The Present and Future of Weight Loss, the Diet and exercise app?
Diet and Exercise apps and trackers are the next best exercise product on the market. This cell phone technology tools and wearable technology are useful as long as you use them wisely and don’t depend on them fully.
To be better at anything you need to know what you are doing and exactly where you are going to progress, so that means a diet and exercise tracker.
To progress and get better you need to track what you are eating and notating what you have done in the gym, recording what you are doing is paramount. I advocate the use of wearable trackers, apps or journals to log everything down. I do, however, lean toward journals or planners simply because you can spread open a journal and see an entire month right in front of you. For my use, I need to see the entire planner for at least one month at a time.
A Diet and exercise trackers, also known as activity or fitness trackers are devices that you wear while exercising or moving around. The tracker or could be an application in your phone that monitors your exercise metrics like walking distance, caloric consumption, heart rate, how much you have run, altitude, sleep patterns and tends to be wireless.
For those interested primarily in calorie counting on notating what they are consuming the apps are awesome. Nothing better than to have an app right in your pocket all the time and jot down the information right there and then. Accurate writing showing what you are taking in is of extreme importance so you can evaluate your behavior later on.
Your tracker will be able to notice an increase in appetite if you are doing too much; you might notice a slight increase in food volume. Your tracker might show you that you are starting to adopt a CrossFit/BodyBuilder attitude of taking supplements after or before a workout like protein shakes or special meal replacement bars. If we get into the fitness/gym “tribe” mentality, we start to copy other members of the gyms and start to intake too many calories. Keep an eye on that.
Do remember about trackers and apps, once you start to depend on something outside of you, then you surrender some of your power, and you tend to forget your absolute goals, this can easily happen with trackers.
There are a lot of news clips about individuals who become so dependent and addicted to diet and exercise apps or wearable technology that they are constantly trying to beat their last score. It becomes a competition that cannot be maintained and either injury or mental/physical fatigue will outdo them.
There is also a huge debate lately looking into if trackers are effective, but I believe they are useful. Trackers are tools and need to be used as a tool without us being overly enthusiastic about it so that we do not fall into the technology hypnotics of keeping constant tabs and following it blindly.
There are a great many phone apps that are there for you at a moment’s notice, but a simple journal will also do the trick. I am “old school” and like to see everything in front of me, but the new generation of technology users are so used to viewing a small screen and doing everything out of it that they do well. So if you feel very much at ease with the small screens, then diet and exercise trackers and apps can be of great help.
Three Stage of Diet and Exercise app Usage
For the initial stage of usage of trackers, clients or patients start to use and get used to the fact that you always need to use the tracker, which is the first thing.
As the individuals progress, the second stage is to use it to evaluate what you are doing, how much you are doing, after that, you can decide how you are going to progress.
The third stage can be to monitor your eating habits and see where you can eliminate a small portion so it would not feel like you are depriving yourself. You might notice you have a doughnut at times in which you are not hungry but just hanging with colleagues or friends. With exercise, you might want to add more time to your fitness routine, decrease rest periods between activities, increase intensity, or could be to decrease volume and increase intensity. The world is your oyster.
Last stage. At the next and highest level tracking can be used to squeeze out the smallest details to help you improve to your absolute best. Tracking like this, of course, requires time and effort, and I am normally not too concerned that these individuals will falter and regress to an unfit heavier person. The individuals at the highest levels using diet and exercise trackers are so disciplined are in a great shape that they just need to squeeze out the most minute details of their day to see improvements. Professional Bodybuilders, fitness athletes, professional athletes competing at the highest level are individuals that are looking for any little change they can make to sharpen their look or performance.
These individuals are looking for any advantage to get fractionally better.
Example of wearable technology usage:
Pedometers are a great tool to figure out how much walking you have done thought out your entire day. Simply wear the pedometer on your wrist, leg, or arm depending on where it is recommended. Using a pedometer in this fashion is great when you have a certain number of steps that you need or want to achieve. There is no need to add too many walking miles throughout the day. Yes, it is very important to stay active but do not become a slave to the walking app.
The well-established 10k steps is a very good goal for everybody but doing more for the sake of doing more might be detrimental. I always tell the story of the employees of a well-known distribution center in Southern Californian (I was working as a contractor for 4 years) of which a great many of the employees were walking more than 8 miles a day. The employees were walking all that mileage while working since the building is huge and they needed to move from stations to stations. Do understand that the 8-mile walk was done in an 8-hour workday.
Whenever there were new hires, the new employees would be super happy when they would start to lose weight. However, as time would go by they would start to eat more to compensate for the burning of calories and would regain the weight. Mind you; this was while they were still walking 8 miles a day.
One aspect of exercise hardly anyone talks about is that you become hungrier because of your exercising.
The sad aspect of this was when they would vacation for two weeks or so they would stop their walking then gain more weight.
The best option I find for those of you that want to exercise a lot is to slowly add minutes to the routine and definitely monitor your eating! If the exercises tend to be more weight lifting or simply resistance, then you might find that you will start to eat a little more per meal. Monitor this when increasing the number of sets you are doing. Become very efficient with every single set you do. The least number of sets the better since you are not getting that hungry, but still you can get your goals meet. So no mossing around in the gym doing superfluous sets. Get to the necessary quality set and finish quickly.
Be picky about the number of exercises and the number of sets per exercises.
If you are monitoring how much you are doing and how fatigued you are, you will find out if your last few sets are just being done to comply with the workout, but the effort is not there. Those sets tend to be energy drainers and do not help you progress. They might even make you hungrier.
You might be able to determine this with your caloric log. Are you adding more morsels to your day? Maybe one protein drink added to your day? Or are you just falling into the “tribe” mode and following the supplementation habits of others?
Here are some free apps and wearable technology options, they do not include a lot of fancy options or excessive options, we do not want the app or wearables to be the main point in your workouts or weight loss regimen.
You can very easily find more apps and with greater intricacies but that is not the purpose of the app but to help you minimally, so you have total control of your habits.
Diet and Exercise Apps/Trackers
Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro
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Swim-ready water resistance. Jump in with your swim-ready Gear Fit2 Pro. Water-resistant up to fifty meters, now you can own the pool, run in the rain and recover in the shower with a device that withstands it all. Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro
Huawei Band 2 Pro
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With HUAWEI Band 2’s waterproof design rated to withstand water pressure of 5 ATM, it is capable of weathering moisture and rain, and even a swim in the pool
With built-in GPS, get more precise data about how far you’ve run, with GPS-enabled speed, movement, and distance tracking.
Provide comprehensive and accurate workout data records (heartbeat, pace, movement distance, speed, and direction
Continuously monitors your heart rate all-day, every day.
Scientific monitoring, while getting coaching attuned to your performance and needs. The Firstbeat system assesses your running style, making a tailored workout for you to increase your stamina and distance, and estimating your VO2Max to give you smart feedback for optimal recovery. Huawei Band 2 Pro
Garmin Vivomove HR
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CRON-O-Meter
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Cronometer is the premium web application for tracking your nutrition and health data.
Calorie reduced diets require a lot of information to perform optimally. In order to restrict caloric intake, but remain healthy, users of the diet must track their vitamin, mineral, and protein intakes with great care.
CRON-O-Meter aims to provide a complete solution for the smart dieter. Many diet-tracking applications fall short in some vital areas. Either they are not detailed enough, or they suffer from critical usability flaws. CRON-O-Meter believe that a diet tracker must be effortless to operate for the activity for which it will be used most of the time; keeping track of the foods you eat. CRON-O-Meter
Runkeeper
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Go for a run, walk, hike, or any activity really! You’ll get a clear view of your training in real time with our fitness tracker app that not only tracks activity, but encourages you to get active more often.
Have a race, weight, or pace in mind? Whether you’re working towards a 5K or training for a marathon, the Runkeeper running app will help you stay motivated!
Join challenges, snag workout rewards, participate in virtual races, and share achievements with your friends (a.k.a. biggest fans). RunKeeper App
Jefit (free) app
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Easily track your workouts and progress with the JEFIT Workout Application. Jefit’s goal is to make recording your workouts and logs on the iPhone simple. Create routines, largest exercise database, view progress, manage your stats, and synchronize your data Share your stats with your friends and stay motivated with your workouts. Jefit (free) app
Fooducate
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Find out what’s on your food with Fooducate, the only app that scans & grades foods based on their ingredients. Learn nutrition basics and get recommendations for healthy alternatives! Lose weight and keep it off. Eat tasty, healthy, real food. Track your calories, macros, and workouts. Get motivation from the most supportive community in the world. Fooducate
Strava Running and Cycling GPS
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Strava turns every iPhone and Android into a sophisticated running and cycling computer (and works with your GPS watches and head units, too). Start Strava before an activity and you can track your favorite performance stats, and afterwards, dive deep into your data.
Strava syncs with most devices – your phone, GPS watch or head unit, heart rate monitor or power meter – and records just about any performance metric you can imagine, plus a few exclusive to Strava.
Record an activity and it goes to your Strava feed, where your friends and followers can share their own races and workouts, give kudos to great performances and leave comments on each other’s activities. Strava
Runtastic fitness apps for Android
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All relevant sports data (elapsed time, speed, calorie consumption, heart rate) can be tracked via an app (e.g. iPhone, Android, Windows Phone) and can be uploaded directly to the Runtastic Fitness site www.runtastic.com (a social fitness community for users).
Runtastic provides a sports tracking and management solution for all, no matter if they are a beginner or fitness pro, young or old, tech-savvy or not. It is simple and straightforward!
Runtastic Running & Fitness Tracker
Map My Run
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Mapmyrun fitness apps for Android
Track Everything
Log any kind of workout using just your phone or with your favorite device like Garmin or Apple Watch.
Get Social
Find support and motivation from other runners, plus create challenges for you and your friends.
Train Smarter
Analyze your data in the app or on the web, then conquer that 5K or marathon using our adaptive training plans.
Argus
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Argus fitness app
All-in-one health & fitness app that uses JUST your phone (no costly devices needed) and conquer your goals! Argus has a super-easy calorie counter with barcode scanner and massive food database. Instantly measure your heart rate with JUST your phone, track your activity and steps through GPS or 24/7 pedometer, burn hundreds of calories with video-guided workouts, share your achievements through a social community of millions, and maximize your sleep with Sleep Time so that you feel refreshed everyday! Argus App
Nike Training Club
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Fully loaded with 100+ workouts, clear audio and visual guidance from experts for every move, plus plans to help you get fitter, faster and stronger than ever.
Challenge yourself with a huge variety of all-new workouts from Nike Trainers and athletes, including 15-minute options.
Instructional audio and video clips featuring Nike Trainers help you master your technique and get the most from each workout.
Your app will create a personalized training plan based on your needs, then continually adapt it as you go. Miss a day? We’ll get you back on track. Hit a peak? We’ll dial it up a notch.
