Nowadays the smartphone is our constant companion. At any time and anywhere, the helpful device is no longer just used for telephoning. Especially when it comes to health and fitness, the smartphone is gaining ground and offers an unbelievable variety of apps – i. e. small programs designed to make our lives easier. We have tested the five most popular ones ourselves.
In the area of fitness there are some practical programs to overcome the inner bastard. The following are at the top of the hit list.
Cost: free of charge, in the PRO version 0.79 Euro operating system: Android and iOSAon place 1 of the most popular and most loaded apps is the Sport-App Runtastic. Offered by the company of the same name from Austria, the smartphone becomes a personal fitness trainer. Whether you’re jogging, cycling, walking or hiking, the software records distance, speed, time and calorie consumption. This data is then presented in clear graphics.
During sports activities, the device tracks your personal route to collect all important data. You can share them directly from the app on Facebook or Twitter, of course this is not a must. If you wish, you can be accompanied by a voice output that gives important feedback during the activity. It is also possible to create your own Work-Out plans. During the training you can see the distance already covered and you can also control the music selection directly. However, the free version of this fitness app has advertisements. With the purchase of the PRO version, these are eliminated and some additional functions become possible.
Cost: free of charge, with Fitnesscoach 39,99 Euro Operating system: Android and iOS
Freeletics is also a very popular training program that works with your own body weight. You don’t need any tools or other aids. The app offers three different training plans and a nutrition guide. Freeletics combines the two most important factors for a trained body: muscle training and endurance training. Different exercises are put together into sets and demonstrated with videos.
For a surcharge of 39,99 Euro you have the possibility to use your own fitness coach. It adjusts the personal fitness level and compiles sets accordingly. One training session lasts between 5 and 45 minutes. The training can be carried out on sports grounds, playgrounds or at home. However, the training sessions are very demanding and highly intensive, and there is also a large number of apps in the food sector. FatSecret’s calorie counter ranks among the most loaded apps.
Cost: free operating system: Android and iOS
With this app you can keep an eye on your diet and get important information about various foods. This app is also a helpful aid for weight loss. Nutritional values such as the number of calories, fats, protein content or carbohydrates to almost all foods are included in this app.
The factors of gender, height, date of birth and the desire to lose or gain weight compose the personal profile. Now you can enter in detail which foods were consumed with which meal. The app immediately calculates the nutritional values and displays them graphically.
Even with repeated entries, it never happened that a food was not found. The products are also listed by different brands. Directories such as “Restaurants and chains”offer further possibilities to test products for their nutritional value. An almost complete coverage of all foodstuffs has been achieved with this app.
The following apps on the topic of health can be found among the top 5.
Cost: 0,99 EuroOperating system: iOS
This app accompanies the smoker during weaning. With a multitude of sayings the user is constantly motivated. This is about the money already saved or health. But also shock messages like “Formic acid is a colorless corrosive liquid that leads to liver and kidney damage”. The central point of this app is the indication of the smoke-free time, accurate to the second.
The function of the automatic money counter also motivates. Tangibly, the app indicates what you could already buy for the savings. The category Health shows how long it takes to regenerate certain physical characteristics. The presentation of small successes makes the app very motivating.
Cost: 0.99 Euro Operating System: Android and iOS
The App Sleep Cycle advertises recognizing a person’s sleep phases and waking them up at the right moment. In a phase of light sleep, the app wakes up with soft sounds to get an optimal start to the day.
How does this work? The mobile phone must be placed on the mattress before going to bed. The integrated motion sensor measures the movements during sleep. In this way, Sleep Cycle detects which sleep phase you are currently in. If you set a limit, you will be woken up to this point at the latest. The app passes the practical test, but the smartphone has to be powered all night long.
The apps described here are currently at the top of rankings, but be careful. No health app replaces the way to the doctor. Hidden costs or the passing on of private data are not uncommon. In most cases, medical or psychological help is also lacking.
When dealing with health apps, it is important to check the provider and save with personal data. For personal motivation and in consultation with the doctor, however, health apps make sense.