I have tried a variety of apps in my time to help my lose weight
My Fitness Pal – The only one I have stayed true to. I love it, it makes calorie counting a 5 min a day thing and the community is amazing and it make you realise all the wrong stuff about weight loss. To loss weight it’s about the calories but for health also it’s about what you eat. There are NO bad food, ANYTHING can make you fat if you eat too much of it and you don’t need to stop eating anything.
Fitbit – The first activity track that I used. I loved it but since losing it in Washington DC this past May, I haven’t felt the need to get another one sort of (see garmin below). I do still think about getting an activity tracker but I’m not sure it will be by fitbit.
Garmin – I have a running + activity tracking watch, the F15. I started just using when I ran but when I lost my fitbit I started using the activity tracker built in (vivofit). I am thinking of upgrading it to the Garmin Vivoactive smartwatch in the new year. I don’t need a tracker to make me move more, I just love data. I prefer the app & dashboard to the fitbits.
Sparkpeople – I have tried using this app a few times but it comes across as a very childlike design and the food database is crap unless you cook fresh every night, which I don’t. I couldn’t stand the forum and the calories it give me is too low.
Moves – This is basically a glorified pedometor but actually tracks where you are on a map. I don’t really need it, it’s just a nice thing to have
Fitocracy – Hear I can track my strength training sessions and see my progress. It’s a nice little app to have.
Bodyspace – This is very much like Fitocracy where you can track your workouts, it links to bodybuilding.com
S Health – This came with my phone and works best with the samsung tracker. I don’t have this but I keep this app as it is yet another data record that I can compare to others.
Nike Running & Strava – With these two apps I can sync my activity from my garmin and connect with other people. They are places to record my workouts.
Nuffield HealthScore – I got this free when I was a member of a Nuffield gym. For some reason I still have it free so I thought I might as well keep it for now. I don’t really use it so I am thinking of deleting it. Its a bit like S Health.
Libra – This is a weight logging app. It doesn’t sync with my scale or garmin so I enter my weight manually.
Nudge -This is another app like Record by Under Armour which I perfer. I don’t tend to look at Nudge so I think I shall be deleting this on. It’s an app where they claim you can sync all you other apps in one place.
Nike Training – This app gives you set workout to do, I don’t use it as the app intends instead I pick what exercises I like and make my own workout.
Monitor Your Weight – Like Libra but syncs with my firbit aria scale.
Sworkit lite – Again like Nike Training, this app gives you workout that you can do. You can select what part of the body you want to target, what style of workout you want and the length. I haven’t really tried it out yet but it does look like a good app.
I have other apps like Total Fitness & Wrkout HIIT that I still have to explore. I have tried runtastic, mapmyrun/fitness, dailymiles etc but I never updated them so saw no point in having them. I’m sure I shall delete some of the above apps in the near future.
In blog stalking news I can’t help but read E’s tumblr (I didn’t realise people still had them). Good on her for trying to lose the weight and pick the better food items but she really isn’t too clued up on what makes people gain or lose weight. Some food posts she has veg as 0 calories and continually believes that BMR is the amount of calories to maintain weight! Okay so this is all from 2010 and before so I hope she gets clued up soon. Reading about her evenings and weekends you’d think it was a lifestyle blog not a weight loss blog. I continue to follow as she has the same struggles as I do and that even though she never made it to 125lbs she is at her happiest right now.
I am no angel in the food & drinks department myself, I find it hard to eat ‘right’ but at least I understand TDEE & BMR, thanks to MFP.
22/07/2015 food