Health and Fitness Applications
By Madison E.
Today, more people are using their smartphones to aid with health and fitness. There are more than 32,000 health and fitness applications on the iTunes store alone. With more options than ever to raise health and fitness, people have started to rely heavily on apps.
Using applications such as “Calorie Counter,” among others, are inexpensive ways to track calories and keep to a diet. An application on a phone makes it easy to log in the information of what has been eaten during the day. These applications have also become personalized as users can change and format how much weight they want to lose in a period of time based on the user’s weight and height.
“Jillian Michaels Weight Loss” application allows users who download the app to try out a sample workout before purchasing the full version of the application. The app includes features such as videos on how to complete the different exercises, a journal, and a community to share success and other tips. There are also articles, tips, and recipes available to the users to help lose the weight faster. The full version of the app costs $14.99 per month.
Smartphones can also be used as step calculators. Studies have shown that different applications on smartphones are comparable to the “Fitbit” watch and are less expensive. The data from smartphone applications such as Galaxy S4 Moves and iPhone 5s Moves app were only slightly different than the observed step counts.
Professor Mitesh Patel, an attending physician at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, stated that, “Compared to the one to two percent of adults in the U.S. that own a wearable device, more than sixty-five percent of adults carry a smartphone.”
Smartphones have become a forefront in the health and fitness world, providing thousands of applications to aid those seeking a healthier lifestyle.
