Put down the fork, pick up your iPhone and get back into shape with these awesome fitness tracking apps
Weight loss is an understandably controversial topic; there's an argument for there being too much pressure in modern society on people to be super thin. But at the same time, modern diets and lifestyles have led to a lot of unhealthily overweight people. However, mobile technology is improving in some signficant ways and is going a long way to helping people reverse their negative health habits.
There are worse things than being unhealthy of course, but anyone who's changed their lifestyle and put themselves in good shape will tell you that it DOES change things for the better and helps you get more out of life. Things are more enjoyable generally, you do feel better. AND it's important to note we are talking about a HEALTHY weight here, not too much, not too little. Getting the balance right really, really matters.
Today’s smartphone apps make it easy to monitor and record how healthy we are—or need to be. They allow us to track our weight, calories burned, and show us how much farther we need to go to reach our goals.
You CAN do it. And your smartphone can help you!
Apple’s iPhone achieves this via its built in HealthKit API and accompanying M8 coprocessor. But don’t worry if you don’t have an iPhone 6, the iPhone 5s still has these capabilities thanks to its first-generation M7 coprocessor. The mechanics of how all this stuff works is a bit complex, but the long and short of it is that your iPhone will basically track your activity on a day to day basis –– and best of all the M7/M8 processor even works when your phone is dead. Spooky, right?
With that (and my belly) in mind, I’ve compiled a list of the best fitness tracking apps for walkers, runners, and cyclists that will help you go from fat to fit by the all-important summer swimsuit season. But before I get into these apps, I often get asked why they work, so lets take a brief look at the tech behind them.
Why Fitness Tracking Apps Work
Every human body is different, but if we were to generalize (after all, generalities are often true for a large majority) the way most people lose weight is by simple mathematics: you need to burn more calories than you take in.
While gauging how many calories you consume has always been relatively easy since the advent of nutrition labels, before the smartphone, gauging how many calories you burn on a daily basis was harder. That’s all changed with fitness apps, which can now accurately tell you how many calories you are burning throughout the day. Burn more calories than you take in and you lose weight.
These apps are accurate because they use your movement data and combine it with something known as your basal metabolic rate. Simply put, the basal metabolic rate (BMR) is how many daily calories your body requires to maintain its current weight while at rest.
Our individual base BMR is calculated based on our age and weight. The base BMR is how many calories you require if you would do nothing but lay in bed all day. As a 6’1” 205lb. 36 year old male my base BMR is 2,025 calories. That is, if I’d produce no movement in a day, I’d still need 2,025 calories to maintain my weight. Any less and I’d start losing weight (which is why comatose people will lose weight if they aren’t fed a certain level of calories a day).
As your activity level goes up, so do the calories required for you to maintain your weight. In my case, if I were running 15 miles a day, my calorie intake would need to be 3,500 calories a day just to maintain my current 205lb weight. That’s a whopping increase of almost 1,475 calories. Previously tracking calories burned on a real-time basis was next to impossible, but now thanks to our smartphones and the glut of fitness tracking apps out there it’s as easy as pie. And once you know your daily calorie burn rate, you’ll know how much more you need to exercise – or how many calories you’ll need to cut back on. As long as you’re burning more than your required BMR calorie intake for your activity level, you’ll lose weight.
Best BMR Calculator
BMR Calc (free)
Though some apps have a BMR calculator built in, I find it’s best to use dedicated BMR calculator apps to find mine and then rely on one (or more) of the following fitness apps to track my daily calories burned. I’ve been using a free app called BMR Calc for almost 4 years to track my BMR. It’s a simple BMR calculator that allows you to enter in your gender, age, height, and weight and see how many calories your body needs each day to maintain its weight. What’s nice is that the results screen has a slider that allows you to toggle through your activity level from “No activity at all” to “Extremely active.”
Download this app, find out your BMR for your activity level, and make a mental note of it. If you eat no more than the stated calories per day and then can burn 500 calories a day (based on what you’ll track in the apps below) you’ll lose a little over one pound a week.
Best Fitness Trackers
Once you know your BMR, all you need to do is find an app you love to track your daily calorie burn. What’s great about calorie trackers on the iPhone is you have a choice of thousands, so there’s something for everyone. I enjoy hiking and walking more than running, so my iPhone is stocked with apps that are great at tracking my walks. But if running or cycling is your thing, you’ll have a plethora to choose from too.
Also keep in mind that if you’re serious about tracking your fitness, think about getting an iPhone 5s. It’s got THAT M7 motion co-processor, see, which tracks your movement data 24 hours a day and can even distinguish between if you're walking, running, cycling, or on public transport. Apps that support the M7 don’t require you to press the “start” button to track your movement, they just gather the data automatically from the M7. In this way, they are more accurate because they never stop tracking you.
Moves (£1.99)
This is my new favourite fitness tracker on iOS. It’s great for runners, walkers, and cyclists as it can distinguish automatically between your types of moment thanks to its use of the M7. Simply launch the app and you’ll see blue, green, and pink dots that represent your various types of movement. The dots show you your distance travelled as well as how many calories you burned.
Moves is a simple app with a simple design. However, if you’re just interested in keeping track of your calories burned with as little hassle as possible (and own an iPhone 5s), this is the app to buy.
Walkmeter (£2.99)
If you’re a heavy walker or hiker the one app you should own is Walkmeter. The app tracks over 170 metrics of your walks, from calories burned, to heart rate, cadence, speed and more. It’s also got a powerful visualization element to it, allowing you to view your walks on a map and see multiple graphs for anything from elevation to speed. A really nice thing about Walkmeter is that it supports iCloud sync and is a universal app, so you can review the data from your walks on the iPad’s large screen.
The company behind Walkmeter also makes Runmeter and Cyclemeter with all the same features for runners and cyclists.
Zombies, Run! (£1.99 for a limited time)
For some people exercise is a chore. Thankfully there are plenty of apps that can make a boring routine into a fun adventure. One such app is Zombies, Run! Like most running apps Zombies, Run! tracks your runs and accompanying metrics like speed, distance, and more. However Zombies, Run! adds a unique twist: it’s a mission-based fitness app that plays an audio-story as you run. In it, you are Runner 5 and it’s your job to run to find supplies and help people out. Each run you go on is another mission and completing it will lead to more advance missions. It’s an interesting take on a motivational running app, and for fans of the zombie genre, it’s sure to be a great motivator — especially when you hear a horde of zombies chasing you as your run during the night.
MapMyRide (£1.99)
If you’re a cycling enthusiast—or just cycle to work and back—the best way to track your calories burned is via a dedicated cycling app. And the best cycling app on the market is MapMyRide.
What’s great about MapMyRide is that it’s not only a fitness tracking app. MapMyRide also provides you with over 70 million cycling routes to choose from so you can find new rides in your area—helping to stave off the boredom that can come with cycling the same route over and over again. In addition to mapping your routes you can set goals, track calories burned, and even log your nutrition intake.
The four fitness tracking apps above (plus the BMR calculator) are, of course, just a drop in the bucket of fitness trackers available. However, in my experience these are the best of the best. Pick one and get started tracking your fitness and in no time you’ll see those extra holiday pounds drop off.