We all love the idea of rolling out a yoga mat, taking a few deep breaths, reveling in the quiet serenity of a dimly-lit studio, and spending an hour stretching. Unfortunately, not all of us have the time (or the cash) to hightail it to a yoga studio every day. When life gets hectic and you can't eek another minute into your busy schedule for some "me" time, look to Yoga STRETCH. With this app, you can create and save five custom yoga sessions, or try one of the pre-programmed ones. Play your own background music through your phone, and start one of the sessions. The yoga instructor will walk you through your moves through the audio. This app will turn any room into your personal serenity garden. Sixty minutes of pure, unadulterated bliss. That is, until your kids barge in.
The economy is tight and one of the first things to go for a lot of us is the gym membership -- but that doesn't mean you have to sacrifice your workout. With this app, you don't need a fancy gym membership, a personal trainer, or even dumbbells to lose weight and get in shape. Gorilla Workout has more than 40 routines that are targeted at specific muscle groups, including your abs, arms, or legs. With a mix of cardio and strength training, the app will help you shed excess fat where you need to most and build muscle elsewhere in a short amount of time.
Jennifer Hudson swears by Weight Watchers; you and half your office attend the WW meetings together. But any WW convert knows that the program doesn't work if you don't accurately keep track of your points. Introducing the new Points Calculator Plus. This app tallies up your food points for you -- no need to carry around a bulky calculator and deal with the slight embarrassment of whipping it out in a posh restaurant. What's more, you won't ever have to question the point value of your meals. You can quickly search the food item in question with the app's database, which will spit out the point value immediately. Counting made easy.
If you like all your information in one place and are borderline OCD, then MyNetDiary Pro is for you. With purportedly the largest food database in the world, you can log in your food points and caloric intake easily. It also has a built-in barcode scanner, which you can use to scan any and all food items at the grocery store for an immediate nutritional value. You can also find exercise regimens, calculate your calories burned, and log these into your "diary" as well. And finally, this app tracks your daily steps, blood pressure, how much you sleep, and even how many cups of water you drink.
Did you know that your body burns calories while you sleep? For example, a 120-pound person burns about 408 calories with eight hours of shut-eye, which has to be the easiest and most relaxing way to lose weight in our book. That is, until the alarm clock goes off smack in the middle of your "cruising on a yacht with George Clooney" dream. Then you're just tired and cranky.
We feel the most tired when we get woken up during a REM cycle, which is when our brain is in its deepest sleep. By using the accelerometer in your iPhone to monitor your body's movement, this app will wake you up at the most optimal time to give you the most rest (and burn the most calories). Now, you can finish your George Clooney dream in peace.
For most of us, our phone is an adult-version of a security blanket. Without it we feel isolated, lost, and let's face it, bored. C'mon, admit it: Haven't there been a few times when you almost ran into a pole, a mailbox, or a stranger because you were thoroughly absorbed in a work email (or more likely, a vicious round of Words with Friends)? Thought so.
Despite the hazards that come with being distracted, you can't help but succumb to the smart phone's lure. With just a tap of your finger, you can "like" your friend's Facebook picture, see what Kim Kardashian is having for lunch today, and get up-to-the-minute breaking news. No need for a TV, a computer, or a personal assistant. And now, there's just one more reason why you should tighten your grasp on that little gadget: It'll make you skinny.
That's right. Because of the ingenious entrepreneurship of app creators, there are now apps for every fitness and diet need imaginable. Need some sage advice that'll pry the cookie dough out of your hands at 3 a.m.? There's an app for that. Want a personal trainer to yell at you for slacking on your target pace? There's an app for that, too. Need motivation to get off the couch and start running in the first place? Yeah, you get the drift.
And while there are hundreds of applications out there that promise to offer you the same results as a gym or personal trainer, we sifted through all of them and boiled it down to the best fitness apps that'll help you lose the most weight. These 12 apps have the latest in GPS, motion sensor, and bar scanning technology to give you all the tools you need to get in the best shape of your life -- fast. See the 12 best fitness apps now.
