Tools

We use our cell phones for just about everything these days… talking, texting, planning calendars, games, shopping, and listening to music. And now, with the flood of applications, we can even use our phones to help us lose weight. This is the first in a series of articles sharing the best applications for each smart phone device on the market. This week, we’re going to start with the iPhone apps.

Obviously, if you’re a Weight Watchers member, you’ll want to go ahead and install the Weight Watchers Mobile application. I’ve been using this since it came out and LOVE it!

FREE Trackers

Lose It! – “Succeed at weight loss with Lose It! Set goals and establish a daily calorie budget that enables you to meet them. Stay on track each day by recording your food and exercise and staying within your budget.“
Go Meals – “Making healthy food choices is important and can be challenging. And if you have a health condition, such as diabetes, nutritional information can be critical. Now with GoMeals, it’s easy to make smart food decisions, at home or on the go.”
Calorie Counter by MyNetDiary - “MyNetDiary is the fastest, easiest, and smartest iPhone calorie counter. High-quality over 100,000 foods database with search-as-you-type magic lets you enter foods in seconds. Includes free web site access. You’ve got nothing to lose, but that extra weight.”
SparkPeople Diet & Food Tracker – “SparkPeople.com, the world’s most popular diet and fitness site, is proud to offer this free application—a mobile extension of our platform—to iPhone users. The SparkPeople Food & Fitness Tracker fully syncs with your online SparkPeople.com account.”
Daily Burn – “The DailyBurn iPhone App gives you quick and mobile access to the fastest-growing diet and fitness tracking site on the web. Track your weight, exercise, nutrition, and reach your fitness goals with DailyBurn.”
Meal Diary – “Lose weight fast with Meal Diary! The easiest way to track your food and exercises: one click for type and one click for size is all you need. Your records are automatically uploaded to MyMealDiary.com where you can access them for free. “
Calorie Counter by FatSecret – “Calorie Counter is the essential app to simply find nutritional info for the food you eat and easily keep track of your meals, exercise and weight.”

Paid Trackers:

Tap & Track ($3.99) – “The Tap & Track will allow you to keep track on your calorie by calculating your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and finding the daily calorie needs of your body based on your gender, age, weight and height. The app also considers the type of the job you are into and applies the very well-known Harris Benedict Equation while doing the calculations. The application features can be divided into 4 parts; Food, Exercise, Weight and Reports. You will find the app very easy and pleasant to use.”
Livestrong.com Calorie Tracker ($2.99) - “The LIVESTRONG.COM Calorie Tracker application is the companion tool to The Daily Plate service, available for $2.99 at the iPhone App Store. The Daily Plate at LIVESTRONG.COM helps you determine a daily calorie target based on your weight and weight goal. Then you can search the extensive database of more than 525,000 foods for nutritional information including fat, sugar, carbohydrates, cholesterol and more.”

FREE Exercise Apps

Body Fitness FREE – “Body Fitness is a comprehensive exercise journal that provides clear pictures, detailed instructions, clean user interface, all within the palm of your hands. With over 320 exercises, separated into Core, Lower Body, Arms, Chest, Shoulders, Back and even Yoga categories, you’ll be hard pressed to find an exercise that isn’t included. And if it isn’t, email us with your exercise and we’ll be sure to include it within the next update.”
iMapMyRun – “iMapMyRun uses the built-in GPS technology of your iPhone 3G to enable you to track your runs and gets you closer to achieving your health and fitness goals. Step out your front door, start running, and this app will effortlessly mark out your path along an interactive map and record essential metrics including duration, distance, pace, speed, and elevation. Once you finish your run, save your data and it automatically uploads to MapMyRun.com where you can view your route, run data, and a comprehensive workout history. Plus, the new iMapMyRun gives you the ability to easily share your workout data with friends and family via email and Twitter.”
Nike Women Training Club – “Train like an athlete with NikeWomen Training Club. Access your personalized training program on your iPhone to get stronger on the go. Get started on Nikewomen.com, simply create your Mini, customize your workout, and invite your friends for a little healthy competition.”
Virtual Trainer – “The most incredible Fitness application and of course completely free. Create and log your own routines or choose from 120 programs ranging from 6 to 60 minutes and over 250 exercises, more than any other app. Perfect for anyone interested in general fitness, weight loss and muscle development. Suitable for all fitness levels and includes easy instructions with animations. Our simple progress tracker also lets you monitor improvement.”
Women’s Health Workouts Light – “Women’s Health Workouts has everything you need to sculpt a sleek, toned body – in or out of the gym. The app is packed with professionally-designed workouts and exercises, making it easier than ever to burn fat fast and build your best body ever.”
Lose The Belly (Weight Loss for Men) – “This app requires a WiFi internet connection. It is an iPhone client for a weight loss videos website portal (http://videos.cosmetic-makeovers.com/losebellymale).”
Yoga At Home: Learn Beginner Yoga – “This app brings you the best free video tutorials for practicing beginner yoga at home.”

Paid Exercise Apps

iFitness ($1.99) – “iFitness is a personal trainer for your iPhone. It teaches, encourages, and tracks your progress from start to finish.”
Go Pedometer ($.99) – “Go Pedometer is a pedometer for your iPhone. It uses an advanced SmartStep™ technology for accurate steps detection and automatic calibration.”
iStayFit ($9.99) – “iStayFit is a complete solution for tracking your exercises. The main goal of this application is to provide:
a) An easy to use interface with a well designed workflow so that your focus is on the exercise;
b) A fully customizable software that can be geared towards YOUR needs and specific exercise requirements.”
Gym Goal Light ($1.99) – “GymGoal Lite is a lighter version of GymGoal. It allows for a more compact variation of features and for the options of animations to be stored online (although they can be fully downloaded after which you will not need an Internet connection to access them).”

Other FREE Apps

Eat This Instead! – “Eat This! is a simple, free app that pops up a heart-healthy alternative to a common unhealthy food each time you open it. Once you’ve seen a new tip, it will be placed in a list for you to easily reference at any time in the future. Also, easily share any of these tips by email or Facebook!”
Health Tips 1000 – “This application contains a rich collection of 1000+ interesting and useful health tips — concisely written for quick and easy review.”
Restaurant Nutrition – Review: “Wow. In a time where many of us are looking to trim the waistline, this app is nothing short of excellent. Loaded with information just about everything at the big fast food chains and even a couple of the family restaurants, I will definitely be taking this app the next time I eat out.”

Do you have a great iPhone application that helps you with your weight loss goals? Please share it in the comments!