Fitness apps on smartphones work

Now that spring is kind of upon us, it’s about that time to get bikini-bod ready. Spring Break was the warm-up, but now that summer is almost here we are about to run a marathon! Beach, here we come!
First thing usually on everyone’s mind is the weight that you have put on from all those late nights studying or you can just fill in the blank about how you tend to gain weight.
The key to losing weight has always been accountability. I know I’m always healthiest whenever my friends encourage me to go running or out on walks with them. That’s why things like Weight Watchers have been proven to work because they are tracking pretty much your every move.
Well, guess what? There’s an app for that -- not Weight Watchers necessarily, although I’m sure there is one out there. I’m talking about a few choices to keep you on track for your weight loss goal that can be found right in your pocket, or where ever you may keep your smartphone.
I’m taking this list of apps from a list compiled from Daily News. I haven’t tried all of these, but I have tried one or two of them and have had friends who have done the same. All of us seem to have at least one or two pounds we would like to drop. Or in the case of those lucky few, they want to put on a few pounds. These apps can probably help with that as well.
Lose It!, available for free on both the Apple and Android market allows you track nutrients like protein, carbohydrates, and fat. There is also a recipe builder and a database of activities to track how many calories you have burned.
One of my favorite apps to use is the MyFitnessPal Calorie Counter and Fitness Tracker. This app comes with a barcode scanner that helps you scan and tally up the calories you eat every day. This particular app is free and is available for Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, and Windows Phone.
iTrackBites is one that I have never used before, but is similar to Weight Watchers in that it has a point structure. Those using the app can keep a food diary and select foods with an assigned point value. This app is not free, but rather $1.99 for iPhone users, and $2.99 on the Android market.
There are plenty of others, such as Endomondo or Fitocracy. The key idea is to choose something that will work for your and for your lifestyle.
The MyFitnessPal, app seemed to work the best for me because it gave me instantaneous results. I stopped using it because certain aspects of the program made me mad. It started telling me that I wasn’t eating enough on the days that I managed to forget to eat because I was busy doing other things.
However, the interface was clean and easy to use. After a while though, the novelty wore off and I just stopped using the program all together.
I still have it on my phone, but my eating habits are so sporadic that it’s hard to tell. Maybe when I’m not a student, it will be easier to keep track of.
But if you are looking for an easy way of keeping track of what you’re eating and how active you are being, I would look into the different fitness apps that are available out there.
Another one of my favorites is the couch to 5K app that transformers novice runners into 5K running mode. It really works if you stick to the program, as is the case with just about anything.