Over the last few years, I’ve played around with countless apps to try and aid my weight loss and fitness. Some have been total duds, but others have been amazing. Below are my favorite apps that have, and are still helping me on my weight loss journey.
Noom: Great for Tracking Exercise
Noom is meant to be a “Weight Loss Coach”. It tracks your food, exercise, and gives you short articles to read about healthy eating and fitness. I’ve used it comprehensively in the past, but found that its best feature is tracking any sort of cardio, like walking, running, cycling, etc. It tracks you via GPS and calculates your calories burned based on your speed and weight. If you want to track your cardio, but don’t have a Fitbit or other fitness tracking band, Noom is a great alternative.
Noom Fitness Tracking
My Fitness Pal: Great for Tracking Food and Online Support
My Fitness Pal (MFP) is meant to be used the same way as Noom. Again, I’ve used it comprehensively before, but found that it’s best used for tracking your food. You can set up your daily intake goals in Nutritional Label format to make sure you’re eating exactly what you want to. The MFP food data base is huge! Everything is in there, and to make it even more convenient, you can use a barcode scanned on the app to just scan to food product and bring up the correct information straight away! The other great thing about MFP is its huge online support network. There’s a forum page, and because so many people are on MFP, you get answers to your questions very quickly and everyone is really supportive.
My Fitness Pal Food Tracking
Zombies, Run!: Great for Making Cardio Fun
I downloaded the free version of this app and instantly fell in love. The idea is you walk or jog with your headphones playing a “mission” in the app. The app will talk to you in a way simulating a radio transition and talk you through a story line. As you go, you automatically pick up items that can be used later in the game to build up your town. Every once in a while it will tell you that there’s zombies behind you and you have to run. If you don’t run fast enough, the zombies will catch you and take some of the items you found during that mission.
Zombies, Run! Combining Exercise and Gaming
Fitbit: Great for tracking exercise
This app is of course meant to be used in conjunction with an actual Fitbit. I’m using a Fitbit Flex, and I love it. It tracks cardio really well, but any exercise where your hands aren’t moving constantly (like push-ups) won’t be tracked well. These exercises can be added in later, but the calories burned aren’t as acuate as cardio. You can also make friends on Fitbit, and then compete in challenges, like who can do the most steps in a day/ weekend/ workweek. It updates in real time and the competition can be really motivating. Finally, you get a week report in an e-mail showing you your most active day, how many steps you did, calories burned, and how well you slept that week. It also ranks you against your friends and shows you who did the most steps that week.
Fitbit Weekly Progress Email
Pinterest: Great for Motivation
Pinterest is full of motivational pictures for all sorts topics. You can set up a “board” for a specific topic to “pin” pictures to relating to that topic. For my motivational board I’ve made a private board, which means only I can see it. When I feel I need a little kick of motivation, I’ll have a look through my board, or I’ll search for new inspirational pictures to pin. I always leave Pinterest feeling motivated and excited to continue my weight loss and fitness journey to looking like the beautiful women I’d been looking at.
One of my Motivational Pictures on Pinterest
Instagram: Great for Motivation
Although I don’t get as motivated from Instagram as I do from Pinterest, Instagram if full of fitness fanatics and celebrities. It’s great for following any one person that you find motivational, and for sharing your own pictures.
One of My Favourite Inspirational Women to Follow On Instagram
I’d love to hear about other apps that anyone else is using and love! Please let me know what you’ve found!
