The document describes a six-month quantified self experiment tracking health and exercise using multiple activity trackers. Key findings include: (1) the participant exercised 5-7 times per week for 6-9 hours total, (2) intensity and calories burned varied between activities with cycling burning the least and orienteering the most, (3) weight remained stable despite increased activity indicating sufficient calorie intake, and (4) lab results showed improved oxygen carrying capacity and red blood cell levels from increased and varied exercise.
2. HOW TO MAKE EXCERCISING EVEN MORE
FUN
▪ First you need couple of activity
trackers.
▪ Continue excercising. Follow up
your weekly stats and try to keep
the pace or increase it.
▪ Collect the data and do the number
crunching. By collecting data from
more than one tracking system,
you can do more findings.
Crunch the
numbers
Excercise
Get
trackers
Tatu Lund - Six Months Quantified Self Experiment 6/20/2015 2
3. I had few years sports tracking
behind me, so it was time to
switch to the next gear.
SANTA BROUGHT
ME SOME NEW
TOYS FOR THE
NEW SEASON
4. ACTIVITY TRACKERS
FITBIT MEASURES ACTIVITY BY MONITORING
YOUR ARM WAVES
SPORTSTRACKER MEASURES CALORIES OF THE
EXCERCISE WITH HELP OF HR MONITOR
Tatu Lund - Six Months Quantified Self Experiment 6/20/2015 4
5. I am not an athelete. I am just
training for fun. Thus I do many
types of excercises; cross
country skiing, running, cycling,
mountain biking, swimming,
horse back riding, orienteering,
etc.
LAST SIX
MONTHS
TRAINING
REGIME
6. AMOUNT OF
PHYSICAL
EXCERCISE
During the last six months I’ve been
training 5-7 times a week (5.95),
which translates to six to nine hours
(the weekly average was 7h 10m).
6,60
6,18
6,43
6,08
6,82
6,42
8,08
8,92
5,92
6,98
8,82
6,48
5,18
5,93
6,27
4,90
8,77
9,18
6,08
9,739,68
7,62
6,37
8,60
7 7 7 7
6 6
7 7
6
7
8
6
5 5 5 5
6 6
5 5
6
4
5 5
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Hours #
Tatu Lund - Six Months Quantified Self Experiment 6/20/2015 6
7. INTENSITY OF THE
EXCERCISE AND
LIVING
The yellow line (calories burned per
hour / 100) is calculated from
SportsTracker data and green one
(calories per step) from FitBit. These
lines go somewhat synchronized, but
correlation is weak. FitBit recognizes
when I am excercising.
2,441
2,2452,346
2,1862,211
2,450
2,203
2,050
2,537
2,308
1,9002,024
2,283
2,505
2,0371,948
1,759
1,950
2,235
1,7151,690
2,0052,124
1,757
6,2 6,2
6,9
6,3
7,1
7,8
6,7 6,7
7,2 7,2
6,9
6,3
6,1
7,7 7,7
7,3
7,0 7,1
7,2
7,4
7,0
6,8
7,6
7,0
0,000
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
8,000
9,000
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Intensity Intensity
Tatu Lund - Six Months Quantified Self Experiment 6/20/2015 7
8. DIFFERENCES IN SPORTS
CYCLING IN THE UNDULATING LANDSCAPE
PRODUCES WIDE HR DISTRIBUTION, SINCE DOWN
HILLS GIVES YOU REST AND UPHILLS ARE BATTLE.
RUNNING IN MODERATE CROSS COUNTRY TRACK
HAS DISTINCT PEAK IN HR DISTRIBUTION. UP OR
DOWNHILLS, YOU ARE USING LEGS CONSTANTLY.
Tatu Lund - Six Months Quantified Self Experiment 6/20/2015 8
9. DIFFERENCES IN SPORTS
ORIENTEERING IS ALSO NATURAL INTERVAL
TRAINING. YOU NEED TO SLOW DOWN AT
CONTROLS AND WHEN READING THE MAP.
XC-SKIING HAS SIMILAR HR DISTRIBUTION THAN
RUNNING BUT EVEN HIGHER AVERAGE, SINCE
ARMS ARE USED TOO.
Tatu Lund - Six Months Quantified Self Experiment 6/20/2015 9
10. BENEFITS OF DOING MULTIPLE SPORTS
▪ Different sports activities give different stimulus to your body.
▪ Cycling is good for long duration endurance development.
▪ Orienteering is natural interval training with very steep uphill battles. It needs also
agility, coordination and mental focus.
▪ Running is good basic excercise.
▪ In XC skiing and swimming all muscle groups are working.
▪ Walking is good light work out. (I do not like to cycle slowly)
▪ Your development stagnates eventually if you do only one kind of excercise.
▪ It is mentally easier to train many times a week, when you do different
sports.
▪ Excercise should never be boring, it should be fun.
Tatu Lund - Six Months Quantified Self Experiment 6/20/2015 10
11. AVERAGE WEEKLY
TOTAL AND
EXCERCISE KCAL
BURNED
My FitBit measures total burned
calories and I have excercises
measured by SportsTracker. Roughly
27% of my burned calories came
from sports excercises.
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Kcal Kcal
Tatu Lund - Six Months Quantified Self Experiment 6/20/2015 11
12. WEIGHT AND
CALORIES BURNED
My plan was not to lose weight. So
for me it was good finding that there
is no correlation between calories
burned and weight. This is indication
that I have managed to eat
sufficently to fuel my excercise.68,8
69
69,2
69,4
69,6
69,8
70
70,2
70,4
70,6
70,8
71
0,0 5,0 10,0 15,0 20,0 25,0
min
Tatu Lund - Six Months Quantified Self Experiment 6/20/2015 12
13. KEEPING THE
WEIGHT
I measure my weight few times a
week. I use this to control that I
drink and eat sufficently. This graphs
shows the weigth fluctuation.
68
68,5
69
69,5
70
70,5
71
71,5
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
min max
Tatu Lund - Six Months Quantified Self Experiment 6/20/2015 13
14. HOW MUCH
EXCERCISE BURNS
CALORIES
Share of calories I burned in physical
excercise fluctuated between 20-35
percent. So even during the most
rigorous week, 65% of calories were
burned by basic activity and normal
bodily functions.0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Tatu Lund - Six Months Quantified Self Experiment 6/20/2015 14
15. TRAINING
INTENSITY AND
AMOUNT OF
CLIMBING UPHILLS
I found weak correlation between
the amount of climbing indicated by
FitBit (floor count) X-axis and the
training intensity (Kcal/H) in
SportsTracker, Y-axis.
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
KCAL/H
Tatu Lund - Six Months Quantified Self Experiment 6/20/2015 15
16. AVERAGE WEEKLY
SLEEPING TIME
VS. KCAL BURNED
OUTSIDE
EXCERCISE
Humans do burn more calories when
they are awake than sleeping. This
finding is not just a correlation, but
also correlates with known facts. If I
would have found something else, I
should be propably worried.0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
16000
18000
0:00 1:12 2:24 3:36 4:48 6:00 7:12 8:24 9:36
Kcal
Tatu Lund - Six Months Quantified Self Experiment 6/20/2015 16
17. WHAT ARE THE LONG TERM EFFECTS OF THE
PHYSICAL EXCERCISE, LETS GO TO THE LAB
▪ There is slightly more red blood cell
generating hormonal activity, since
Erytrhopoietin levels are a bit up.
▪ Red blood cells (MCV = mean cell
volume) are larger and carry more
oxygen to my muscles.
▪ There is more red blood cells
flowing in my veins, since my Hb
and Hematocrite values are now
higher.
2015
better
2012
good
Hb 161 156
HKR 0.47 0.44
Eryt 5.15 5.13
MCV 91 86
Tatu Lund - Six Months Quantified Self Experiment 6/20/2015 17