Three Free Fitness Apps Worth Checking Out

I have always worked out for sports competitions; vanity had never been enough to motivate my workouts -- until last year. 

My husband and I were going to Hawaii to celebrate our 10-year wedding anniversary and I decided that I was going to get in the kind of shape that would allow me to forget I was in a bikini and enjoy the beach and sun. Having entered my 30s a while before this trip, I decided this would probably be my last chance to rock the bikini. 

While I found tips and tricks that were key to reaching my goal, the very best tool was a fitness app on my smart-phone. I am a consumer of free apps only, so I shopped and tested free fitness apps to bring you my top three list.  These can be the game-changer in moving the scale, improving performance or reaching other fitness goals.  Note: While these apps recommendations are based on my use of the iPhone, the Droid and Windows phones offer the same or similar options, either for free or at a reasonably low price.

Recommendation No.1:  MyFitnessPal

Since the bottom line of weight loss is the simple math of calories in minus calories out, the most trackable information for your weight loss progress is daily calorie intake and burn. This app takes care of the two greatest challenges to tracking calories: 1) it provides real information about how many calories are in what you are about to eat or drink; and 2) it enables ease and mobility to track your eating when you're not at home or in front of your computer where you can enter the data on a website.  Based on your general activity level and current weight, the app determines the daily calorie total that will bring you to your goal.  As you enter your food and exercise data, the summary shows your remaining calorie allowance for the day. 

While there are similar apps to track calorie intake and burn, this one is in the top spot because when I tested my typical food entries on the other apps, their databases did not include a lot of my foods, which means a time-consuming separate search for calorie information.  This app is so widely-used, someone has entered the calorie and often full nutrition information for most foods that can be purchased or prepared.

I was excited by how closely my weight-loss followed what the app projected.  On the days I completed my entries at or below the calorie target, the next day’s weigh-in reflected that result.  The reason this app worked is that I trusted it and kept using it. It also allowed me to learn an enormous amount about what foods keep me satisfied and energized at the lowest caloric impact. 

Recommendation No. 2:  iMapMyFITNESS

As I took off for my first outdoor triathlon workout of the season, I was a bit disappointed I would be working off of estimated distance for the day by going a new route.  You can't check the performance of your run or ride on estimated distances.  While I have been so pleased that my smart phone allows me to get driving directions from my current location through its GPS tracking, I hadn’t considered there might be a free app that would use the phone GPS to track my distance on a run or ride.  iMapMyFitness allows you to do just that.  It then stores the workout for a history of distance, speed and total time. This app provides the key functionality of expensive equipment for free on your smart phone.  For those of you training for one of the local races like Cascades Edge, Black Diamond or Labor of Love triathlons, this could be the best tool on your phone which even takes into consideration your training music playlist.

Recommendation No. 3: Nike Training Club

There are many free apps that lead a workout by either linking to an amateur YouTube video or require clicking through different parts of the workout within the app.  The Nike Training Club app was far superior to other free alternatives.   You select your workout from options that include cardio, intervals and toning at three different fitness levels.  Then it asks you to select a playlist and takes you to your phone’s music playlists.  Once you start the workout, you don’t have to touch the phone again.  The clock on the phone tracks the time for each move, your music plays, and a voice cues changes to the next move and offers encouragement as if you have a personal trainer with you or are in a group fitness class.  The moves are a good selection of fairly well-known classics, and the move demonstration pictures are very clear. 

What about Pedometers and Heart Rate Tools?

There are a myriad of pedometer apps that track your daily steps the same way a separate pedometer device would; most apps will do just fine for this purpose. With heart rate monitoring, however, I like the Instant Heart Rate - Free app which uses your phone’s camera and your finger to track your heart rate. Other free heart rate apps had difficulty getting the reading on my finger; the Instant Heart Rate – Free had the best ongoing reading. 

Catch up with us next round as we take a look at fitness on the inside.  We will talk with a local nutritionist about the latest diet fad, and I will share with you some of the eye-opening lessons I learned about how calorie quality affects how you manage calorie quantity for weight loss.

Local fitness enthusiast Courtney Black’s athletic and fitness background includes in-line speed skating and triathlons, as well as college cheerleading, dance and choreography. This mother of two little dudes currently teaches Turbo Kick classes and is preparing for summer triathlons. She enjoys applying her day job analyst skills to the fitness industry to bring you the latest and greatest in experience, trend and tools.