Get Fooducated

A guest recently made me aware of a new app that sounds pretty interesting. It’s called Fooducate.

Pick a product off the shelf in the store, scan the bar code and Fooducate gives you a nutritional breakdown of the products, assigns it a letter grade ( A would an excellent choice, D not so good) and when available, suggests more nutritious options with in that food’s category. According to the website, Fooducate was created by dieticians and concerned parents. It has a data base of over 200,000 products and more are being added daily. It uses your mobile phone’s camera to scan the UPC barcode and works on the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Android OS version 2.2 and up.

Since I am still in the dark ages of cell phones, I have not used the app myself. I have talked to a couple of people who have used it, however, and they found it helpful. If you have it or get it, I would be interested in in hearing what you think about it.

5 Apps for Health and Fitness

Use your iPhone and Android phone for more than just chatting...

1.       RunKeeper – Rated as the best “App for Running” by O’Reilly Media.  This nifty GPS-powered running log tracks your location, providing pace, distance, and altitude info, even mapping your running route. RunKeeper syncs to the app's website, where you can analyze, chart, and share stats to your healthy heart's content. Because it relies on GPS, the app works only outside (sorry treadmill users), and iPhone limitations keep it from tracking your run in the background (you're on pause if the phone rings).

2.       CardioTrainer for Android – I personally have an Android powered phone so this is the App that I enjoying using on my runs.  CardioTrainer is a phenomenal tool for running. It tracks steps taken, miles traveled, pace, and calories burned. It also tracks your history through graphs or high scores, supports treadmills, provides voice notifications for progress, and plays music.

3.       Tap and Track  – If you’re looking for a comprehensive weight loss App - this is the one for you!  The Tap & Track app will allow you to keep track of your calories by calculating your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and finding the daily calorie needs of your body based on your gender, age, weight and height. The app also considers the type of occupation you are in and applies the very well-known Harris Benedict Equation while doing the calculations. The application features can be divided into 4 parts; Food, Exercise, Graphs and Report. You will find the app very easy and pleasant to use. You can find the food list, the exercises, the graphs and of course the final report by simply tapping the iPhone screen with your fingers.

4.       Nike+ GPS App - The Nike+ GPS App for iPhone will pull in data from the device’s accelerometer and GPS to give runners an effective, accurate and useful tool for getting in shape and staying motivated.  My favorite part of this App is the ability to receive “cheers” from your Facebook friends.  When you start a run it will post to your Facebook profile automatically and if someone comments on your post it will read the text to you while working out.  Very Cool!

5.       Lose It – This has been my most recommended App for weight loss.  It was the first user-friendly calorie-counting app for the iPhone, and it is free. The Lose It app from FitNow utilizes the Mifflin equation to determine what your daily calorie intake should be. You input your age, height, gender and current weight then choose your goal weight; Lose It tells you how many calories you can eat each day to meet this weight loss goal. Then your work begins.

 

What are your favorite Health and Fitness Apps on the iPhone or Android?