Are you finding it difficult to keep up with your fitness goals? It can be hard sometimes to find enough time to work out (even at home), and staying motivated is even harder. Having a gym buddy can help, but co-ordinating two busy schedules can seem pretty impossible sometimes.

It's because of this that social networks and fitness go hand in hand. To be a part of a network where you have a multitude of supporters with the same goals as you helps get you inspired and into the gym every day. It's also a great way to track your goals and keep up on your progress over time.

I have come across a few free fitness social sites that promote strong social community in the fitness realm. In this article, I'll tell you who they are and discuss some of the features that make these sites unique.

DailyBurn

Formerly known as Gyminee, DailyBurn is first up on our list. DailyBurn allows you to track what you eat, record your workouts, follow your progress, and be held accountable for reaching your goals by others.

free fitness social sites

To record your food intake, you can utilize DailyBurn's huge database of nearly 400,000 foods and recipes. You just run a search for what you ate, select it, and it appears on your log. If you can't find what you're looking for in the database, you can add your own. Also, use it to look up detailed nutritional facts for any food you want.

fitness social networks

Tracking your workouts in DailyBurn is just as easy. You can subscribe to workout programs created by others or create your own. Motivators will praise you when you're meeting your goals and encourage you when you aren't. Groups and challenges also help to add a level of competition to inspire you to meet your fitness goals.

Traineo

Next up on our list is Traineo, another site to keep you motivated. Traineo has a community of over 200,000 members and offers motivation tips, a before and after gallery, diet plans, tips on nutrition and exercise, and workout routines.

fitness social networks

Traineo has tools to calculate precise weight loss using historical trends and daily energy goals. This is largely based on your progress and the goals you set. For a visual example of how this works, check out this short video :

Traineo's support network is a very social community where others can leave comments and messages of motivation for one another. There are thousands of individuals in the community that can help you out, including your friends and family.

Earndit

The last fitness site with social qualities that I would like to cover is Earndit. Earndit is a little different from the previously mentioned sites. They aren't social in the way of a community of motivators, but in the way of connecting with existing social tools you already use.

free fitness social sites

Earndit rewards you for getting fit in the way of gift cards and online discounts. Basically you use a service you might already be familiar with - like Foursquare, Nike+, Everytrail, Garmin Connect, and Fitbit - to record the distance you walk or run to receive points.

It's an interesting concept that provides an incentive to get fit. To sign up for Earndit, you can create an account on the site or join with your Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Google, Windows Live, or OpenID credentials.

Conclusion

As you can see, tech and fitness work pretty well together. There are some immediate benefits to belonging to an online fitness community, like receiving feedback and motivational comments from people with the same goals as you. Having someone in your ear constantly telling you, "You can do it", is an amazing motivator.

It's also statistically proven that we are more likely to meet our goals if we record our progress along the way. Additional incentive doesn't hurt either.

What free fitness social sites or apps do you use to keep track of your fitness goals? Leave your thoughts, ideas, and comments below!

Image Credit: Kitch Bain