One key reason that allowed me to lose weight was motivation from others. I had friends who were either dieting at the same time as me, or had recently dieted to help me through it. I also had a wealth of people on the Internet who were happy to offer some motivational words, or a friendly tip. The key is knowing where to find such helpful people.

MyNetDiary

This is the website/app I used during my dieting process. I found the user interface of their iPhone app to be the best, and most importantly, they integrated their community features into the mobile app. Obviously, cheating is most likely to happen at a restaurant, and chances are slim that you will have your laptop sitting in front of you. If you need a quick tip on how to avoid temptation you can pull out your phone and jump on the forums to plead for help.

They have a full-time dietitian on staff who is always in the forum answering questions, as well as thousands of helpful dieters who will be ready to help. Outside of the community, they also offer a calorie counter and exercise tracker.

MyFitnessPal

The features of MyFitnessPal have been detailed in a full article here, but it’s worth repeating. They obviously have a calorie counter and exercise tracker and the basic features that any app or website of this sort has. Where they really shine is in their social networking and community part. When you meet goals, it posts them to your followers and lets them know.

They also have an incredibly active forum filled with success stories, before and after pictures and people giving and receiving helpful tips and advice. You can also look on the forum for user-created healthy recipes; for those times when you get bored with eating the same diet food over and over.

Reddit’s Lose It Subreddit

It is impossible, in my opinion, to have any post about a community without looking to Reddit. We have already shown you many ways Reddit can help people in need, but they are also great at helping you stay motivated to lose weight. They have over 23000 readers on their Lose It subreddit, and they are all quick to offer a helping hand. Users also post before and after pictures, along with detailed descriptions of how they lost weight.

They are also big on Non Scale Victories (or NSV) on Reddit. They love hearing about things like pants not fitting, people giving complements, borrowing a younger sibling clothes that didn’t fit before and things of that nature. A lot of times people forget about these little victories while losing weight and they concentrate too much on the number on the scale. It is important to remember these NSV’s and Reddit will not let you forget. Also Reddit.com/r/fitness is a great community to learn more about exercising and burning those calories.

Traineo

Traineo’s whole site is based on community. Every piece of content on their site is posted by one of their over 200,000 members. It is filled with tons  of tips, stories, workout plans, recipes, diet plans and pretty much everything you could want. There are thousands of photos of members to help motivate you. There is even an entire section of the site dedicated to just motivational tips for members, by members.

They also have a really cool groups feature, which allows you to link up other people losing weight who share similar interests with you. For example, there are groups of college students, Wii users, runners, and a slew of other kinds of people.

If you are looking for a pure community filled with hundreds of thousands of people who are all in the same struggle as you, this is the site you must check out.

Conclusion

If you are trying to lose weight and you feel like giving up, know that you don’t have to go it alone. There are people on the internet who are struggling with the same challenges as you, and they are happy to offer tips to help keep you motivated. Keep these communities in mind when you feel like slipping off the diet. Dieting is hard, but having a good support system will help immensely! Just keep at it, and don’t be afraid to lean on others for help.

Have you lost weight? How did you do it? Did communities such as these help you along? Let us know in comments!

Image Credit: Pixabay

The app uses audio cues to provide live coaching feedback as you train, so the first thing you’re asked to do is select your language. The list is quite comprehensive, but for now we’ll stick to English.

Next, it has you create a PIN code so that no-one can pry into your private training data:

Next, you’ll need to create a miCoach account. You can also elect to use the app as a guest though, if you’re just evaluating it.

The app feels quite polished, but the registration process does feel rather clunky:

It basically feels like a simple webpage displayed in-app, tiny text fields and all. This part is quite lengthy – the screenshot above shows only part of the form. It goes on to ask about your country (why not geo-locate it?), your gender, height and weight. This is definitely the weakest part of the miCoach experience – I hope Adidas streamlines the registration process in the future to use native Android controls. Until that happens, you’re better off registering at the miCoach website using your computer.

Even there, I was unable to enter an accurate value for my weight – it would only let me enter whole numbers. When you’re working with pounds that might be fine, but if you’re using the metric system, there’s quite a difference between 65kg and 65.7kg (almost two pounds of difference, in fact). As frustrating as this is, don’t give up here – the app is worth it.

Once you finish the arduous registration process, miCoach will sync data off the server and let you select a coaching voice:

Finally, we’ve made it to the main menu. It looks like this:

The first thing I’d like to check and tweak are the settings, of course. So here they are:

The mention of Zones is interesting. I use a Polar heart rate monitor (FT60), so I’m familiar with workout zones. But miCoach does not force you to use an HRM. You can also set your zones according to pace (9 minutes per mile) and speed (10 mph).

Also, despite selecting the metric system during the cumbersome registration process, miCoach showed me my pace/speed zones in miles. I tried setting the app to use miles in the During Workout menu:

That did the trick. My zones were then displayed using the metric system. Also, note the slider adjusting Music/Coaching volume. You can tweak it to your liking so that you can easily hear coaching instructions over the music you’re training to.

Okay, I’d say we’ve played with the configuration enough. This app isn’t about settings, it’s about getting out there and working up a good sweat. So let’s look at the Workouts menu now:

The first workout most people would probably try is the Assessment Workout:

This is what it looks like when you continue:

miCoach now tries to get a GPS lock.  What’s interesting here is that miCoach has you assess your effort level subjectively, on a scale from 1 to 10. Once the GPS locks, you can begin the workout:

Okay, busted. I’m not actually moving, I’m sitting right here in front of my computer, writing this. The coaching voice (female, US in my case) sounds natural and eloquent – this is a recorded person, not a text-to-speech synthesizer. But since you’re not using a heart rate monitor, the instructions merely say “increase your effort to six out of ten”.  To me, that’s very subjective – but I guess if you don’t want to invest in a dedicated HRM, you’ll need to trust your judgment. They do give you tips that should help you assess your level, such as “conversation will be difficult at this effort”.

There’s another workout view, which you can get by swiping to the right. It looks like this:

This is an at-a-glance view of what your effort level should be, and where you are in the training session.  You also get a quick color-coded overview of what’s ahead. You can see this session is going to increase all the way to a short burst at maximum effort level (red), followed by a cool-down period (blue).

The voice cues are one minute apart by default, which is a good interval – it’s not too irritating, but you’re definitely kept oriented as to where you are in the training session without having to constantly look at your device (a pet peeve of mine when using the Polar monitor, where I would constantly have to look at my wrist while running).

Once you’re done working out, you can rate your session.

And sync it to the server:

That’s about it for the Workout view, and as well as for my review. The last thing I want to show you is a quick glimpse of the Workout History:

This shows a nice view of all of your past workouts, and you can drill down into each workout (so you can see again how I didn’t move anywhere during my arduous “workout”):

Note the subtle marketing angle here, with the Shoes field. I haven’t even touched on the website in this review – it’s a very comprehensive companion to the app, and shows your complete lifetime stats, lets you set plans, track your workout and get a lot more out of the miCoach experience. All in all, Adidas did a great job with this app, and it doesn’t feel like an empty marketing vessel.

If you want to see what it’s like training with your Android device without spending anything for an app or an HRM strap, miCoach is a very good option.

One of the most effective ways to combat weight gain is to count the calories and keep track of your intake, as well as your exercise, in a diet diary. The only problem is that you can’t take a diary everywhere – and so you might forget a meal here, or a snack there. MyFitnessPal solves the problem by having a presence everywhere – on your phone, your tablet or your PC.

Calorie Tracking Where You Are

Perhaps the biggest advantage of the MyFitnessPal free diet tracker, beyond the features we’ll talk about soon, is the number of platforms on which you can use it. There are MyFitnessPal apps for iPhone/iPad, Android and Blackberry. Windows Phone 7 is the only major mobile platform left out.

In addition to this, the MyFitnessPal website can be accessed online from anything with a web browser. Your account ties information between all of these platforms together, so you can count your calories during lunch at work on your smartphone, then finish up the day by counting dinner on your PC.

Massive Calorie Database

MyFitnessPal has been around for several years now, and since the introduction of the service it has constantly added new information to its food database.  The database is easy to search and now includes over 750,000 items. The only food that isn’t commonly found on the database is food from local independent restaurants. If the restaurant is a chain, or if you’re eating something from the grocery store, you’ll find an entry for it in the MyFitnessPal database.

Once you’ve found what you’re looking for you can add it to your meal. MyFitnessPal is very flexible when it comes to adding food; you don’t have to pick one particular type of serving. You can also add servings in any multiplier of the base serving size. If you eat half a bagel, for example, no problem! Just search for the type of bagel you ate, and then enter .5 as the serving size.

If the food isn’t in the database, that’s also not a problem. You can always “quick-add” a given number of calories.

Tracking Your Progress

One problem that often trips up dieters is long-term calorie intake. Going crazy at a favorite restaurant can defeat an entire week’s work of careful, healthy eating – but without a clear way to track calories over time, a dieter may be prone to think “I met my goal six out of seven days, but I’m still not losing weight! What’s wrong?” That’s understandably frustrating.

MyFitnessPal keeps track of your daily calorie intake and provides information showing how you’re doing over time. It also provides information about how your current eating habits should impact your weight in the future.

When you start your MyFitnessPal account you are given a target calorie intake based on your current weight, your height, and the amount of weight you wish to lose each week.  This information can be reviewed in the goals section, and helps you keep on track by reminding you that every calorie counts. Exercise is factored in as well, so you can see how your exercise program is impacting your weight loss.

Social Motivation

Perhaps the coolest feature, and the most likely to keep you on track, is the social networking functionality. If you like, you can hook up MyFitnessPal to your Facebook or Twitter account. MyFitnessPal will automatically let friends know when you’ve met a goal. Being put on the spot like this can feel embarrassing at first, but if you can become comfortable with it, the additional motivation is great.

There is also an active forum community on the site, and the site provides “badges” and “tickers” that can be added to a forum post or a blog post. The badges can be used to show off an accomplishment, while the ticker actually updates over time to show how much you’ve lost.

Conclusion

MyFitnessPal is an excellent free calorie counter and diet tracker. You can input your calories from anywhere with your phone, you can track your progress and calculate your estimated weight loss, and even get your friends in on it! It really doesn’t get any easier than this.

What effective online methods do you use to lose weight?  Let us know in the comments.

As the world gets crowded and polluted by its bigger cousins, the alleycat or the trail biker, or even the racer knows that getting on the right bike path is half the fun. Bike path maps help a cyclist to chart out the route even before the wheels hit the tarmac. You can go back into few of the resources we have covered earlier to see some of the better bike map path apps out there. Searched out here are a few new ones.

Bikely

At first glance this website on bike paths doesn’t seem impressive, but that’s just scratching the surface. The site houses 155,000+ bike path maps (on Google Maps) shared by bikers from around the world.  Although, the majority of the routes are centered on North America and Europe. If you want to see what bike paths are around your location, try out the advanced search to pinpoint one. You can even filter the bike route by distance. If you discover a route, it’s easy to log-in and share it with the community (see directory mention).

Map My Ride

MapMyRide.com has a bunch of free tools along with the paid ones. The Routes tool is completely free and you can use it to plan out your bike or mountain bike rides. The map is a stylized Google Map with features like a distance filter which lets you search within a radius of 200km. One of the best cues you can use for an advanced search is by using “˜tags’ which lets you search bike paths by difficulty, area, terrain, surface, surroundings, and contour. Elevation data is also nicely rendered on the bike path maps.

Ride the City

Threading your way through the concrete pathways of an urban city takes planning. That’s where this Geocoding bike map website for some major cities around the world comes in. Also, uniquely the site displays roads that are meant for biking by keeping to the use of bike lanes, bike paths, greenways, and other bike-friendly streets. You can also switch on the map layers for more data like bike shops and bike parking. Don’t miss the weather update on the top-right.

VeloRoutes

Veloroutes.com is a comparatively simpler bike path website that allows you to create, share, and find bicycle data added with elevation profiles for any given location. You can use a keyword to do your location search. You can also quite easily export a route to your GPS device or to formats like to GPX, KML, TCX, and CSV. Also useful is the cuesheet for any route that gives you turn-by-turn directions towards a location.

BikeMap

The bike trail website lists 368,084 Bike routes worldwide with a total length of 19,891,520 miles. Check out the Most Popular Places with Bike Routes and the countries covered mentions below the Google Map. You can export routes to your GPS device. Also provided are details like vertical climb, inclination, surface, and the kind of cycling the route is suited for.

Cycle-Route

The site is very much Europe-centric but covers the US too. New biking trails get continuously added by passionate bicyclists and you can add your own too. You can use the dropdown to select the country and the region to discover cycle routes or go alphabetically through the list of bike paths. With a login, you can give your weight information and also get the calories you might burn along the route. The information on the state of the bike path and landmarks that will fall along the way should be a great help.

MTBR

The mountain biking community has a long list of reviews of trails around the world. The US dominates the list but expect to find some great trails in the lesser known parts of the world tool. A well voiced forum has also come up around mountain biking trails. Trail reviews use Google Maps, photos, and first person accounts to give you an insight before you start pedaling. Thanks to the terrain, trails aren’t well represented on the map, but one can assume that a intrepid trail biker can get the route from the directions given.

Google Maps

When every other bike path site uses Google Maps, it’s expected that there should be something similar on Google Maps itself. Still in beta, the bike routes data is more than useful if you happen to be in the United States. Type in the directions and click the last icon for bicycles. You can switch the bicycling layer on and off and even change the direction.

Finding new bike paths and navigating through them is now just a matter of going to any of these websites, plotting out the route, and maybe downloading the data to your GPS device. Apart from these eight, cycling websites like Bicycling Magazine, Pedaling.com, and Bike Radar have their own route finder tools too. It’s also a good idea to be a part of the many forums found on these websites for hint drops on new trails and bike paths.

What’s your hint for bike enthusiasts when it comes to discovering new bike paths?

Image Credit: Shutterstock

You might say that an article on running is better suited for a health site. That’s what I would have thought if not for the response to the post on the 10 Bicycling Websites That Will Pedal You Into The World Of Cycling. We who sit in front of a computer are a sluggish bunch. So put on your jogging shoes and head for these eight websites for runners and joggers – and then the open air.

Cool Running

Cool Running is one of the oldest websites on running and jogging. The site is geared towards all types of runners ““ from newbies to competitive runners. The site covers latest races, running news, and other interactive tools. The Training section is pretty well stocked and though the Couch-to-5K Running plan requires a payment, the free schedule that’s given should be enough to put you on the track with a plan. Then there’s a bunch of other training plans too.

Some of the tools are for paid members, but there’s enough on the site that you can do even with a free MyActive registered account.

Runner’s World

This well designed site brings news, articles, and advice for runners. Read running equipment reviews and catch up on training techniques for races and marathons. The Tools section has a range of calculators and search tools for equipment and stores. Check out the interactive tool that helps you to prevent injury by pinpointing the source of pain.

The site has a neat Training Log that’s helpful to keep track of your running. Another useful tool is the Smart Coach which can be used to design your personal training plan for a race. For motivation, don’t forget to download the screensaver (for PC and Mac).

Run The Planet

A similar website for runners and joggers; it also comes with four other language versions. Check the Running Dictionaries and Translations section if you are planning to run in a non-English speaking country. There’s also a movie review section on movies based on running. Running routes and maps via Run.com covers both U.S as well as a lot of international city specific routes. You can also create your own. Meet Phil The Frog and read some humor asides to get refreshed. A few pop-ups here and there are the only irks.

Complete Running

Quite simply, a blog on running by bloggers who run (or the other way around). If you are a beginner, you might want to check out the Learn to Run section or head to the posts filed under Inspiration.

About.com

The dependable internet guide resource has an entire channel devoted to running. You can read all the topics there, but I would like to point you to the page on Running Music Playlist: Top 40 Songs. Get motivated to run with the cadence of your favorite songs and let these help you to discover more songs.

American Running Association

The association’s goal is to promote running and walking for a healthier lifestyle. The non-profit organization aims to do this through information and youth fitness programs. One of the useful resources on the site is the Clinic Advisory Board with 27 different specialists, who answer American Running Members’ training, nutrition, health, and sports medicine questions.

Walk Jog Run

WalkJogRun’s Running Route Planner helps you to trace out running routes in your neighborhood on a Google Map or create your own and save it. Also included is a distance/speed calculator and calorie burn estimator. The web app has 912,680 routes for you to run through.

For options you can also check out MapMyRun and GMaps Pedometer. Running Map does the same job but on a Yahoo map.

RunKeeper

RunKeeper is an online app which tracks your fitness activity. Using RunKeeper you can create and save your routes and monitor your progress over the course of days. RunKeeper also gives you a free iPhone and Android app. The mobile apps come with unique features like heart rate monitoring, audio cues, and two-way sync. Though the web app has been updated, you can catch our earlier review and see How To Use RunKeeper To Set Exercise Goals.

Running is one of the best solutions for a healthy body and a clearer mind. If you want to get off the couch and start with an exercise, there’s nothing as good or as free as running. Let us know if you are a runner and your favorite online destination that keeps you motivated for the long run.

Image credit: Shutterstock

While there are several dozens paid applications in this category, you’ll be pleased to know there are a good number of free options that will address many of the exercise and health related needs of iOS users. From calorie counters, fitness apps, to kids’ health information; these apps can be very useful in helping us take better care of ourselves and our loved ones.

Note: all the links in the headings below are to the App Store.

Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker

No doubt many of you have a new year resolution for losing weight and watching your calorie intake. MyFitnessPal’s Calorie & Diet Tracker is like keeping a calorie diary on your iPhone.

After you log in and register your weight loss (or gain) goals and your exercise habits, you can use Calorie Counter to tap into its large food database. The app provides you nutritional facts about the food you eat. You log in and add the information about your meals each day, and Calorie Counter keeps track of your calorie intake and the progress you’re making toward your goals.

The app also enables you to invite your friends to become a part of your weight watching program. Calorie Counter has very high ratings in the App Store. The more you learn to use it, the easier it becomes to maintain it as a daily log.

Calorie Counter

FatSecret’s Calorie Counter is another meals, exercise, and weight tracker for the iPhone and iPod touch. There’s also an optimized version for the iPad.

In addition to its large database of food information, Calorie Counter includes a barcode scanner feature for getting more accurate data of the foods you eat. You can also browse menu information at nearly all national restaurant chains, as well as popular brand products from major supermarkets. You can save your searches and re-use them for future log entries.

The user interface of Calorie Counter is very well done, featuring a diet calendar, exercise diary, weight tracker, and of course, a food diary. All your data can be synced to your Fatsecret.com account.

Fitness Free

For those of us looking to get a fitness regiment going, Fitness Free includes 300 exercise routines you can choose from and add to your fitness log as you complete them.

You can also customize your exercises. Each exercise “recipe” includes instructions on how to perform the exercise and where it should fit into your daily or weekly exercise routine. The paid full version of the application offers other features, but this free version is enough to get you started.

Glucose Buddy

For iOS users with diabetes, Glucose Buddy is a data storage utility in which users can “manually enter glucose numbers, carbohydrate consumption, insulin dosages, and activities.”

Glucose Buddy is well designed and graphically oriented, with graphs, log-in reminders, and the ability to sync information to your online account.

Carb Counting with Lenny

For children with diabetes, Carb Counting with Lenny is a fun app for managing diabetes. According to the app’s description: “Carb counting allows children with diabetes to eat a variety of foods, just like other kids, and increases their sense of control and confidence in managing their diabetes. For parents and caregivers, this is important in order to plan meals and help children maintain good blood sugar levels.”

Children can search food information by photos and save them to the photo library of their iOS device.

SparkPeople

SparkPeople is the iPad and iPhone version of the popular exercise and fitness website, SparkPeople.com. This application is also well designed with lots of colorful graphic detail.

In addition to helping you keep track of your food and calorie intake, SparkPeople can help you plan weight watching meals, keep track of your exercises, and the progress you”˜re making toward your weight goals. SparkPeople could possibly replace a couple of other fitness apps that do the same thing. While the app has many categories, it’s very easy to search food information and keep track of your daily meals and exercises. You can also link your information to your online SparkPeople account.

Everyday Health

We all should all have a general health reference guide that we can access at any time. Everyday Health, Inc. has produced well designed and easy to use general health information application filled with descriptions about the top 50 health conditions, including allergies, eating disorders, HIV/AIDS, lung cancer, thyroid conditions, and yeast infections.

The health care software for the iPhone includes hundreds of daily health tips, expert answers from doctors and pharmacists, and nutritional facts about various snacks that we love to eat. Its “What Would Mom Say…” list home remedies for common health problems like sore throat, sprained angle, sunburns, cold sores, and queasy stomach.

Everyday Health is like having a big 500-page medical reference guide on your iPhone or iPad.

The Snack App

For us snack lovers, EverydayHealth has also produced an app for keeping track of the calories for the snack foods we love to eat.

It breaks down food categories by the number of calories, and it also provides ideas for burning calories and making healthier snack choices. The app is visually designed and descriptions are easy to read, so there’s no reason not check out its content.

Pink Pad Free

This menstrual period and health tracking app is receiving high ratings in the App Store. The app’s calendar-style user interface is easy to navigate and helps women keep track of health-related issues such as weight, menstrual cycle, and emotional/physical well-being.

The app of course sends you menstrual and fertility notifications, and its latest version allows you to set up any reminders you like, such as for drinking water, taking your pill, or getting a breast exam.

KidsCheckup

Designed by pediatric experts, KidsCheckup is a simple reference guide application that includes descriptions of medical treatments, such problems as asthma, common childhood orthopedic conditions, muscular dystrophy, childhood cancer, and cystic fibrosis.

Its “What Do I Do” section provides information for symptoms and solutions for conditions such as asthma flare-ups, chest pains, chicken pox, coughs, dental entries, rashes, splinters. This app is a useful medical resource for parents.

For even more health related apps and information on MUO, check out these articles, here and here. If you know of useful free heath and exercise apps, please let us know about them.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com