Two Ways To Track Daily Calorie Burn

Want to know how many calories you burn each day? Really? It's getting easier, if no less depressing, thanks to new devices like Fitbit, which is essentially a pedometer for your entire body, or MyTrek, a wireless pulse monitor. New York Times writer Farhad Manjoo reports on the pros, cons, and price of these gadgets, as well as their remarkable ability to make us feel bad about ourselves. Fitbit, Manjoo writes, is a $100 super-powered pedometer that monitors movement, even movement while you sleep, and sends all the data back to a web based tracking program, which displays your lethargy on the sort of precise charts and graphs that economists use to monitor recessions. MyTrek  slips around your arm, where it tracks pulse and other movements and connects to a iPod or iPhone. An Android app is reportedly on tap. It sells for $129, and will go on sale this fall at Apple, Target and 24 Hour Fitness stores.

Read about these and more devices in the New York Times.