Lose It! iPhone App Helps Manage Calorie Intake

I tend not to make New Years’ resolutions because I just end up breaking them but between holiday houseguests and this weekend’s birthday celebration for Little Miss Techie, I’m vowing to get back on the exercise bandwagon. Past attempts have been successful as I’ve won pots of money each time my colleagues and I have done a version of The Biggest Loser at my school. Ok, so maybe this last time I won out of default since I was the last one still weighing in but I’m motivated to exercise and count calories once again to stop feeling like the Twitter fail whale looks like.

Starting today I’m coming home to do my half hour of The Shred with Jillian, will be weighing in my with my new scale, and will be relying on a couple of iPhone apps to keep me on target.

Today I’m sharing Lose It!, a free application that helps track calories consumed during the course of a day and allows users to set weight loss goals by creating a daily calorie budget.

With Lose It! you start by creating a plan to lose your desired amount of weight. Specify weight loss amounts in terms of pounds per week in half pound increments. Lose It! Requires you to put in some basic information about yourself- height, weight, goal weight, gender, age, etc. to determine your daily calorie budget. Access the application to enter foods consumed and any daily exercise you have engaged in to determine calories eaten and burned to stay on track with your weight loss plan.

I like that the application is fairly easy to use. You may be turned off when the application begins by asking you to input height, weight, birthday, etc. but think if it as filling out the initial paperwork at a new doctor’s office. It’s a little annoying but not time consuming and absolutely necessary. And be truthful since it doesn’t help to lie!

While it also may seem time consuming to input every single calorie consumed, the program has a large searchable database of foods, including supermarket brands and menu items from many chain restaurants. If the program didn’t have a food that I had eaten that day- let’s say dried mango- I often grabbed the package and created my own entry by putting in calories per serving, fat, carbs, protein, sugars, etc. Once I created my entry for dried mango, it was stored in my Lose It food log and would come up in my search.

I found that the Lose It! application was a great way to hold myself accountable for what I was eating on a daily and weekly basis. The visuals provided from the daily and weekly views helped me stay within the appropriate calorie range. I also liked being able input any daily exercise because doing so immediate credited me with calories burned!

The new Lose It! Has a social networking feature where you can add friends, see their activity, and make friend requests. The idea behind this is that you can rely on your friends for support and motivation but I haven’t experimented with this new feature yet. Lose It! also has a new online component where you can use detailed online reports to track your progress, export your data in case you want to do some more detailed weight loss analysis, and back up your data from your iPhone online. While this sounds like a great new feature, I am just happy if I lose some weight and don’t feel the need to delve into any additional analysis!

Summary: There may be better applications that aid in tracking caloric intake and exercise but I found Lose It! to be great as a free application. It was easy enough to use and really did help help keep me on track with my weight loss goals when I used it. I’m hoping it will help me lose the 6 pounds I have gained back since!

Cost: Free. Click on the link below to go directly to the iTunes store to download.

For more information about about Lose It!, visit their Frequently Asked Questions page.

Feel free to share any similar apps you like that assist with calorie tracking and weight loss goals in the comments!

I was not compensated for this review and all opinions are my own. Images courtesy of Lose It! Be sure to consult a physician prior to engaging in an exercise program and all that good stuff. I am not personally responsible for anyone’s weight loss or gain through the recommendation of this app.