This is a guest post by Matthew, a health scientist who believes technology gadgets, especially the iPhone, can make dieting easier and more effective.
Although losing weight is really rather a simple concept– eat less and exercise more– an astounding two out of three people are overweight, and half of these people are obese. Most are either on a diet plan or have attempted to diet in the past, yet weight problems continue to persist. Perhaps it is a problem with motivation, or maybe hectic lifestyles and poor meal plans are to blame. Whatever the reasons, dieting proves to be a difficult endeavor for most people.
Fortunately, successful weight loss can be a lot easier with the help of some ingenious iPhone apps. The following apps have been selected because they offer solutions to common dieting dilemmas and together they offer a complete set of weight loss tools. With these apps it’s possible to track calories and manage meals, find time to work out (and even know how to work out), and most importantly, to stay motivated and follow through with your diet. Whether you are following a commercial weight loss programs (i.e Weight Watchers, Medifast, Diet to Go, etc) or you own diet plan, you will find that these iPhone apps can make your fitness/weight loss journey a lot easier.
Dietitian
Dietitian is like having a personal nutritionist on call twenty-four hours a day, and it solves two of the biggest problems most dieters face: calorie counting and meal planning. After entering some basic information such as your height, weight, target weight, and food preferences, Dietician creates personalized meal plans that will help you successfully lose weight. Each day, you’ll get five new meals to make. If all you do is prepare and eat these meals, you’ll eventually hit your target weight.
Dietician takes care of meal planning and makes calorie counting obsolete. Even more impressive, it provides easy to follow recipes for each meal and gives a weekly grocery list so you’ll have all the ingredients on hand. This app is a dieter’s dream come true. Pick it up for $9.99 in the App Store.
iTreadmill
Another must have app, iTreadmill makes it easy to find time to exercise by allowing you to work out anywhere. Essentially, iTreadmill transforms an iPhone into a high tech pedometer that accurately counts your steps as you walk or jog, while tracking calories, distance, and pace. But unlike many pedometers, which have to be strapped to a particular part of the body, iTreadmill works just as well in a pocket as it does in an arm strap. Another cool feature of this app is that it helps you maintain a particular pace, much like a real treadmill.
iTreadmill is the perfect companion for those who like jogging to music, because it works seemlessly with iTunes. But it’s also great for those who just need a way to squeeze in some quick workouts. You can literally use this app to track calorie burning while running in place, and since you can pause your workouts, you can reach your goals in small increments throughout the day. This is a whole lot of app for such a low price. Get for only $.99 from the App Store.
Weightbot
Weightbot isn’t as feature-packed as many of the other weight loss apps on the market. In fact, it isn’t much more than a way to keep track of how your weight fluctuates throughout the weeks and months. However, this app made it into the Top Five because it is polished, fun to use, and what it does, it does really well. Indeed, its sharp graphics and fun sounds make routine weigh-ins an exciting part of the day!
Weightbot has a terrific graphical interface that allows you to actually see how your weight or BMI fluctuates over time. It also allows you to enter a target weight so that you can watch as you progress towards your goal. Its graphs are as accurate as they are beautiful, and Weightbot accurately predicts– to the very day– when you will reach your goal. Who knew such a simple app could add so much excitement to a weight loss program? It is an ideal app for people who are monitoring their weight, and for weight watchers or people training. Download it for just $1.99 from the App Store.
egoFitness
No diet plan is complete without a good workout regimen. Burning calories is an essential part of weight loss. Aerobic exercise like jogging or brisk walking is a great place to start (see iTreadmill), but anaerobic workouts are equally beneficial for weight loss because they burn calories and increase muscle mass, which burns even more calories.
EgoFitness is a cool app, especially for those new to weight training. Not only does it contain over 120 exercises, each shown with an easy to understand video, but this app was made with the help of Leo Caminotto, who is a world renowned body builder. In fact, using this app is a lot like having a personal trainer by your side. All you do is enter some basic information, and egoFitness spits out a series of workouts for you to complete. This app gives a new routine every day, so you don’t have to worry about getting bored with your workouts. Find it for $2.99 in the App Store.
Custom Hypnosis: Weight Loss Edition
The weight loss edition of the popular Custom Hypnosis iPhone app is the final app to make the list. Keeping motivated is one of the biggest weight loss challenges, and this app provides a novel way to maintain motivation so you can stick to your diet plan.
Custom Hypnosis: Weight Loss Edition offers several hypnotic sessions, and each can be customized in a variety of ways. You’ll be able to choose from different music selections, and it is even possible to select different session lengths, which is great when you’d like a hypnotic boost, but can’t spare much time. All in all, there are 54 ways to customize the sessions, which makes this a uniquely useful app to add to your weight loss repertoire. Pick it up for $1.99 in the App Store.
Final Words
These weight loss apps can transform any iPhone into the perfect weight-loss companion. Apps like iTreadmill and egoFitness allow you to burn calories and get in shape, while Dietician and Weightbot take care of calorie counting, meal planning, and keeping tabs on your weight loss progress. Throw in a little hypnosis for good measure, and you’re well on your way to achieving weight loss success!
Guest author Matthew is a scientist in the medical field who believes achieving and maintaining a healthy weight is an essential part of good living. He believes technology gadgets, especially the iPhone, can make dieting easier and more effective. Matthew writes about diet related topics on his blog, where he offers Medifast promo discounts to his readers and a DiettoGo discounts.
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