FBG-Approved Online Fitness Tools
April 10, 2009 by Erin
Credit: Tim Morgan
Jenn and I have a long and growing list of our favorite online fitness tools. Lucky for you, we also have a strict policy not to keep our faves to ourselves. And although old-fashioned pen and paper is a perfectly suitable way to track your workouts and nutrition, it’s way more fun to track them on these websites. Plus, they’re great sites to hit when you need a break at work, and they’re great for helping you stay on track. Not that we’re approving surfing on the job…but for these sites, we are. Healthier employees are more productive, right?
PEERtrainer
One of Jenn’s fave go-to sites, PEERtrainer allows you to journal daily activity and food intake along with joining groups of people with similar goals for accountability. There’s something about other people knowing when you skip five days of working out to make you get your rear in gear. If you’re looking to join a team, join us on the Fit Bottomed Girls group. Plus, if you’re looking for a real kick in the pants, PEERtrainer is offering a 12-week coaching program that will give you tools to succeed in your healthy eating and exercise goals. It’s not free after the two-week trial, but making an investment in yourself might give you the push you need.
Map My Run
Save some gas and stop hopping in the car to drive your runs. Hit up MapMyRun.com to make checking the distance of your runs or walks a breeze. All you have to do is enter your address, and then simply click on your path to map it. It’s much more accurate than a simple Google map search because you can take your runs off the beaten path. You can also search for runs in your area to find new places to explore.
FitDay
FitDay is one of the best sites we’ve come across for tracking food and nutrition. This free site allows you to enter your daily foods, moods and exercise, and make journal entries. It also provides nutrition information on an obscene amount of foods, and it even breaks down carbs, fat and protein intake into handy graphs.
Life Fitness Virtual Trainer
Designed to link exercisers and equipment, the Life Fitness Virtual Trainer website recommends individual workout plans and tracks exercise progress. Users can store data on a USB device, and then the website organizes and stores workout results, making it easy to track progress. The system has also introduced a buddies feature that lets you create and share workout programs with friends and family. The more the merrier!
SparkPeople
SparkPeople’s mission is to spur everyday people into action and improve their health. This free site advocates transitioning from a diet mindset to a permanent healthy lifestyle. The site has the community aspect, allowing you to talk on message boards and join teams, as well as tons of nutrition, fitness and health content.
GoodFoodNearYou
Pop in your zip code and GoodFoodNearYou will bring up the healthiest food options in your neighborhood. From what I’ve seen, it’s mostly chains, but the site includes smaller chains, as well as local favorites. The site compiles the info in one spot so you don’t have to go searching endless restaurant websites for hard-to-find nutrition info. A great site to steer you in the right direction for healthy eating in your neighborhood.
Got your own web faves? Share them with us in the comments! —Erin
I’ve really been enjoying Spark People lately. I heard about it when it first came out, but never really explored it until now. I love the little short videos they have on there. Great for quick workout throughout the day.
Another good one is MyFitnessPal. You can track nutrition and activity, and their is an online community.
The only thing I don’t think about this site is that, while it does break down you carbs/pro/fat, I haven’t found where it provides you with percentages, and its kind of a pain to do myself.
Wooo! I’m so bookmarking this list, and using those links! I did just join Spark People, although I don’t think i’ve been using it to it’s full potential (life threw me a scheduling curve ball) Can’t wait to get back on track using these new tools!
Cool! I’m hopping over to Life Fitness Virtual Trainer now…
The main sites I hit up tend to be magazine websites to find training plans and workouts– a lot have videos and I love that they’re free even to non-subscribers.
i use FitDay as being a diabetic, i’m able to get my carb count instantly, keep track of the foods, moods, workouts, weight, etc, and print it all out for my dietician.
it reads out just like food labels, and so at the end of the day, you can see the daily supplements you are deficient in as well. i love it!
its good tips, very helpful, i will visit back
I found MapMyRun a while back & think it is great. Plus, if you have a route you run, walk, jog or anything else, you can figure out how many miles it is! I have this site on my Fav Websites too! Good list of options to check out. Thx for sharing!
Great post..Spark People I’ve heard of..going to dig in more. I was out hunting for similar stuff and came across a simple post on healthy shopping tips.. simple, but I liked it
http://www.tbshealthy.blogspot.com
Sandy
Cool! I’ve used FitDay and it’s awesome but I hadn’t heard of these others.
I am a sparkpeople member, have been for just over a year now. Following the spark philosophy I have lost 85 pounds in the last year, and am on my way to changing my life forever!
It is an AMAZING website, especially since its totally free. It really is a bunch of people all working to get healthy together, with all the tools you could need at your fingertips. Check it out!!
I have tried both of these food tracking logs (FitDay and SparkPeople) as well as the WW eTools, and I’ve found that once I try to enter any ethnic foods, it becomes extremely difficult to find their nutrition values.
Because I eat “weird” foods, I switched over to LiveStrong (and their affiliation withe The Daily Plate). The great part about their food tracker is that community members can enter foods, so when I’m looking for my Indian breakfast of rava idli or Italian lunch of broccoli arancino, it’s right there. You have to be a bit more careful about ingredients and portions, but I’ve found their food catalogue to be the most thorough by far.
I still use FitDay for weight/inches tracking – it’s definitely got the best body measurement metrics.
PS Plus: Livestrong has a GREAT iPhone app. I actually have an iPod & it does a great job of working offline based on past foods and then syncing once internet access is available. If only it had better exercise options …
I can’t wait to check out all of these options! I’ve been using MSN Health and Fitness, which is awesome, and Training Peaks, both of which I found by accident when I signed up for HealthVault. I’ve also heard great stuff about The Daily Plate (for calorie counting) and Fit Day. Lots of great free options for us all to track what we need!
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