I’m sure we’ve all seen, heard of, or possibly even downloaded the game “Angry Birds” to fill those empty minutes spent on the bus, waiting at the DMV, or on sleepless nights. But what if your phone had more to offer than mindless entertainment? For those of us attempting to live a healthy lifestyle, there are many apps available for free (or cheap) to help us along the way.
Take “My Fitness Pal”, for example. A free app that uses your personal information (height, weight, age, etc) along with your goals to create a daily calorie range to shoot for. Users are able to input their eaten meals using the apps database that has nutritional information for many foods stored. There is also a barcode scanner that allows the phone’s camera to scan the barcode of the chosen food and then upload the nutritional information. Users can also input their exercise and get an estimate of calories burned in an effect to gauge how close they are to staying within their caloric goal. A full website version is also available at http://www.myfitnesspal.com/. Definitely worth checking out.
Another interesting app available for free download is “Fooducate”. Fooducate uses your phone’s camera to scan barcodes, (like My Fitness Pal above), and then gives the food a ‘grade’ based on ingredients and nutrients. This allows users to better select foods for purchase. What a handy thing to have while grocery shopping!
“Map My Fitness” is a great app to use when exercising outside. Using the phone’s GPS, users can track and map their workout wherever they are! Full website version available at http://www.mapmyfitness.com/. Workouts can be saved, stored, or searched for based on location. Great for traveling!
One of the more challenging things to do when I’m at home is to find a low calorie snack. Sometimes what I think is low calorie turns out to be a mistake. This is where “Shake A Snack” comes in. For $0.99, users are able to shake their device and a virtual slot machine rings up a three ingredient snack ranging from 100-300 calories. Awesome, and totally fun!
Another $0.99’er is “Meal Snap” which also uses your phone’s camera. Take a picture of your plate, and this app analyzes it to give you a rough idea of caloric content. Might be useful in a restaurant!
With all these super cool applications available for download, why not put down “Angry Birds” and give them a try! Anyone have different smart phone apps they like to use to improve their health? I’m always on the lookout for cool new stuff to download!
See the full list here: http://www.health.com/health/gallery/thumbnails/0,,20528210,00.html