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Getting Fat? There’s an App for That!

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Today, mobile phones aren’t just for calling up your friends to find out where you’re meeting or sending a few texts, but instead the technological equivalent of a Swiss Army knife – allowing you to shop, watch the latest goals, read the news, check your e-mails, listen to music and even watch a whole feature film!

That’s all well and good, but wouldn’t it be great if these smart little devices could help you lose weight?

I’ve looked my phone right in the eye and asked, ‘if you were so smart, why can’t you get rid of this belly!?’ Siri couldn’t come up with a good response. Still, a quick trip to the App Store will show that while your phone, unfortunately, doesn’t offer a function to instantly do away with those few extra pounds (let’s hope the geniuses at Apple are working on it), there’s a litany of apps out there that can more than help you on your way – covering everything from work-out regimes to tracking how many calories you’ve put on/lost in a single day.

Like with any facet of the App Store, some stand head and shoulders above the competition, so let’s take a look at a few of them:

The Choice between Nike+ and RunKeeper

Starting us off with a bang is not just one, but two of the most notable fitness apps that are currently available, and are both competing for the title of the undisputed best running app out there. In the red corner, we have the app fronted by the brand that everyone knows about – endorsed by the world’s best athletes. In the blue corner, we find RunKeeper, the lesser-known of the pairing, but an app that doesn’t require the Nike pizzazz due to its great functionality and abilities.

Both are marking out and tracking your runs, saving them to a database, detailing calories burnt and coming complete with social features that can pit you against your friends and give you that extra drive to keep on running, there’s not too much to set them apart (they’re both even free!). So my advice would be to download both, see what works for you best, and then run your heart out, leaving the other one in your dust!

One Hundred Push-Ups

Even the name of this app makes you feel worn out, as its goal is to progress you to the point where you can complete 100 consecutive push-ups. You’ll be paying £1.49 for the privilege. However, this six-week training is incredibly confident of itself, and think of how optimistic of YOURSELF you will be when you can say ‘you know what? I can do 100 push-ups at one time’ and follow up on the statement.

Tailoring the training schedule to your initial fitness level and age, you don’t have to worry about being thrown in at the deep end either!

Adidas miCoach

Is fitness and getting in shape an essential part of your life, but not enough to spend an obscene amount on a personal trainer? Well, coming with absolutely none of those monthly payments or the confident jock-swagger of the trainer down your local gym, the Adidas miCoach app does a pretty good job of becoming your trusted personal trainer that you’ll come back to time and time again.

From yet another global sports brand, you would only ever accept the best. With the ability to input factors such as age and weight along with personal goals/chosen sport and then receive a personalized regime complete with real-time voice coaching, you gain exactly that.

Lose It!

Getting in shape and shedding a bit of weight isn’t just about exercise, but also what you’re eating daily, and bringing both sides of the coin together in a fantastic free app is Lose It! An app that allows you to input what you’ve eaten against how much you have exercised daily to calculate the calories gained/lost could fall flat on its face if it weren’t so easy to use, with a smart, streamlined interface which makes inputting your data a breeze.

In the past you would have had to spend a significant amount of time and possibly money on gaining this detailed breakdown of your diet, however now with a few taps of your phone, it’s all there for you, enabling you to chop and change what you’re eating along with your waist size.

Now that you know about these super-fit apps, there’s no excuse not to follow up on them, so hit the App Store instead of the gym, and I expect to see you sailing through 100 press-ups in 6 weeks!