddy Are Reportedly Dating; Great Work, Everyone (UPDATE)

By Caity Weaver

Kate Upton and Diddy Are Reportedly Dating; Great Work, Everyone (UPDATE)Proving true the old maxim, "good things come to those who wait," rap mogul Diddy, who waited 43 years to begin dating supermodel Kate Upton, is rumored to be dating supermodel Kate Upton.

The New York Daily News reports that Diddy, 43, and Upton, who is 20 and doesn't even know what alcohol tastes like, though she imagines it tastes like cinnamon and honey and a splash of perfume, were spotted "sharing an intimate dinner" in Manhattan last Thursday.

One week earlier, the duo was allegedly seen making out—just straight up, unabashed, I want to taste your tongue right now with my tongue in public-style making out—at a club in Miami.

"They were kissing," an onlooker reported to the NYDN, "they weren't hiding it."

Since Kate Upton's boobs are the most popular boobs in the world right now, this is quite a coup for Diddy, best known today as "the actor from the Ciroc ads." It would have made more sense for him to be dating Kate Upton in, say, 1999, except then she would have been 7 years old, so that would not have made sense.

(The NYDN suggests "Diddyup" for their celebrity nickname; "Kate Diddy" is probably more appropriate, given Upton's passion for the art of dance.)

Upton was most recently linked to baseball player Justin Verlander, though the two reportedly broke up just before February 14th, a date on the Gregorian calendar which was arbitrarily chosen to represent love. The NYDN writes that Diddy and his protégée-turned-girlfriend, singer/former Delia's catalogue model Cassie were house-hunting together in Beverly Hills in January.

Hopefully she picked out a nice house for Kate Upton to make out in.

UPDATE
Kate Upton is now publicly claiming she doesn't like-like Diddy:

Meanwhile, a dejected Diddy throws his bouquet of hand-picked "daisies" (they're dandelions, Diddy, but that's sweet) in the trash and kicks a rock all the way home. :(

[NY Daily News // Image via Getty]

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