If thumbing through social media was an Olympic sport, we would bring home the gold. According to a study released in March by analytics firm Flurry, Americans spend nearly five hours each day on their phone and, from an earlier study by Informate Mobile Intelligence, check Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts a staggering 17 times a day — or about once every waking hour.
Obviously, all that screen time has negative impact on our health by promoting a sedentary lifestyle. However, when the right apps are downloaded, some screen time can actually help us lead healthier and more active lives. But before you are sucked into the app-store-wormhole, take a moment to review some of the best health and fitness apps listed here.
Mind & Brain
1. Happify uses the latest research to support your emotional well-being. This is the app that will help you find more “me” time, and get better at handling stress through games, mindful meditation, and mini assessments.
Fitness
2. Sworkit is the ultimate tool for personalizing your workout. Select the type of workout you are looking for (strength, cardio, and yoga), the amount of time you have (from as little as five minutes to an hour), and get ready to sweat. If you pay $4.99 per month you can choose the number of reps and area of the body you want to focus on.
3. Freeletics Bodyweight has more than 900 body-weight workouts that take five-to-thirty minutes, require no equipment, and are adapted to all fitness levels. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced athlete, this app has the training program to match your goals.
4. Blogilates Official App makes us fall in love with YouTube star Cassey Ho all over again. Bonus features include access to an online forum, and all of Cassey’s fitness and clean eating videos. If you subscribe ($0.99/month) you also have access to a personalized workout calendar.
Food & Nutrition
5. Lifesum shows that wellness about small, sustainable changes. Pick a goal (lose weight, build muscle, or eat better) and the app sends reminders (drink more water), feedback to improve your diet, and simple graphics to show your progress.
6. Noom Coach makes dieting simple. Unlike other calorie-counting apps, it uses the stoplight approach (green foods are healthy choices and red foods should be limited or avoided) to label foods. This app will also help you get motivated by joining challenges with other Noomers.
7. Lose It! and its food photo recognition tool Snap It! make calorie counting a cinch. Simply upload your food photo and Snap It! calculates the calories and nutrition information. If you are experiencing a weight loss plateau the app helps you learn more about your logs by identifying the foods that add the most calories. It also connects with GoogleFit so you can track calories and exercise in one simple step.
8. Dietbet proves you’re not full of hot air when it comes to weight-loss goals. Users enter a challenge—either to lose four percent of their weight in four weeks or ten percent of their weight in six months—and progress is monitored by DietBet referees. Then the money is split between everyone in the group who reaches their goal weight.
Brenda Viens is a Community Life Skills Dietitian for Backus Hospital and Thames Valley Council for Community Action. Email her at Brenda.Viens@hhchealth.org.