Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch, App Review
Lose It! app for iPhone updated to 2.0, introduces online sync service
As you prepare to feast, it's not too soon to consider the impact of all that turkey and stuffing. The free Lose It! [iTunes Link] has been out for a long while now, and it's an app that people nearly always bring up when the conversation turns to good exercise/calorie tracker apps. With good reason: at one point I managed to lose over 15 pounds, and it was at least partly thanks to Lose It! on the iPhone. Its extremely intuitive interface and vast database of foods and exercises made it incredibly easy for me to track my progress and restrict my caloric intake.The one thing I always thought was missing from Lose It! was the ability to sync information back to the Mac. The app itself had limited ability to track trends over time, so I always wished Lose It! had some way of getting that info off my iPhone and onto my computer so I could at least make a spreadsheet out of it.
Lose It! has gone one step farther than that -- they've created their own website, loseit.com, that allows you to view all sorts of information, synced directly from the 2.0 version of Lose It! on the iPhone. Not only are there heaps of information about your own weight loss, calorie consumption, and exercise trends, Lose It's website also allows you to view your friends' information and watch each others' progress, assuming you all have the Lose It! app.
Lose It! 2.0 automatically syncs information from the app as you enter it, so when you go to the Lose It! site, any new information you've entered will already be populated.
Before I go on to tell you how awesome Lose It's new website is, I should tell you first that unless you have the app on your iPhone or iPod touch, you can't even set up an account on the site. The initial site setup is done through the Lose It! app, and as far as I can tell there's no way to enter information on the site itself. As such, the syncing between the app and the site is one-way only; the site acts more as a gathering place for all the information the iPhone app generates, a way to see information at a glance that would take a lot of digging in the app itself.
Setting up an account with Lose It! is easy - but you can only do it on an iPhone or iPod touch
The amount of data you can dig through on the Lose It! website is pretty incredible, especially considering it's all free. Some of the information presented is pretty sobering, too: after looking at my favorite foods for the past year, I discovered that I've consumed nearly 28,000 calories worth of beer since I first downloaded Lose It! in April, and just over 10,000 calories of soda. That's the kind of information that can show you the weak areas in your weight loss plan in a way that wasn't possible with just the Lose It! app alone.
So apparently I really, REALLY like carbohydrates
The bicycle is one of the most efficient machines ever created, by the way
This is what happens when you splurge on a burger and fries for lunch. Ugh
All of the reports generated by Lose It's website can easily be exported to a spreadsheet as a .csv file, which you can then view or edit in either Excel or Numbers. The bicycle is one of the most efficient machines ever created, by the way
This is what happens when you splurge on a burger and fries for lunch. Ugh
The amount of polish on Lose It's website is a reflection of the amount of polish in the app itself. Both the Lose It! site and app work together seamlessly to give you as clear an idea as possible about your exercise and eating trends. Considering the amount of work that must have gone into it, it's amazing that this all comes at no charge. If you're looking for a way to help you lose weight, I'd unconditionally recommend downloading Lose It! from the app store and setting up an account with their site.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Nick Edinburgh said 9:06AM on 11-26-2009
US Users only.
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mikehild said 9:16AM on 11-26-2009
You mean the new app does something to lock out non-Americans? That's good to know before updating. I've had no issues using the 1.x app in Canada, other than the occasional annoyance at it not having any choice of using Metric (but that's where unit converters come in handy).
Hammer said 11:10AM on 11-26-2009
It's easy enough to make a second account and download it if you want to try it.
It looks pretty good anyway. I hope they look at adding automatic unit switching in the future and opening it up to markets outside the US properly.
rekkart said 9:33AM on 11-26-2009
This is a good app. I lost over 95 lbs a year ago with it and I've managed to keep the weight off by using this app to check calories. The syncing will only make it better. One of my buddies used a Livestrong App I think, but I like this one better.
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Izzy said 9:48AM on 11-26-2009
I lost 22 pounds with the help of LoseIt. I switched to LiveStrong last month because of the lack of a website/syching. Now I might switch back.
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outlyer said 10:35AM on 11-26-2009
Does this track body fat %? Beyond a certain level of fitness, tracking mass is of limited utility.
I haven't found a decent iPhone application that focuses on body fat instead of the weak approximation of BMI.
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Greg said 1:16PM on 11-26-2009
Shame this is for US users only. Does anyone know of a similar type app for UK users with the same kind of features?
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mikehild said 1:29PM on 11-26-2009
Can someone please explain why this version is "only for US users" as a couple peoplehave already indicated? I agree it's built-in database just has US brands and restaurants. But not having a Canadian database is no big deal to me as I can easily enter my own foods using the nutrition data printed right on the label and most restaurants list nutrition info on their web sites now too (or at least fast food places anyway).
Or have they actually done something more significant in version 2 to lock out people outside the US? I would really hate to upgrade the app and suddenly find myself unable to use it anymore.
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Chris Rawson said 3:05PM on 11-26-2009
Other than it possibly not being available outside of the U.S. iTunes store, I'm not sure what people mean when they say this app is only for U.S. users. While I did download it from the U.S. iTunes store, it works just fine for me down here in New Zealand. Granted I have to do some mental gymnastics to convert everything from metric to U.S. measurements, and I have to do best-guess substitutions for brand-named foods since the brands down here are completely different, but other than that, this app works just fine outside of the U.S. In fact, I've never actually used it inside the U.S.
raleedy said 2:18PM on 11-26-2009
They have imperial calories over there.
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iMatt said 2:48PM on 11-26-2009
I've lost 22 pounds with LoseIt since April, and I'm excited about the new web features, which look terrific. I'm hoping for two-way synch someday...
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iMatt said 2:48PM on 11-26-2009
How do these folks make money?
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Mystic said 3:05PM on 11-26-2009
Awesome program. I've lost 30lbs and counting using LoseIt! to count calories.
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Nick Edinburgh said 4:30PM on 11-26-2009
What's not clear about US-only? It's only available in the US Store. Most of us in the real world don't want to have to jump through hoops trying to set up multiple accounts just to try a free program. Don't you need a US credit card to do so anyway? Whatever. Life's too short.
US-only.
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mikehild said 7:28PM on 11-26-2009
I downloaded my copy from the Canadian store. And I just checked, and it's still available in the Canadian store. Hence, it's NOT US only.
Martino said 5:21PM on 11-26-2009
Too bad it's US only. And free too.
I'd really like a Metric version and would pay happily a useful app like this.
Maybe if they receive a lot of requests they'll consider developing it.
C'mon non-US fat people, let them hear our voices.
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Mickey Sattler said 1:34PM on 12-09-2009
I believe they've said there won't be a metric version because the data they use are in imperial.
The site needs a phpBB-style forum to allow feedback and, more importantly, to allow folks to trade food hints and to find support buddies (which makes denial so much easier).
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