Whether you’re a college freshman or not you have at least heard about the ’Freshman 15’ – your ‘intro weight’ to college thanks to those numerous dorm room pizza deliveries, Chinese food runs, lack of time to exercise, and even the school cafeteria dinners available to you late at night.
Lucky for you there’s an app for everything and this includes helping you avoid the ‘Freshman 15’. So I have compiled a list of 15 of the best apps that will help you beat that annoying weight gain and keep you fit and healthy through all your college years.
Web
- Daily Burn – This app is great, it keeps track of your daily water intake, your daily caloric intake, and even your activity (or non daily activity). My only problem with this app is that it’s a little too great at it’s job. It EMAILS you when you aren’t tracking your foods and includes inspirational messages within your email. Who doesn’t feel bad when you receive that in your email as you are scarfing down a tasty Krispy Kream doughnut. This app keeps you on track!
- Lose A Dress Size – You’ve always imagined yourself with 5 or 10 extra pounds off of your body or you find yourself constantly looking back at what once was your body, well now with this app you can LITERALLY show you with the weight loss. This service shows you a before and after of yourself based on the pounds you expect to lose. You have to try it. I also like trying multiple services to see myself in numerous angles and photos so if you are anything like me try – Weight Mirror which is also available on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.
- Quit Smoking – We’ve all seen and heard all the negative health effects of smoking, but the weight gain alone would make anyone want to stop. Well you can easily quit smoking with this web app. The great thing about this app is that you aren’t alone, you work as a community to get to the goal and over time can see how many years and how much money you’ve saved over time by quitting.
- Double Check MD - All weight gain does not come from overeating and lack of activity believe it or not, for some students, health issues are unknowingly the true issue behind weight gain and this app will help you get closer to solving the underlying problem. Double Check MD checks your problem against the symptoms of many medical issues and the side-effects of many drugs on the market. Knowing your problem will help you reach your weight goals and prevent the ‘Freshman 15’ in no time.
- Diets In Review - Haven’t found the right diet for you? It’s ok, this app will do it for you. It will connect you to communities of people that have tried ‘that new diet’ and give you the real feedback. Not only do you get the real deal on any diet plan you’ve heard of, but a TON of healthy recipes to boot.
Windows
- Weight Mania - Weight Mania is yet another app that will track your calories during the day, except it’s available on Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch, and online.
- GymGoal Lite – This app gives you access to over 200 exercises you can perform, which is perfect for those random dorm room spurts of energy in your dorm gym (who has room for a dorm room gym) or the late night trip to the school gym. This app is also available on the iPhone.
Mac
- Yummy Soup - Encourages you to actually use those helpful burners in your dorm room rather than your fingers to order your favorite pizza. Yummy Soup helps you find recipes of any type and best of all you can enter your own and keep track of it on your Mac – very cool!
- Calorie King – Calorie King is your ultimate Mac food diary. You can track your weight over time, input your goals, your sodium intake, and of course your daily caloric intake. This app is so feature filled, it’s just too many to mention in this post. With this app, your classmates will wonder why you look so fit!
- Trail Runner X – This app is for those that love everything trails – bike trails, walking trails, and hiking trails. You can plan your route for your desired distance and log how far you have traveled during the week. Now just invite the classmates or roomates on those trails with you and you have yourself a healthy field trip.
iPhone/iPod
- Eat This Not That - All of us need help once in while when we are out making food choices from our favorite fast food restaurants and this app is like having your own personal trainer/chef in your pocket. This app guides you in the right direction when you must make the decision between a Burger King salad and a Taco Bell 3 Layer Burrito.
- Lose It – Lose It! is a great app I actually use myself and fortunately and unfortunately it tracks every single think I eat easily. Lose It also tracks your daily activity and even keeps track of your fitness goals with a nice chart during the week. This app totally eliminates all your good ‘I can’t workout because….’ excuses (sadly).
- Whole Foods iPhone – There’s nothing better than having great, quick, tasty recipes at your fingertips to keep the weight down. It’s even better when those recipes are healthy and the Whole Foods iPhone app provides just that. The Whole Foods app let’s you access hundreds of healthy Whole Foods recipes and even has a bonus helpful grocery list inside that I use all the time. It’s very helpful!
Android
- Fast Food Counter – Do you notice every time you go out to eat, the only thing hard to find are the nutrition facts. Well this app makes it easy to find the nutrition facts of food from the most popular fast food chains around. Hey, if you look at the calories before you eat it, you may not commit to you favorite fattening item on the list or maybe you will just use it as a guide to figure out how many sit ups you have to do this afternoon. (Also available on the iPhone)
- Calorie Counter - This app also keeps track of your calories during the day, super helpful to take on the go and always have with you. No excuse to not track the food you are eating! (Also available on the BlackBerry and the iPhone)
Now that you have all the tools you need to prevent or beat the Freshman 15, actually use them. I know it takes discipline to stay in shape, but maybe these apps can help with that and your ideal body is only an app away.
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