Lose It!

I recently inherited my husband's touch Ipod after he went and bought himself a brand spanking new Iphone. One of the applications he had downloaded is so awesome I just had to share it. It's called "Lose It."

Let me just tell you how great this program is. It's a weight loss program directly on your Ipod without the annoyance and cost of going to Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig. And personally, I don't want to weigh-in in front of a huge group of strangers. I don't even want to weigh myself in front of myself! Plus, this is something I can do anywhere without having to take time out of my busy schedule to go to a meeting.

How you start Lose It is you enter your weight, height, gender and age and how much you want to lose and by when. If you want to lose at least 2 pounds a week, and you have 40 pounds to lose, it will give you the exact amount of calories you can consume each day to make your goal based on your age, height, current weight, and gender.

And that ain't all, my friends. Next it tracks your food intake daily and weekly and lets you know how many calories are in each item you consume. This is great! Not only does the application have Restaurant brands and Grocery store brands, but you can enter your own recipes. Another great thing is you get added calories if you exercise. I know this has been a huge motivation for me to exercise because I would like to eat more at dinner!

This is the log screen. No, this is not mine. This log screen is showing the user what they've eaten so far, how many calories they've burned through exercise, and it shows how many calories they have left to spend for the day. It also tracks you weekly. In the left hand corner, the budget refers to how many calories you can consume in one day and make your goal weight. Food tells you how many calories you've eaten so far in that given day. Exercise tells you how many calories you've expended that day. Net tells you how many calories you've netted that day so far. It's the combination of calories consumed and calories burned. And the under button is my favorite button, it tells you how many calories you have left for that day. There is also a weekly button on another screen that lets you know how many calories you're under or over for the week. So far this week, I am under 300 calories of what I could have eaten.

This screen lets you know your daily food budget. Again, not mine. This person has eaten 184 calories and expended 12 so far that day, giving them 12 extra calories that they can eat. They've netted 172 calories leaving them 1,107 more calories they can eat this day. This screen is great because it lets you track your progress. Did you notice the nutrients button in the corner? This program also lets you know your nutritional intake so that you know if you're getting enough of your recommended daily intake of vitamins and minerals.

No this isn't a paid advertisement for Lose It. Frankly I couldn't care less if anyone but me uses it. (I just thought I'd put that out there).

For you, my dear readers, I'm going to try this little program and see if it works. I'll report back here occasionally. I'm supposed to be able to lose 46 pounds by December if I keep up with this program. Actually, I wouldn't mind if I lost half that so that I can fit into all my old clothes again. I was pretty comfortable with my weight 20 pounds ago, but then I lost my Mom to cancer and ate my grief in Oreo cakesters (they're so good) and then had a baby. I've lost the baby weight (thank you nursing) but have not lost the grief weight yet. And I added the other 26 pounds just because I think there's nothing wrong with being a hot mamacita.

So far, I'm on day 5 right now and loving it. This little program has really made me more concious about what I'm putting in my body and how much. I unconciously eat all the time and this program has made me concious. There are so many times where I just shove food into my mouth or eat candy at work without thinking about it. Lose It makes me think about it because I have to report back to it what I've eaten. This has also given me a lot of accountability about what I eat and how much exercise I get. Sure, I could fudge the numbers, but how would that help?

I've heard other nutritional experts talk about keeping a food diary, but I've always been too lazy. This program basically does all the work for me. I don't have to count calories or figure out how many calories are in an apple, Lose It does it for me.

Yes, I've had my doubts about the effectiveness of this application. But the application isn't really doing anything but keeping track for me what I've eaten, how much I've exercised, and what my goals are -- I'm the one doing the real work, so whether I succeed or fail, it is up to me. But because I'm a huge cynic, I've checked out the reviews online and most everyone who has stuck with the program has lost weight.

It was free for the first six months after coming out, which ended on May 25th. Sorry friends, it looks like you're going to have to pay for it now.