Weight loss has become a bigger issue nowadays, especially with a rising obesity
epidemic as well as more people living a sedentary lifestyle. This bad combination,
however, is addressed through weight loss apps. Many companies, both in the health and consumer electronics sectors, make fitness apps that will work with smartphones and other hand held devices.
What Are They?
Weight loss apps can help in fitness through a variety of ways, say through tracking weight loss and providing fitness goals, or providing recipes that fitness enthusiasts can follow. These apps can work on different platforms, such as for Apple products or for Android devices. These apps can be downloaded for free, or they might cost a certain price but will have different perks bundled with them.
MyFitnessPal
One such app is MyFitnessPal, which is free and can work with many different operating systems. MyFitnessPal offers different sub-applications that are all concerned with fitness: some will track diet and exercise, others will help track calories consumed, and others will track how much fat is lost. MyFitnessPal also reminds the user about bad eating habits that could get in the way of losing weight and keeping it off. The app also comes with a forum for members to encourage each other to be fit.
FitBit
FitBit, like MyFitnessPal, has many different apps, but is not free. FitBit combines software and hardware in order to instill some fitness discipline by tracking exercise, diet, and even sleep. FitBit has its own weighing scale as well as a wearable band that can help guide fitness enthusiasts. FitBit apps track fitness over a set amount of time and provide graphs to show what trends in the foods you consume, the exercise you get, and other measurements of fitness. The graphical representation of fitness, claim FitBit creators, can allow people to get positive reinforcement and push them to stay fit in the long term.
PlateMate
PlateMate analyzes the portions of food on your plate, and then gives information on how much nutrition and calories you are getting. The app can be downloaded from the Bayer SweetBee website at for $8.99.
Lose It!
This app, like PlateMate, looks at food portions and provides nutrition and calorie information. It provides fitness goals by giving tips on controlling what food you eat and how much, so that you can reach your ideal weight. It can also be synchronized with social media so that you can compare your results with those of your friends. Lose It! is available on its official site, and can be integrated with other fitness apps such as wireless weighing scales.
Fooducate
This app is free and available at fooducate.com. It educates people on what is in their foods, from the nutritional content to possible allergens, from gluten content to artificial colors or flavors that might negatively affect one’s diet. Based on these and other criteria, foods are given a grade, and the most nutritious foods are recommended to the user. Fooducate tackles individual brands, which will have their own unique nutrients.
Locavore
A locavore is someone who likes to eat locally produced foods, with the assumption that such foods are sustainably produced, and that buying such foods would benefit local economies. The Locavore app takes this into consideration, as it offers buying information that will help users look for specific farms and farmers markets that sell local foods in season. The app also provides healthy recipes that use these local, in season foods and provides a platform to share the recipes and food finds on Facebook.
CSPI Chemical Cuisine
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, or CSPI, has its own app that informs people on the food additives in their diet. This app allows a person to search and read about additives, look at safety ratings, and assess whether a food should be consumed. The app is available for free for both Android and Apple systems.
Endomondo
The Endomondo community bases its fitness on sports, and the Endomondo app takes this community to a whole new level by turning fitness into a contest. The app tracks individual workouts, providing tangible measurements of the effectiveness of a workout. Endomondo also allows people to compare their results with other users and engage in competition.
