Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Technology Tip #22: Online Weight Loss Tools


Times magazine wrote that one of the top New Year's Resolution to be broken is to "Lose Weight and Get Fit". As we herald in the New Year I thought it would be fun to share some free online tools that can help you try to maintain that resolution.

A lot of fitness websites will have a ton of features including ways to track your calorie intake, free exercise routines, blogging space, and a social networking capability. Let's face it...some websites do some things better. Based on my own experience and some online reviews here are some of the most popular websites for your fitness goals this 2012.

My Fitness Pal / www.myfitnesspal.com
I found this website easy to use and I even got a few friends to join with me. This is a community based website that allows you to track your food, exercising, and create a online profile to interact with friends. You can post updates directly to your Facebook from their website and there is a app that you can download for your smart phone. It will help you set fitness, calorie, and weight goals. Keep your friends up to date while blogging about your trials and tribulations. The best part is that everything is free.

Livestrong / www.livestrong.com
I used to use this website and I would recommend it for people that are serious about their fitness goals. It offers more tools than Fitness Pal and a far more comprehensive food tracking system called the Daily Plate. I suggest this for people that really want to track their nutrition intake and accurately track every calorie burned. Another tool I really loved was their tool called "LOOP" for directly tracking the route you took on a walk, run, bike, etc. This way you don't have to drive the car around your path for mileage. Most of the features on Livestrong are free but for some of the more advanced options you will have to pay a membership fee.

My Food Diary / www.myfooddiary.com
This website is easy to use and popular. Unlike My Fitness Pal it is not completely free and some of the options require a membership. You can still access a food diary, exercise log, and a weight loss forum so you can look for inspiration and support from other users.

Women's Fitness / www.fitnessmagazine.com
If you are just looking for quick workouts Women's Fitness magazine offers one page printable workouts. This is free but you will have to give them your e-mail address. These workouts are awesome and lately they have been providing quick 15 minute workouts that torch calories.

Do you have any fitness websites you suggest?