LoseIt! - Suck it, Weightwatchers.

No more meetings, no more books, no more tedious writing down everything you eat or trying to use that slide gadget to figure out points. Lugging around all  that heavy stuff virtually guaranteed my weight loss failure. Well, that and my love of McDonald's double cheeseburgers and my disdain for physical activity. But, I digress...



LoseIt!, from FitNow, Inc., makes it insanely easy to keep track of foods eaten, exercise completed, weight loss goals, etc. And you can personalize it to track just about anything you want -- whether you're interested in tracking calories, cholesterol, fat intake or carbs.

The main page of LoseIt! gives you a concise rundown of your daily caloric budget based on current weight and weight loss goals (which you enter upon initial launch of the app), how many calories you've consumed based on the food you've entered, and how many calories you've burned from the exercises you specify that you've completed.  The app then tells you how many more calories you can consume for the day. Easy! Fall off the wagon and want to start all over?  You can do that, too.  Just delete the app and then download it again from the iTunes store and you've got a clean slate. LoseIt! is iPhone and iPod Touch compatible, requires iPhone OS 2.0 or later, and will use 2.6 MB of space on your device.

LoseIt! also contains a huge database of nutritional information for food items you purchase from your local supermarket (containing values for everyday items like lettuce or bananas as well as customized nutritional values for brand name items like Campbell's soups, Yoplait yogurt, even WeightWatchers frozen entrees). Plus, LoseIt! retains a memory for foods you've entered already so you don't have to search for them again.  Just choose them from the list of foods you've entered before. It also lists many restaurants' food items.  Still, it's not a complete list, but if the food item you eat isn't available in the database you can enter a custom food item to record the nutritional information. Nice!

There is a database to choose different physical activities, as well. One feature I just can't figure out is the Recipe area.  You can enter ingredients for a recipe you like, and it'll tally the calories of all the ingredients (which is nice).  But, it doesn't include a data field to allow for entry of preparation instructions.  I'm still scratchin' my head on that one--another great idea for future updates?

You can see a graph representation of your weight loss, as well, if you prefer.

With no current expansion plans to allow for international users or metric units of measurement, it seems this app is limited in terms of its user base. LoseIt! also doesn't offer the capability for exporting or emailing food and/or exercise logs for access beyond the world of your iPhone, another addition that would be much appreciated. But, with people holding group meetings for such  past-times as scrapbooking,  reading books, or for support in handling addiction, I'm sure there are a few resourceful people out there who have already organized a regular LoseIt! meeting for their local area.

For those of us who prefer our diet successes (or failures) to remain private, LoseIt! even offers the option of engaging a 4-digit password to control who may access your personal dietary information. There isn't currently an option to communicate with other dieters using the app for support--another great idea for future updates. It does, however, offer a link to an FAQ site which details the method used to calculate the daily caloric budget and how to transfer your dietary information to another iPhone, if you purchase a new one.

The best part, though, is that it lives where I do, in my iPhone, alongside all my other much-loved apps...in my pocket. How easy is that?  Carry my iPhone or lug around the 5-lb. Weightwatcher's carry case with books to thumb through, little registers to record all foods and liquid consumption in, and the slide rules to figure out how many points I've spent on eating or earned through exercise? Not to mention the feeling that everyone seeing you juggling all that Weight Watchers paraphernalia is analyzing your every food choice...NO CONTEST!!! The iphone app wins, hands down... And did I mention that LoseIt! is a FREE app?  So, I'm gonna save the money I might otherwise waste attending weekly WeightWatcher's meetings or the monthly fees of those weight loss management websites and utilize a method that might actually work for me.

You can download LoseIt! for free HERE.