I found the Lose It! app for iPhone's while randomly browsing iTunes one day. I had no intentions on counting calories at the start of my weight loss journey, but this colorful, easy to use app caught my interest. It just looked fun to use. It wasn't like keeping a written food journal in a diary. This app does most of the work for you. You just have to log it. That was May 2009. Three weeks later into June 2009, I had lost the first 15lbs.
I was one of the early Lose It! app users before they developed the website into what it is now. Now you don't have to have an iPhone and a recent Android version has been released.
When you first set up your account. It will ask you to enter the standard info (i.e. Today's Weight, Goal Weight, Height, and how much weight would you like to lose a week) that assists in determining your daily calorie budget. My current calorie budget for maintenance mode (to maintain my current weight) is 1,964 calories a day. If you're trying to lose weight, of course yours will be lower, depending on your stats of course. Once you've entered this info in, you can start logging your food and exercise calories.
The food database has been updated several times, so it includes almost every food and/or restaurant you can think of for every meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack). If not, you can enter the item in manually. The same goes for exercises (especially if you use a HRM which may give a more accurate calories burned count).
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| I eat so many carbs and not enough protein - working on that! |
I like the Report feature (the full version-visible only via the website) which shows an analysis of your calorie trends including nutrient information. I'm able to see a breakdown of My Nutrients. I particularly like to keep up with my Fat-Carb-Protein (& Fiber) percentages now that I am in maintenance mode. Whereas, when I was just trying to lose weight and thought all of that was overwhelming, I just wanted to burn more than I ate. Today's Fat-Carb-Protein percentages weren't that great. I like being able to see this because its a quicker way of assessing what I am doing "wrong"; I like the extra control it gives me over my diet.
There's other extras like the ability to add friends so you can motivate each other, participate in the forums for additional help/resources, graphs showing your progress, and badges congratulating you for different achievements and milestones. My most recent badge was one for "Smooth Sailing". Earning the "Smooth Sailing" badge means I'm doing a great job of maintaining my weight.
I have heard of the other calorie counters like My Fitness Pal. I've never given that site a try, but I liked the convenience of the Lose It! iPhone app upfront. I'm always on my phone anyway, so... this made it 10x more likely that I'd continue its use. Two years later and 60lbs lighter, all using this app to track my calories, is proof!
Do you keep a food journal? Did you find it tedious or helpful?
