Let's Talk apps

[dswartze]

After 20 years of sedentary life (25 yrs old - 45 yrs old) I decided in January 2011 to get off my butt and exercise! My goal is to lose 50 pounds (starting weight 245) and get down to just under 200 pounds. I didn't want to use special diets that either cost money or would be inconvenient to my wife or become a barrier to my social life. I think it is really rude when you invite people over for dinner and they whip out their own food to eat after my wife spent time cooking for them! They could at least inform us of "special" diet needs a head of time - but I digress!

So a year later I have dropped 25 pounds and dropped 2 pants sizes (or it that 4?)! My endurance is way up where I can "run" on the elliptical on an incline for 2 hours and burn a 1000 cals in a 55 minute LMI Body Combat class! I also help lead our church's high school group and am able to run the teens into the ground in all the physical games we play! Needless to say, I feel great and plan on continuing my goal to get below that 200 pound mark by the end of 2012.

But apps ... or the lack of THE PERFECT app ...

I have tried (and in some cases still use) the following apps:

• Edmondo Pro
• CardioTrainer Pro
• RunKeeper
• JEFIT
• Calorie Counter by FatSecret

None of them meet all my needs. Since I don't run outside, the realtime GPS tracking features of Edmondo, CardioTrainer and RunKeeper are no use to me. Not one of these apps allow my to manually log my avg heart rate or maximum heart rate. There maybe other apps out there now, but I gave up looking about 6 months ago! Maybe this thread will help me.

What I Use Now
I am currently using CardioTrainer to track my workouts and calories burned. I did purchase a Polar FT40 HRM to track my heart rate, which I manually entered into CardioTrainer. I use Calorie Counter to track my overall calorie intake and output. Calorie Counter has a great catalog of both food items and restaurant items. I like Calorie Counter because it computes sleep, desk work, etc calories for a better idea of my daily net calories. My heart rate info is stuck on my FT40 for now. I know I could purchase the Polar product to download and analyze my readings, but that would be yet another thing to maintain!

How about you? I am really looking forward to learning how the rest of you track you workouts and goals -- AND to find that perfect health fitness / lifestyle app!

 

[lawmonkey13]

I haven't found the magic app yet either. At 38 and 210 lbs, I started really watching my health and trying to lose weight. 4 yrs later and I'm down to 162 lbs, running marathons, and now helping coach my kids' sports teams. I've tried runkeeper but my biggest hang ups are accuracy, battery life, and damage. I do most of my running outside and I'm just afraid that I will destroy my phone if I have to keep checking that it is tracking me correctly. So now I use my Garmin Forerunner 610. I've downloaded calorie counter but I haven't played with it much.

 

[bones10]

dswartze,

Why are you tracking your workouts? I'm not suggestion you shouldn't track them, but what is the reason you're tracking them? The answer to this question will help you figure out what you really need for apps.

Originally I wanted to see my progress over time - that was why I installed CardioTrainer. But since then I've realized what I really need is something that encourages me to keep up on my exercise. My progress over time isn't going to be so good if I don't keep up on my workouts. So I've switched from CardioTrainer to Endomondo. Endomono issues challenges that help keep me motivated. That and the community of others doing the same is helpful.

My suggestion is to figure out what is most important for you and find apps that maximize that.

- John

 

[JediJesus95]

I use Endomondo for tracking my workouts and I use Lose It to watch my food intake.

 

[cirrob]

My magic app is actually a combo made by the same company VidaOne. Their android app is lifestyle and they have a desktop counterpart called duet and fitness (they sync via wifi which is ideal for me). They both have the same powerful diet and fitness capabilities but I mainly use the mobile app to enter data during my workouts and the desktop app to analyze my progress.

I like the app because it not only supports cardio (which seems to be the only Alps on the market these days) but weightlifting as well. I have been tossing iron now for 15 years and have tried literally hundreds of Alps: none have come close to my customization and analytical needs as VidaOne has. Been using it for years now (since palm pilot days) and is one of the reasons it took me so long to switch from windows mobile to android; they took a bit before they ported over) when I did switch to android I tried a few others just in case but they all lacked the full featured set of VidaOne.

It also teals diet and calories and compares it to your calories burned. Check it out. Very powerful app by itself but the desktop companion makes really drilling down the data easy.