Tag: iPhone

Best Free Health and Fitness Apps for Your iPhone

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Your iPhone helps you achieve a lot of different goals every day. From communicating with friends, meeting work deadlines, and planning your schedule, there are thousands of apps that work to make your life easier. And if you have health and fitness goals, your iPhone can easily help you track them and achieve them, too. Getting in shape or living a healthier lifestyle is on the “to do” lists of so many people. It may seem counterintuitive that a smartphone can help you be more physically active or healthy in general. But there are apps that will do just that, and many won’t cost you a thing. If you’re looking for some help achieving your health and fitness goals, here are some of the best free apps for your iPhone to download today.

Lose It!

Lose It! is an app for your iPhone that allows you to track your weight loss progress and goals. You can enter and keep a record of all the foods you eat and the workouts you do. You can keep a food log, and it will calculate calories for you and subtract what you’ve eaten from your daily calorie budget. You can look up calorie and nutrition information for tons of different food choices. It will help you eat a balanced and nutritious diet. You can access this app without an Internet connection, too.

Nike Training App

This  app from Nike purports to be your pocket personal trainer. There are almost 100 different workouts and drills to choose from, and this app will guide you audio cues. You can work out to music from your iPhone’s music library. You can customize your workout based on your fitness goals, and track your workout history. There are step-by-step instructions for every move, and you can view workouts from professional trainers and celebrities.

RunKeeper

This app uses the GPS on your iPhone to track your runs. Turn it on before your jog, and RunKeeper will record your time, pace, distance, and your route. If you want, it will give you audio updates on how you’re doing, such as letting you know if you’re ahead of or behind you desired pace. You can even listen to your iPhone’s music library and change songs without leaving the app. If you create an account at RunKeeper.com, it will automatically sync your runs for even more access.

Fooducate

When you’re in the grocery store trying to navigate all the different products, it can be hard to make the right healthy choices. Whether you’re trying to stick to a diet or just make better food selections, Fooducate is a great tool to help you. Simply scan the barcode of any food product, and you’ll get all the necessary nutritional information, from the good to the bad. Fooducate will break down the choice for you so you don’t have to decipher the label yourself, and it will rate the healthiness of your food. It will also give you alternate choices, and allows you to compare two products to see which is better for you. If you have an iPhone 3G that won’t photograph and read a barcode, you can manually enter it.

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Nike Plus iPod Pedometer Review

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One of the big advantages of the current rise in smart phones and apps is that you can now take advantage of joint efforts like the Nike and iPod Pedometer System. Nike has very advanced website at nikeplus.com, and when that site is combined with a Nike + iPod sensor and receiver kit you can measure your walk or run, record data to nikeplus, and share the data on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media.

Nike iPod Pedometer

Nike Plus iPod Review

If you need help with getting motivated and staying that way, the Nike Plus iPod Pedometer offers voice over prompts (although a few them actually kind of annoy me). You can also transfer your favorite tunes onto your iPod for inspiration and then all you need to do is attach a Nike sensor into your running shoe. No iPod or iPhone? You can also get a Nike Plus Arm Monitor instead.

Nike manufactures a Nike Plus ready shoe which has a special space in the liner to hold the sensor. A tiny receiver plugs into your iPod, or if you have an iPhone, it will detect it automatically, and the total operation is completely wireless. Once the sensor is in its little shoe pocket, walking or running will send information to your iPod. You can receive it audibly through your head phones or visually on your iPod screen. If you choose “audible voice,” the voice will interrupt your music to keep you informed of your progress.

For those without Nike shoes, you can attach the foot pod to your shoe in other ways. One easy way is to seal the pod in a small plastic bag, cut a slit in the back, and  slide the bag through the laces. Or you can buy a small lace pouch and place the pod in that.

The Nike pedometer sensor kit is designed to work with the iPod, but it will also work natively with the iPhone. The information about pace, distance, and speed can be uploaded later to your home computer or laptop for use on the nikeplus.com website. You can also get calories burned. You can print reports of all types on your workout-related data. This includes comparative graphs.

The pedometer (sensor) is pretty accurate. I found that mine was a bout as accurate as other pedometers I have tried, especially when calibrated first and used in the shoe. But it (and other pedometers) is not perfect. If you want the most accurate data possible, look to a GPS system. the Nike Plus system is also waterproof, unlike some pedometer watches.

The only inconvenience in the Nike Plus Pedometer System is that when your battery dies, you need to buy a new sensor unit. According to Apple, the battery lasts a thousand hours. And, you can save up to 1000 workouts in the iPod memory before you need to delete any stats.

When you upload and follow your data online, you can share it with friends. This adds a community connection which can help you with encouragement and motivation. You can also use your iPod to download your favorite music from iTtunes and have special tunes for running hills, the last quarter mile of your workout, or even crossing the finish line at an event.

Nikeplus.com is a terrific website with all kinds of training advice, running news, and tips.  Any way you look at it, the Nike Plus iPod Pedometer is an affordable information goldmine that offers a decent alternative to more expensive GPS systems or other pedometers.

Shop for the Nike Plus iPod system

Written by a guest author for Runadget with personal comments and edits by Carleen .