Free weight-loss resources
I think I’m going to quit Weight Watchers. Not the healthy lifestyle and all that–just the commercial program that charges me $18/month. It’s been a great run, but the $360 I’ve forked over to them over the past 20 months is as much as I’m willing to spend. I’ve learned what I can from them, quite a bit about health and nutrition and lifestyle and sustainable change. But at this point I’m not really taking advantage of their resources, so the money I’m paying is going to waste. So, there will be one last recipe-printing session, and then I’m going to reclaim my soul. Or at least my bank account.
Since this just represents a shift in approach to my healthy lifestyle goals, I am obviously going to need some replacement resources, and preferably of the free variety. So I did a bunch of research and thought I’d share the results with you. That way we ALL benefit. And some of the stuff I found looks really great. I haven’t tried these yet myself, but they all look good and seem to come highly recommended. I’ve broken this down into categories for easier viewing.
Diet and Exercise Journals
1. FitDay. This looks great. It has options for calorie counting, exercise tracking, and nutritional planning. It lets you break down the types of food you eat (protein, carbs, etc.) and track your goals over time. It’s like Weight Watchers, but free!
2. My Calorie Counter. Very similar to FitDay. All the same tracking features, plus community forums, which sounds like it could be very helpful for people who have questions or are just looking for support or commiseration. Again, the poor man’s (or woman’s) Weight Watchers.
3. The Daily Plate. Again with the tracking of the food intake and the physical activity through a free online diary. Also with the community forum and the calorie counter. All very similar, I know, but who doesn’t like options?
Calorie Counters
1. MyPyramid Tracker. This is a resource from the government, so you have to trust it, right? Well, anyway, it allows you to assess your food intake and physical activity, and provides you with information on how to improve those things. Nice and simple.
2. MSN’s Calorie Counter. This isn’t a tracker, just a counter that allows you to pick foods from different food groups (bread, dairy, etc.), input how much you ate, and add up the total.
3. Calorie Lab. This does the same as the others, but it has the added benefit of having nutritional information for the menus from a ton of restaurants. Very helpful and centralized, preventing you from having to hunt on a bunch of individual restaurant websites for information that may or may not even be there.
Fitness Programs
1. Body by Glamour. I keep reading about this in Glamour magazine, and though I haven’t tried it myself, it does sound good. It provides a daily plan for both food and exercise, and it’s fun and has pretty pictures and even contests. It’s definitely corporate, but it looks like it could work.
2. Couch-to-5K. This is a program for anyone who wants to learn to run. It offers a week-by-week plan to ease you into running a 5K, and it’s easily tailored by repeating a week until you feel that you’re ready to move onto the next one. It starts very simply, with 90-second walking intervals and 60-second jogging intervals. I did this in the summer of 2007 when it was making the rounds of the internet, and loved it. I still base my gym workouts off of its suggestions.
3. Popular Fitness. This site has lots of interesting articles about fitness and nutrition, and several different tools to help you stick to your program, including exercise workout sheets and workout suggestions by body part.
General Resources
1. Dotti’s Weight Loss Zone. The site design isn’t pretty, but there are tons of resources on this website. Recipes, food lists, restaurant nutritional information, meal plans, success stories… it’s all there. Just ignore the ads.
2. Nutrition Data. Again, tons of information, including some that’s very tailored such as diabetes and heart health. There’s a glossary, an explanation of how to read nutrition labels, diet advice, and tons of other resources.
3. Calorie Control Council. I don’t like the name–it sounds too much like Animal Control or something–but they have lots of info, and links to all sorts of different calculators. They have information on effective weight loss over time, low-calorie sweeteners, and plenty of other topics.
So, did I get them all? What other online resources do you use to help you in your quest for health?
January 10th, 2009 at 11:56 am
Thanks Jess! I can’t wait to check out the couch to 5k site. For me the big thing is just staying motivated. In addition to adding B.I.M to my reader I read mightymaggie.com/hot_by_thirty and escapefromobesity.blogspot.com. Both are inspiring to me.
January 10th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I like My Net Diary (http://www.mynetdiary.com/index.html)
There is a free application for my iphone, but the program itself costs varying amounts- $60/year. I like the way it deducts the calories burned with exercise and shows me exactly what I need to do with my calories to reach my goal.
January 10th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
I’ve been using http://www.sparkpeople.com. It incorporates all of the things you’ve mentioned above, and even has video workouts available online. When I did it religiously, I lost 15 pounds last year. You can even get daily emails (if you want) with recipes, motivational stuff, and all-round health information. And it’s all FREE!
January 10th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
I am currently using FitDay, and so far I like it. My only concern is that sometimes the site is SLOW. But, I won’t complain since it is FREE! I especially like the pie graph that shows the ratios of carbs, protein and fats. I loosely follow the Zone diet and that graph is a great motivation for me. I feel very accomplished when it is “balanced” at the end of the day.
January 10th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
I second Sparkspeople. It’s has all the things I liked about WW online and it is free!!!!!!
January 10th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
I use MapMyWalk.com to help me track workouts. It basically uses a google earth-type map where you can trace your walking/running/cycling route and it calculates the distance of your route and helps figure calories burned and mph. You can also check out the routes of other members in your area. Plus the basic membership is free.
I’ve also used the tools at Self.com to log workouts and food intake. They have a cool 30 Day Diet challenge that gives you one new tip each day for thirty days. Also free.
Thanks for your list and all the suggestions – I like free, too!
January 10th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
I third Sparkpeople.com. I’ve lost 30 pounds since April, and it’s ALL because of Sparkpeople.com. Good, sensible, smart advice. The food tracker and exercise trackers are GREAT and make it REALLY easy to track everything. Free videos, LOTS of information, blogs, groups. There’s TONS of stuff there, and it’s all Free Free FREE.
January 10th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Another positive review here for Sparkpeople. I have used fitday (although admittedly not for several years), and a couple other calorie tracking sites, and Sparkpeople is by far the best for calorie and workout journaling. The message boards, articles, and videos are all excellent as well. It helped me lose 80 pounds a couple of years ago, and is helping me lose the rebound weight I have put on in the last year or so.
January 12th, 2009 at 7:33 am
These are great! I’ve never heard of most of them. I think the only one I’ve used is Dottie’s Weight Loss Zone- and you’re right, the ads are crazy!
I just re-joined WW, but I do the meeting plans. I’m determined to lose my weight so that I can quit paying for it!
January 12th, 2009 at 8:21 am
I LOVE Sparkpeople too!
January 12th, 2009 at 8:38 am
Thanks for these resources!
January 12th, 2009 at 10:11 am
I like online resources that fitness magazines offer. Like, Shape (http://www.shape.com/), Self (http://www.self.com/) and Fitness (http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/).
January 12th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Oooh, thanks for posting this because I’m thinking along the same lines. For after I’m done gestating though. I don’t think I can bring myself to do weight watchers for a number of reasons, so I’m hoping just the free stuff will be the extra help I need.
January 12th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
http://refusetoregain.com/my_weblog/
I also like this doctor’s website. It has some good tidbits of info about diet and exercise and the mindframe you need to develop to permanently keep weight off.
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:41 pm
You overlooked http://sparkpeople.com which I personally find better than Fit Day. Having used both, I prefer the ease of inputting meals on Spark People & the graphs & charts are easier for me to find and more practical since they don’t tell my tiny vitamins that I don’t know what they do.
January 23rd, 2009 at 11:34 am
Hi,
This may not be weight loss exactly, but it helps me – fitpod.com. You can download workout music based on beats per minute. It’s nice not to have to come up with new playlists all the time. It’s free and you get a new one every week. Music keeps me motivated when I work out so I really like this.
January 25th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
The Couch-to-5k plan is awesome! It actually got me – a non-athletic, non-running, overweight individual – running 30 minutes in one go.
Also, not sure if anyone else has mentioned this, but About.com has a calorie counter as well that gives letter grades to the foods and recipes that you create: http://caloriecount.about.com
January 25th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
I use a bike. It’s not free but I feel better when I use it regularly. The feeling may be an illusion but I guess it’s better than having no cardiovascular exercise at all.
It hasn’t actually trimmed my waistline after using it on and off since starting my personal biking campaign in 2005 but I believe it has helped me a lot in evading heavier health problems.
December 25th, 2010 at 9:55 am
Thanks for this info! Similar i see in dvd files