Saturday, November 5, 2011

World's Greatest Fitness and Weight-Loss Apps


Back in the old days, if you were really serious about losing weight you would have to get a food calorie dictionary and start keeping an old-fashioned pencil and paper list. If you wanted to keep track of your heart rate, you’d put your finger on your wrist or neck and attempt to take your pulse while running.


A lot has changed in the past 25 years. Heck, a lot has changed in the past 25 weeks. So, knowing there are a lot of other geeks out there, I decided to put together a list of some of the best apps around for nutrition and exercise.


Exercise:

Loops (Livestrong): Web : This app allows you to search for and create exercise loops wherever you happen to be. This app is especially good if you travel a lot to large cities and have no idea where to go for your daily walk or jog.


Target Heart Rate Calculator (American Cancer Society): Web : I recommend working out with a heart rate monitor to be sure you are keeping the right intensity level. This site will calculate your target heart rate for you.


Physioadvisor (iphone): This app helps you develop your work out program with common physical therapy exercises. You can search by numerous categories and body parts to help you develop a comprehensive program.

GPS Motion X (iphone): I used this one a lot before Susan bought me a new Garmin watch for our anniversary (I know, she is quite the romantic!). However, if you don't have a watch and are going to run with your iphone anyway, this app will give you your pace and a plethora of other workout tracking info, all while still playing your music. Obviously, though, this app is worthless if you have an ipod touch...unless you just run circles in a wifi hotspot.


Nutrition:

Calorie Tracker (Livestrong): Blackberry / iPhone / iPad: One of the problems with using a calorie tracker is the frustration with not having the foods you need to track. I have found the livestrong app to have a pretty comprehensive data base so that you can find just what you are looking for, or at least get pretty close.


Menu Planner (National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute): Web. This menu planner is only available online, but helps you plan your meals. There is a large variety of food options and serving sizes and calculates the number of calories for you. This one may be really good to help you pre-plan those dangerous holiday meals.


Text-2-Eat (Livestrong): Text messaging. This one is fun, and you don’t even need a smart phone! You just text a food you are considering (or just ate J) to 35242 and they will text you back with the item, calories, fat and protein.


If you want more ideas, I got most of these from an online story by MD Anderson. It has several other categories including kids nutrition and smoking cessation. So, follow this link and "app" to your healthy hearts content:


MD Anderson Apps Article weight loss apps exercise apps iphone droid fitness healthy eating apps calorie tracker app weight loss apps iphone droid fitness healthy eating apps exercise apps calorie tracker app weight loss apps iphone droid fitness healthy eating apps calorie tracker app weight loss apps iphone droid fitness healthy eating apps calorie tracker app exercise apps weight loss apps exercise apps iphone droid fitness healthy eating apps calorie tracker app weight loss apps iphone droid fitness healthy eating apps exercise apps calorie tracker app weight loss apps iphone droid fitness healthy eating apps calorie tracker app weight loss apps iphone droid fitness healthy eating apps calorie tracker app exercise apps

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