Make 2019 an “Appy” New Year: 9 Apps to Support Exercise and Weight Loss
Happy New Year! Chances are, like millions of people worldwide, you have resolved to make some changes in your life for the fresh year ahead. That’s fantastic!
Following are some of the most popular New Year’s resolutions:
- Exercise more
- Lose weight
- Get organized
- Learn a new skill or hobby
- Live life to the fullest
But it’s not always easy to keep resolutions. In fact, depending what source you read, at least half of us fail in keeping our New Year’s resolutions by February.
Technology to the rescue: The following apps—most of them free–will help you engage with your resolutions and motivate you to achieve your 2019 goals.
6 Apps that Encourage Exercise
- If your resolution is to exercise more, try the Nike Training Club app, which is like having a personal trainer in your pocket. You’ll choose from more than 185 free workouts that include everything from endurance, mobility, strength and yoga. And if you don’t have hours a day to workout, this app has you covered with short, intensive exercises that use your bodyweight only—perfect while travelling or when you can’t get to the gym. With personalized workout picks based on your ongoing app usage and workouts for every level of fitness, this free app might just cause a resolution revolution!
- The Freeletics Bodyweight app is ideal for people who travel a lot or don’t enjoy going to the gym and using equipment. It provides 5- to 30-minute workouts that you can do using only your body weight as exercise equipment. Promoting exercise anywhere and at any time, this app guides you via audio and video through short, intense workouts to increase your fitness level fast and efficiently.
- Help your children get a jump on good fitness habits with the 7-minute Workout for Kids app. Based on the principle that short bursts of interval training can provide a similar level of benefit as longer workouts, the app guides you through intense activity with short rests in between. Including strength, endurance and flexibility exercises, it’s a great way to get your kids in a healthy habit early—and burn off some of their endless energy!
- A similar high-intensity workout geared toward adults is found on the Keelo app, with exercises that can be performed at home with bodyweight only or in the gym using equipment such as free weights and kettlebells. Get ready to improve your fitness level with jumping jacks, mountain-climbers and jump squats!
- Are you a runner or walker looking for new routes in cities you visit? Try Map My Fitness, an app that will point out local routes and exercise courses anywhere in the world. Want a challenging running route in Paris or Alaska? This app has you covered.
- What’s your favorite exercise: Yoga? TRX? Zumba? Barre? Why join one gym or fitness studio when you can access them all? If you want to try a variety of exercise classes, ClassPass is a great way to do it. The app allows you to book classes at a variety of gyms in cities nationwide using credits. Take advantage of ClassPass’s introductory offer: a free month, including 27 credits to book up to 8 classes.
3 Apps that Support Weight Loss
- If your goal is to lose weight, Lose It “ the world’s most fun and effective weight loss app,” analyzes your profile information and weight loss goals to provide a daily calorie “budget,” then tracks calories effectively with features that include a barcode scanner and the ability to log food choices by taking a photo. You can connect other trackers, apps and devices—including Fitbits—and the app even helps plan meals and stay on track with meal targets that suggest ideal calories-per-meal. The app itself is free, but offers in-app purchases to boost your experience and functionality.
- Weight Watchers has been around for 50+ years and has held the “Best for Weight Loss” title for nine years in a survey conducted by U.S. News & World Report. There’s a reason: it works. Using smart points to track your food, activity level and weight, the Weight Watchers app helps you take control of food intake to achieve your ideal weight. The app provides more than 4,000 recipes that you can filter by dietary concern. It even features a barcode scanner to scan foods at the grocery store to determine their points value!
- If you want to empower your diet journey by learning about the foods you eat, Fooducate is for you. The Fooducate Nutrition Tracker App can help you track not only your food intake and exercise, but also the quality of calories and the actual nutrition value of your recipes. You can scan labels to discover additives you may want to avoid including added sugars, trans fats, artificial food colorings and sweeteners. You’ll receive free diet and health tips from nutrition professionals as well as weight loss motivation from the Fooducate community.
As you tackle your New Year’s resolutions and become a healthier version of yourself, we wish you a happy, healthy new year!
Make 2019 an “Appy” New Year: Part 1