Favorite iPhone Apps: Lose It!
Cost: FREE
What it does: It’s a diet and exercise log. You tell it your current weight, your target weight, when you want to reach that weight, your age, your sex, and height. It comes up with a basic calorie budget for you (based on body mass index I presume), and it keeps stats on how you’re doing with a nice clean interface and graphs.
As someone who has never been a fitness nut, I kind of ate what I wanted, when I was hungry, and did a small amount of daily exercise (walking the dog 1-2 miles a day). I got on the scale recently (after realizing some favorite clothes didn’t really fit well anymore), and discovered I have gained about 20 pounds since college. Not surprising considering back then I used to walk all over campus, ride a bike, and play in bands.
So not knowing much about what to do, I started googling and asked my doctor. The recommendation is not suspiring, eat healthy, and exercise :)
Not being particularly excited about the fact that I might actually have to do something to get in shape, I stumbled across this app, which, for me, has completely changed my outlook on it.
Instead of guessing weather or not what I was about to eat was going to be okay, and how much I might have to exercise to compensate, this app takes a LOT of guess work out of that, and probably most importantly, piece of mind.
Tracking calories, fat, and carbs is super easy, because it has a huge internal database of brand name foods, you can adjust the serving size, AND it has nutrition information for restaurant chains.
It’s guesstimates for exercise calorie burning is nearly spot on from what I’ve tested. The gym I go to has an elliptical machine, treadmill, and bike that display your heart rate and calorie burn. I punched in the activity, intensity, and time, and it’s almost always within 10 calories of what the machine said.
I’m not obsessing over the numbers, but the fact that my phone is ALWAYS with me makes it work. I never forget to log anything going in or out, and it’s turned it into kind of a fun game (really).
Oh, and best of all, it works. The plan I set has me losing 2 pounds a week, and guess what. After a week, I’m 2 pounds smaller. And best of all, feel a LOT better. I’m not as tired, and when I do the occasional sprint with my crazy dog, I’m not the slightest bit winded.
I’m not eating any weird processed foods or taking diet pills, I’m just staying under my daily calorie budget, and being sure not to eat more than 100% of my fat or carb limit.
As an iPhone obsessed nut, it gives me something else to fiddle with all day besides Tumblr, Facebook, Brushes, and er um… the Sims 3.
I’d like to say that I made this lifestyle change on my own, but honestly, (and maybe it’s a little sad to admit), this app was the thing that actually got me excited and motivated.
