There are a lot of web services and mobile applications that you can use to track weight, exercise and calories.
I’ve been playing around with a few and will post reviews of several in the coming weeks.
One of the ones I’ve played around with is the Livestrong.com MyPlate app on the iPhone.
As applications go it’s got one of the nicest and easiest to use interfaces I’ve come across and is pretty much “idiot proof”.
Livestrong MyPlate main screen
Once you’ve setup your profile the app will let you easily track your food intake every day with ease. The database of foods they have is pretty impressive too, so it’s not impossible to find what you’ve eaten (a weakness with Tesco Diets).
Tracking foods you’ve eaten with the app is simple. You just choose which meal it fits under and off you go:
Searching for Food to track using the LiveStrong app on iPhone
Unfortunately, however, the app is more than a little confused with measurements. It’s pretty clear that it’s an American app and that the support for metric weights and measures was an afterthought. So while some parts of it might mention grams etc., you’ll find most of it referring to ounces, which is more than a little annoying.
On this screen, for example, you can see a breakdown of a particular food, but the actual portion size isn’t that clear:
Tracking food with the LiveStrong app
You can also track exercise that you’ve taken and the app will calculate how many calories you’ve burned off.
Overall it’s a nice app, but the confusion around measurement units is rather annoying if you’re using Metric.
It would also be much more useful if it hooked into my Withings, which some of the other apps and services do.
I totally agree, the MyPlate app certainly works and I think it is because you become accountable for your intake.