It’s odd to see someone without a smart phone attached to their hand or ear. 24/7 access to information is a must. Your iPhone can do a lot of things, but can it help you lose weight? Yes! There are a lot of ways that people have been using iPhones to kick-start or maintain a healthy weight loss. The best part is that help is as close as your phone.
Healthy Diet
The first way that your iPhone can help you lose weight is food tracking. It’s a well-known fact that dieters who track everything they put in their mouths will begin to become more conscious of nutrition and reach their weight-loss goals sooner.
There are a few apps in the App Store that are awesome for this. Diet Diary is great because you can add it to your phone, tablet, and computer. It has a good base of nutritional values and is very user friendly.
Noom is an app that markets itself as a “diet coach.” It’s more than just food tracking, it includes exercise and planning too. This is super simple to use and the lite version is free.
If you fail to plan, you can plan to fail. Even with all the greatest intentions of eating well, if you skip the planning phase of your diet, you have a higher likelihood of failing. Meal Planner is a good app to help you do a week’s worth of shopping at a time with a simple list. It’s a bit complicated to get started, but after that—it’s a breeze.
Sometimes you just need to break down and have a dessert with a friend when you are out on the town. Calorie King Foods is a great way to have access to thousands of food items and all of their nutritional content. It’s great for deciding on whether to have the double fudge chocolate cake or the strawberry shortcake.
Exercise
The second component to good weight loss is exercise. There are numerous technologies now that can help you through the exercise process, but the simpler the better. Map My Run is a great tracking app because it goes with you and includes a pedometer. Other similar versions are Map My Walk and Map My Ride.
Since your phone is normally always with you, a good swap is that old pedometer for a phone based one. Noom (as mentioned above) has a very accurate one built right in. It automatically calculates how many steps you should take in a day and tracks them for you.
Encouragement
Weight loss is hard. Sometimes you just need some kind words and encouragement. In the App Store, there are pages of apps with motivational quotes for weight loss. From visual encouragement (Weight Loss for Women—Visualization), to Biblical quotes (Biblical Weight Loss Encouragement), to using real rewards for exercise (Nexercise and Gym Pact), there is something to motivate anyone.
Losing weight is not easy; find your help wherever you can. Using your iPhone as a tool to track your diet, exercise, and keep you motivated will contribute to greater success in your journey. Hit the App Store today and get started.