The Holidays are one of the toughest times of the year to stay in shape. There’s so much food, temptation, and stress that many people start to just dive right in. We’ve just made it through the American holiday of Thanksgiving where we basically celebrate overeating. So while I’m guilty of doing that as well, I wanted to present my Top 5 Apps for iPhone and Apple Watch that help me stay in shape.
MyFitnessPal
The real key to losing or maintaining weight, especially during the holidays, really comes down to diet. What you put in your body actually has a greater effect than exercise.
So when I want to lose weight the first thing I do is start tracking everything. It actually not my favorite app when it comes to tracking, but its the one that I use the most.
It has strong social features which is the reason why I moved over to it. The app does a good job of connecting you to groups and friends to help motivate you to keep up with your tracking.
The real reason I use MyFitnessPal comes down to its food database. It seems to have the best amount of food already in the database.
The other thing is that it really works with many of the other apps I have on the list. (Link to App)
Achievement
Achievement hooks into all the other apps I have on here in some way, but what this app boils down to is that it pays you to track your health data and answer some quick surveys.
Sign up fo Achievement and then let it get your health data and you will start getting paid. When I log my food in MyFitnessPal I start getting points in Achievement. If I were to record a run, I get points based on how long the run is.
There are two draw backs with the app though. 1) it takes a while to get enough points to get paid. You have to get 10,000 points to get $10 sent to your paypal account.
The more active you are though, the quicker you get paid.
2) Not all apps are created equal. If you record a run using the Activity App on your Apple Watch you won’t get credit for running, but you will get credit for steps. If you track the run in MyFitnessPal you get more points, and if you use Strava (the next app on the list) you get even more points. I’ve found Strava to be better at getting me points than RunKeeper and Nike RC, so I’ve stuck with it.
This app does work, and I have gotten paid. I can vouch for it. (Direct link to app)
Strava
Cardio is probably the next best thing you can do to help lose weight, so we need to grab a running tracker here.
I mentioned above that I use Strava to track runs because it gets me more points in Achievement. It’s also a pretty great running app. It works well on the iPhone and the Apple Watch.
Strava tracks lots of metrics like distance and speed. It will track your heart rate on the Apple Watch as well. It has great social features, although I don’t use them too much. I can still see what types of runs and bike rides my friends go on.
I use Strava on my Series 4 Apple Watch with wifi (read the review here) and it works like a charm. I especially love that it gives me audio cues at the mile intervals letting me know how far and how fast I’ve gone.
One of these days I’d like to do a comparison of all the running apps that I’ve tried. I still think Strava will be at the top.
FitBod
At one point in my life I was lucky enough to have a personal trainer. Having a trainer really helped me turn my life around and get healthy. I dropped almost 40lbs.
I can’t afford a trainer anymore, so I got the next best thing, FitBod. FitBod helps create workouts in the gym. You can target certain areas, or have it build routines for you. If you have no idea where to start with lifting weights I would suggest this app. Once you get going with it, it will suggest lifts and the amount of weight to lift. It tracks your progress and adjusts to them.
On the iPhone you can see your plan, change lifts you don’t want to do, and see videos of every lift. You can tell it what equipment is in your gym or what’s not in the gym and it will make sure it doesn’t tell you to do something you can’t. Tie it in with Strava and it will help you track your cardio as well.
It has a Apple Watch app that has come a long way. You can use the app to see what lifts, weights, reps, and use it as a rest timer.
Fit Men Cook
Finally, I use FitMenCook to get some recipes. I’ve been trying to cook at home more often, and finding healthy recipes can be challenging.
That said, not all the recipes in here are great, but a lot are. It’s easy to find something to try out based on any desire.
Each recipe comes with videos on how to make it. It makes it easy to follow along.
Each recipe also has all the nutritional stats on it as well. You can also use it to meal plan for the week.
Wrap up
These are the apps that I use frequently to help me stay in shape. I’m sure there are some other apps out there as well.
Of course, don’t forget to compete with someone to get you going as well.
Do you track your health? What apps do you use? Are there some I should try out?
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