8.1.15

Dieting, New Year and a free app


I don’t usually do ‘health’ blogging, or diets…rarely even recipes and I don’t think I’ve ever reviewed an app. But it’s dark and cold and wet and January and I haven’t been out much except to work and I’m feeling fat and the TV is all diet ads, so why not eh?


As you know I decided (for reasons explained here) to take part in Dry January and to see if the lack of alcohol would make any difference to my weight (after all it’s just empty calories) I needed to weigh myself…big mistake. I think the last time I stepped on the scales I was a little over 10 stone (140lbs) so imagine my look of delight horror when the scales didn’t come to rest until they hit 11st1lb (155lb). This is the heaviest I have ever been and I'm pretty sure that includes when I was pregnant! Obviously this insidious creep of fat upon my person must be stopped!

But I am not one of those weirdoes that dons a pair of ‘toed’ running shoes and zips about the neighbourhood after dark like a neon lycra clad ninja, no. I am a more subtle lazy dieter. So I did what any tech minded geek would do, I looked for an app to help.


A fitbit was mentioned by many (pft! you twitter folk!) – but after a swift look at price and use (I cannot wear anything on my wrist at work, I rarely exercise) it seemed fairly pointless for me. The FatSecret app however seemed perfect. Not least as it is available on line, on ipad and on android AND you can add sleeping as one of your forms of exercise! Perfect.


The app is very simple and you can sync all devices with web access too. You add your gender, age, height, weight and target weight and how quickly you want to get to the target. The app calculates your necessary calorie intake and all you need to do it put in what you eat and what you do each day. Simple. There are graphs, food tracking etc it’s all very slick looking and I found it easy to use on android and ipad. Perfect for dieters but could be just used as a food diary too, or for recipe ideas (it has recipes too did I mention that?) for general info on fat, sugar and carb levels in food and drink too.


The best thing is that the app is free! Give it a try. I really like this app and can see lots of possibilities. DD says it needs ‘cheerleading’ in the exercise types list, and I think it needs the addition of ‘Running Nerf Battle’ but as it includes 'breastfeeding' , ‘sexual activity’ and ‘hunting’(I'm going to use that for the Nerf battles) amongst others, I think the exercise choices are pretty comprehensive!


Wish me luck – and if you choose to try the app, let me know in the comments what you think and how you get on.

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