I’ve been playing with the MyFitnessPal (MFP) and Fitocracy apps for a little while now. MFP is a handy way to make me really conscious of where the calories in my diet are coming from. I especially like the barcode scanner, and the ability to make my own recipes. At the end of the day you can get an estimate for what the calorie-in/calorie-out math predicts you’d weigh in a few weeks if you kept it up, which is interesting, though I don’t yet know how accurate the prediction is. You can also link your app to your friends’ to see what they’re up to, activity and food-wise.
I’ve started using Fitocracy at the gym as an easy way to pre-load a set of exercises (many of which I’ve never tried before), and keep track of how much weight I use for each. Over time, this lets me track how I’m improving, which I’ve found to be a key motivator. Fitocracy has a ridiculous amount of exercises available, with text instructions for all and little videos of how to do many of them (form matters!). Right now they’re promoting the Rock’s new movie Hercules with some special routines the Rock supposedly used to get so ridiculously massive. I don’t have any desire to get that big, but I’ve tried the “Chest” and “Back” routines so far, and they are scorchers! It’s a fun way to mix it up at the gym, and variety is often heralded as the key to success. Keep the muscles from getting bored and they’ll keep right on improving!