App Review: Lose It! by FitNow

Our first app review is going to cover one of the very first fitness apps I ever encountered.  It is called "Lose It!" by FitNow, Inc.  I found this app a couple of years ago when I had went through a fitness spurt and installed this one on my iPod Touch.  I liked the layout of it and it seemed to flow nicely.  When I gave up my iPod Touch and migrated to an Android based smartphone, I wasn't sure if there was anything comparable in the Android Market.  A couple of weeks ago I found it again.  And I am glad to see that not much has changed, with the exception of a few added features.

And it is still FREE!!  Free is good. :)

What is the purpose behind "Lose It!"?
Too many people think there is some kind of magic behind honest to goodness weightloss.  Maybe there is a magic pill or a "wonder-exercise" you can do to melt the pounds away.  But (for me anyway) none of those options are a true-blue way to loose weight.  For me I have had success over the last couple of weeks mixing regular exercise with keeping watch on my calorie intake.  The concept: eat less calories than what you burn to kick off weight loss.  Controlling the calorie intake and maintaining it at different levels can lead to a safe loss in weight.  The goal is not to starve yourself, it's to shock you back into eating healthier by putting into perspective what you eat everyday.  And it can be shocking.

So, this app is basically a fancy way to count your caloric intake (or how to inventory the number of calories you eat everyday).  You can also log exercise time and find out how many calories you have burned.  Of course the calories burned are estimates.  But they seem to match pretty closely other resources found online.

There is a large database of foods built into this app.  And quite a few chain restaurants are included as well.  What I like about it is if you eat something fairly regularly then it will be added to your 'My Foods' category for quick reference.  This makes it easy to enter food on the fly.  You can also add your own foods to the database as well, just in case you can't find a particular food listed; which occasionally happens.

There is also a large number of exercises listed in the database as well.  Personally, I walk a lot.  So I use walking and some weight training quite a bit.  And as mentioned earlier, it does a good job a estimating how many calories you burned during a particular workout.

Setting Up The App
After installing the app, there is a very short setup process involved.  Basically, it prompts you for your account credentials.  If you are a new user, it is a quick registration process.  Then you are prompted with some basic information to get started.  It will ask your current weight, what is your target weight, and how long you will take to achieve that target weight.  The length of time is interesting.  I have seen some online resources in the past let you pick however long you'd like.  From a couple of days to a year.  But the "Lose It!" app seems to let you pick from several preset choices that gives the impression it is for a controlled weight loss and not a crash diet.  That is a good thing.  Based on the figures you enter, the app will generate a daily total number of calories to be consumed in order to achieve your predetermined goal.

Post Install

After installation and a couple minute setup you can start cataloging your food.  Simply pick 'Add Food' and select for which meal: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, or Snacks.  From there pick your category of food or search for the food you'd like to add.  And add it.  The calorie totals will automatically tally based off of food and exercise entered so you have a real-time view on how you have done for the day.  As you use the app it will build a form of analytics that you can use to keep track of your progress over the course the last several weeks.  It will even build some neat charts you can glance at quickly to see your progress.

For me, I tend to loose motivation easily when it comes to certain types of food.  And as I go through my day entering my intake, I can keep a bird's eye view of what I have eaten versus what I can still use for the day to try and stay right at or just under my daily allotment.  Think of it as a sort of 'Weight Watcher's Point Counter' but instead of points you are counting physical calories.

And if keeping up with yourself isn't enough for you.  FitNow has added a whole social media swing to the app as well.  You can sign up on their website (http://www.loseit.com/) and you can basically do the same stuff that the app allows but also interact with others and build a network of friends to help coach and motivate you along.  Which is pretty cool.  And from the app you can also choose to Sync the app data to their website as well.  There is also a barcode scanner that allows you to scan and retrieve calorie information using the camera on your mobile devices (which is a cool feature).

So what if you loose some weight?  How does the app know?
For example over the last couple of weeks I've lost about 5 pounds.  If you tap on the 'Goals' tab across the top of the screen you can record your weight for that day.  As you record your weight across time a chart is drawn showing your progress.  This reflects loss and gains as well.  And at the top of the screen it is clearly worded what your goal weight is, how many pounds you plan to loose per week,  and what your daily calorie budget is.  Just in case you forgot. :)

One thing to make a note of, is as you log your weight.  Your daily calories budget will gradually change to reflect the amount of calories you take in to maintain loosing weight by your current plan.  So if your plan starts you off at 2,000 calories a day and you loose 10 pounds after a month.  Then your will naturally be expected to take in less calories to continue loosing weight.  That's the idea.

And overall the app does what is advertised.  Of course how you use it actually negates how well you accomplish your goals that you set when starting the app initially.  For me, I try to adhere to it but not beat myself up too bad if I go a little over my daily calorie budget.  But it helps me keep an eye on what I am taking in during the course of the day.  And with a "watching eye" kind of steering me along I tend to find the motivation to stay away from the needless snacking and high calorie stuff that I would like to eat.

Does this app 100% break bad eating habits?  Nope, that is your job.  After all, this is just an app (or a web service if you use it).  It is up to you to enter you foods on a daily basis.  It takes a little training to remember to enter your meals.  But if you stick with it and exercise regularly I guarantee it can't hurt.  It hasn't hurt me.

And as I mentioned above, with a little help from keeping myself inline using "Lose It!" and regular exercise I have already lost a little better than 5 pounds.  I plan on continuing to use "Lose it!" if for no other reason that to keep an eye on my daily intake.

"Lose It!" is available on both the iOS and Android mobile platforms; as well as being available via their website to be used from a desktop PC or tablet.

I rate "Lose It!": 5 out of 5 stars



Find "Lose It" by FitNow, Inc. at:
Cost: FREE
Google Play (former Android Market): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fitnow.loseit
Apple App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lose-it!/id297368629?mt=8

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**I am in know way affiliated with FitNow, Inc., LoseIt! mobile app or web service, Google Play, or Apple App Store. Screen captures sourced from my mobile device.

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