Good nutrition has gone high tech! Modern technology has made tracking your progress towards better health and fitness as easy as playing with your smartphone. Fitness tracker apps now give you the power to collect valuable data on your food consumption, your calorie counts, and your exercise routine while offering advice on how to further improve.
Fitness apps saturate the online markets for all major smartphone types, as well as the wearable technology that has become popular for casual exercisers and fitness professionals alike. It can be hard to decide which ones will best help you meet your goals. Consider these examples as you make a choice to improve your fitness!
Getting Started with Fitness Apps
New wearable technology received as holiday gifts or purchased for new year's resolutions can inspire those who haven't paid much attention to fitness tracking to give it a go. Some apps provide minimum guidance and greater freedom for those already acquainted with the process, but these may leave those just starting out confused and discouraged. Others offer a more entry-level approach to the practice of fitness tracking. While not all offerings are available for each technological platform, many are, or equivalents may also exist.
Nutritionist (Android and iOS) provides a useful, encouraging platform for tracking activity, nutrient consumption, and progress towards goals. Utilize the portion control features to better understand your food intake, or receive reminders when it's time for a healthy snack like Quest Protein Chips.
MyFitnessPal (Android and iOS) has a user-friendly interface that encourages people who have decided to keep a food journal for the first time. It includes a barcode scanner for ease of entering packaged foods, as well as more than four million saved foods in the database for convenience. Although it doesn't keep track of macronutrients, it does track caloric consumption for those counting calories.
Apps for Experienced Fitness Enthusiasts
Many fitness enthusiasts have developed old favorites when it comes to counting their nutrients and exercise. However, available offerings change quickly, and it can be difficult to keep up with new release and changes to old stand-bys. If you've considered overhauling how you track your fitness, these apps may be for you!
MyMacros+ (iOS) provides extensive support for tracking what nutrients you consume each day and reporting how many of each remain for the day's dietary goals. Athletes will enjoy the ability to dial in their consumption targets for individual days in their training cycle. Charts display where the day's calories have come from for an at-a-glance understanding of the day's data.
Fitocracy Macros (iOS) gives users a minimalistic interface with a focus on macronutrients and a unique, Venn diagram-style view. It provides a built-in calculator for goal setting and tracks nutrient trends for a long-term overview. Because of its streamlined approach, users will need to know the amount of nutrients in each meal they enter.
Speaking of Macros...
Don’t forget about the significance of protein. Protein is one of the most important macronutrients for adults to include in their pre- and post-workout routines (and with meals). A high-protein diet has been shown by research to prevent and fight heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Experts recommend that active adults consume a higher amount of protein than less active peers in order to build muscle, speed muscle recovery, and aid in weight loss.
Protein is crucial for pre-workout routines as it has been shown to regulate energy intake, and it is important for post-workout routines because of its ability to rapidly synthesize muscle proteins, resulting in a speedy recovery and lean muscle growth. At Jax Nutrition, we highly recommend Intek Protein Evolution or Gourmet Protein for your pre- and post-workout supplements and then incorporating high-protein meals like Stack’d Protein Pancakes.
An App and a Plan that Go Hand in Hand
For those who want to truly take control of their fitness, Jax Nutrition offers a personalized meal plan program, which includes an app that makes connecting with your nutritional goals simple. Our meal plan program is customized to your personal goals and current fitness level, so it’s the perfect complement to any new nutrition and fitness tracking apps you’ve decided to try out. You'll have ample support from your personal health coach, as well as the convenience of a diet map to follow throughout the week and an app to track your progress. It’s a complete package built to help you succeed. Contact us today for more information today!
