Fitness Apps: Which is the best
Janet Foster has been a Registered Dietitian for 23 years. She is a graduate from the University of Nevada Reno with a Bachelor’s degree in Nutrition and Dietetics. Married to William Foster, they are proud parents of Abby Foster and Nick Foster.
Evaluating Fitness apps to determine which is the best can be overwhelming. It’s a big process to find one that meets all your needs, such as tracking your nutrients easily and helping to find the best workout to show your output of calories. So, which app is the best for you, if any? We will break it down.
Fitness and nutrition apps are growing in popularity as a lot of athletes want to assess their adequacy of nutrients and track calories. These apps are also helpful in showing training and workouts and revealing the number of calories expended. It can be fun to look at exactly what you consume and how it adds up to what you need, as well as determining whether you are consuming too many “empty calories”, which are calories that offer no nutritional value.
If you are looking to cut a few pounds, or maybe more, food journaling can be helpful in tracking what goes in. The apps calculate your estimated needs; based on height, weight, age and activity. The rest is up to the user to track what is consumed during the day. It’s also beneficial to see the ratio of proteins, carbohydrates and fats consumed. The apps are helpful to see if you are meeting your recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for vitamins and minerals.
Here are the reviews from what the experts say: MyPlate Calorie Counter was reported by Medical News Today as the best app for counting calories. Fooducate was also rated high as a good app to monitor nutrition. My Fitness Pal has also been evaluated to have good ease in finding a wide variety of foods and the ability to scan products for the nutrition information. It also tracks how well exercise is expended, but lacks specific training that wrestlers likely expend.
There are also apps that are specific for certain activities such as Jefit, which is a workout planner and fitness log. It’s noted to be great for Weightlifting. It’s free to download and use and has custom training session, workout tracking, and support. It also tracks body stats. Although, it doesn’t track nutritional information.
Cost is always a factor when determining any choice. Here are the free fitness apps available. Nike Training Club, Jetfit, Gymshark, MyFitnessPal (if basic app use), MyNetDiary, Fooducate, and Loseit, just to name a few. Be aware as a lot of these apps offer “free” for basic service, but attempt to get the user to subscribe and pay fees for advanced services.
Nutrition and Fitness apps can be fun. They not only help with meeting your fitness and weight goals, but also provide education and support. They help analyze and calculate nutritional needs to keep you on a healthy track to meet all your individual goals. –Janet Foster, RD, LD