A comparison of different weight loss apps (free and paid)
Below you will find a quick comparison of different weight loss apps and the pros/cons of each. There is also an easy-to-follow chart at the bottom comparing each one.
Cronometer (Free; premium $8.99/mo or $49.99/yr)
Pros: Tracks more nutrients than other apps, access to blog and Question and Answers from other users, Syncs with popular accessories like Fitbit and Garmin
Cons: Subscription required for pro tools
Lose It! (Free; optional $9.99/mo or 39.99/yr)
Pros: Contains a large food and restaurant database, User-friendly database containing helpful articles and recipes, includes macronutrient tracking with percentages and charts of each (protein, fats, carbohydrates)
Cons: Doesn’t track vitamins and minerals (not absolutely necessary)
My Fitness Pal (Free; optional $9.99/mo or $49.99/yr)
Pros: User friendly, Macronutrient Tracking (with subscription), Large food and restaurant database from popular places and grocery stores
Cons: Pro features only offered with a subscription
Noom ($59/mo or $199/year)
Pros: One-on-One Coaching, Uses psychology to train you in behavior modification, Daily Articles with quizzes and challenges, reminders to track meals, Food and Exercise Log, a smart color-coded system based on caloric density
Every day, I use roughly the same routine to continue to lose weight. Having a plan is known to create a 30% greater chance of success. A weight loss plan is not a difficult math equation, and it is simple to follow.
Here is the daily routine of my weight loss plan.
My Daily Routine: Morning
As soon as you wake up in the morning, before you do anything else, go to the bathroom. Empty your body and then weigh yourself. This will give you an accurate account of what you truly weigh.
After weighing yourself, drink a full glass of water. It is vitally important to hydrate yourself with a full glass of water as soon as you get up. This allows your cells to function at their peak.
[I also take my vitamins in the morning when I drink my water to save on time]
Breakfast: How to begin the weight loss plan
I do not eat breakfast on most days. I use a diet plan called Intermittent Fasting, which will be covered in another post.
If you do eat breakfast, try to eat protein, lean meats, and low sugary foods. Stay away from the sweets (pancakes, waffles, cinnamon rolls, cereal) that are loaded with sugar. This will spike your insulin and immediately halt your body’s ability to burn fat.
Lunch: Weight Loss Plan Continued
For lunch, it is super important to eat lean protein, carbs, and fats. The easiest way to calculate this is to take your weight and attempt to eat that number in grams of protein per day. It is sometimes difficult to reach, especially if you are significantly overweight, but it’s important to try your best to reach that number.
For example, if we take a 200 pound person, they would need to try and consume 200g of protein a day. That’s somewhere around 65 grams of protein per meal. Then split up the remaining calories with carbs and fats. I would recommend eating less carbs than fats, but the protein is the most important part of fat loss.
Remember, you need to be in a caloric deficit of 3500 (1 lb of fat) or 7000 (2 lbs a fat) per week to lose weight. This is a non-negotiable.
Dinner
It is a good idea to try and limit carbs for this meal.
Eat lean protein (fish, chicken, steak, etc) and vegetables. Avoid sugary drinks and desserts as often as possible. Remember, we are trying to keep our insulin as low as possible so as to remain in a fat burning state.
If you would like to know more about how I diet (Intermittent Fast) follow my blog and review my other posts. Also, you can go to my youtube channel and view my videos for more information.
Regardless of the vast amount of information and misinformation out there about diet and exercise, weight loss is not that complicated.
Having gone through the ups and downs of weight gain and loss for the past 6 years has taught me a lot. Mainly is the fact that the process of losing weight isn’t as difficult as some would make it out to be. It’s fairly simple when you look at the broader picture, in fact.
What Makes it Simple
The simple fact is, if you eat less than you burn, you WILL lose weight. That’s a scientific fact! Calories in, versus calories out is the only way you can lose weight. That seems like common sense, but it is also the part that everyone seems to struggle with the most.
Why is the struggle so real?
If weight loss is not that complicated, then why do so many people struggle to make is a sustainable lifestyle? In 2017, 42.4% of Americans were obese. That’s up from 30.9% in 1999. The average American consumes between 2500 to 3500 calories a day. To lose weight, one should eat in ranges from 1500 to 2000 calories a day.
The Math Behind Weight Loss
1 pound of body fat is equivalent to 3500 calories. Therefore, to lose 1 pound of body fat, a person would have to be a caloric deficit of 3500 calories. That is the simple and honest truth behind the math of weight loss.
While technically it doesn’t matter what you consume to lose weight, your health heavily depends on the type of calories you eat. You CAN lose weight eating 2000 calories of cheesecake every day, but your body will hate you. 2000 calories of a balanced diet would do your body much better, while also losing weight.
My goal is to provide you with the resources to lose weight and be healthy at the same time. In fact, if you can combine CICO (Calories In Calories Out) with healthy food and exercise, you can lose a lot of weight fast and have a healthy body, inside and out.
If you follow my blog and click on the “join list” button below, you will receive a FREE INTRODUCTORY VIDEO and a FREE PDF of the basics of losing weight fast. This will get you started on the journey of becoming a better, healthier, fitter YOU! Will you join me?
I decided to go on a run today in my neighborhood park, and I hate running! But I also have made a decision to Do Hard Things! However, when I run and listen to my podcasts, ideas start flowing in my mind. After around 1.5 miles I decided to stop running, walk, and record a video of the thoughts I had in my head.
Let Me Set the Scene…
It was raining outside today in Arlington, Texas and the temperature was around 65 degrees. I sat in my living room recliner for about 10 minutes staring out the window at the weather. After about 10 minutes, I laced up my shoes and ran out the door. I ran down the street, on the wooded trail by the playground, and through the wooded trail that runs near my house. I observed many animals, including Peacocks (we have about 50 in our neighborhood). It wasn’t raining hard, but just enough to be annoying.
That’s when my mind started racing. I stopped and began recording a video about the thoughts in my head.
We can’t change our circumstances, or the weather, or how people around us react. We don’t have control over the economy or the government, on a large scale. What we DO have control is our choices! We can choose to Do Hard Things! Here is the link to an amazing book that talks about the science of doing hard things:
Do Hard Things Every Day, Now…
I didn’t always make the decision to take the “road less traveled” (Thank you Robert Frost). I would often do the easiest, cheapest, least time-consuming things. What this got me was laziness, tiredness, and depression. I ate poorly-made fast food, watched hours-on-end of TV, and stared at my phone while lounging on the couch most afternoons. Trust me, the easier thing is just that, easier! Also, it is not in any way better for you and your health, both physical and mental.
After a mental breakdown 5 years ago I sought after help. I went to a counselor and explored many tools that would eventually allow me to rewire my brain. Scientists call this Neuroplasticity. It is the ability for our brains to create new connections and default to the things that used to be hard. The only thing we have to do is choose to do the hard thing day after day. Eventually, it becomes the norm for our bodies and minds.
I hope that you will make the choice today to Do Hard Things every day. Join me on my journey and CHOOSE to lose weight starting today!
I was reading an article yesterday about the important role that carbohydrates play in our daily lives. Carbs often get the bad reputation of being a catalyst for weight gain. Carbs do not make you fat, as we have been led to believe. In fact, carbohydrates are so vital to your body that you literally can’t live without them.
So Why the Hype?
There are many diets based on the concept of cutting the number of carbohydrates that you consume in order to lose weight. Many of these diets are highly effective, especially in the first weeks of weight loss. What, then, is the issue with these types of diets. The answer: It Depends!
I know, right? But let me explain! Carbohydrates account for a higher caloric density than many other foods. Therefore, if we eat a high amount of carbohydrates, then we consume more calories. In the typical American diet, people eat an excessive amount of carbohydrates, and, therefore, an excessive amount of calories. Sounds like a simple story of direct cause and effect, right?
Not so fast…
I am not one to jump to conclusions, especially when my health depends on the information being factual. So, I began to look at data from around the world as to what the healthiest countries in the world ate on average. An article by Huff Post showed that Japan was one of the healthiest countries in the world, yet they consumed a high amount of carbs on a daily basis. They ate noodles, and rice when many of their meals.
Likewise, Italy, the number 2 healthiest country in the world, consumes a high amount of carbohydrates as well. The Italians eat pastas and bread in many of their meals (think Spaghetti).
So what gives?
The problem is that these countries, while eating a high amount of carbs, eat “real” food in moderation. The American diet consists of many processed foods. Our pastas and breads are often loaded with added sugars and seed oils (both very bad for you). We eat deep fried foods and fast foods at a higher rate than many countries around the world. So much so that the Unites States is the 43rd healthiest country and we have a 30 percent obesity rate. For comparison, the Japanese have a 3.5 percent obesity rate.
Cutting out carbs makes sense…
It would make logical sense to cut out the thing that we conclude is causing a big issue. It makes sense that many diets include this strategy. Cutting carbs does work to lose weight, so where am I going with this?
The problem is that carbohydrates are a vital part to our bodily functions. In fact, many of our vitamins and minerals come from healthy carbohydrates. When we cut carbs too low, we risk losing out on important nutrients that our body needs to function at an optimal level. Carbs contain minerals like glucose, magnesium, and fiber.
Glucose is the body’s main source of energy. Without it, we can’t live. Carbs contain glucose, which converts to energy in the body. Magnesium is vital for muscle and nerve function as well as energy production. Low levels can increase the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and osteoporosis. Fiber lowers Type-2 Diabetes risk, Lowers the chances of Heart Disease, reduces the risk of some cancers, and keeps our gut healthy. Fiber-rich foods keep you feeling fuller longer and are associated with greater weight loss.
You see, carbs don’t make you fat…
I like to say, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.” What I mean is, don’t throw out the carbs with the calories. The best diets are those that cut calories, while maintaining a healthy balance between Fats, Carbs, and Proteins.
So what does that balance look like?
To lose weight, you need to keep in mind that each pound of fat is equivalent to a 3500 calorie deficit. This means you have to eat 3500 less calories than you burn. If you need a refresher on how to find out what you burn and what you are eating daily, go back to my 2nd blog and take notes. So, for example, if you were going to decide that 2000 calories is the right number for your body daily, then you need to decide how many Fats, Carbs, and Proteins fit into that 2000 calories healthily.
Here is a calculator to find out what your balance (Macros) should be:
I am not a certified fitness trainer, or a licensed nutritionist by any stretch of the imagination. I am a guy who lost weight! So why trust me?
Although I do have a very small background from taking Kinesiology courses at college, I went into this process with a fairly blank slate. I knew the basics of what was healthy, and that I needed to eat better, but that’s about it.
However, I spent thousands of hours reading books, analyzing studies, and watching videos from top experts in the field. I wrote down everything I learned and studied it relentlessly. Even more so, I applied these things to my life and proved that this system absolutely works. No Cap (As kids today would say)!
So I guess I’m not just a guy who lost weight…
One fault of mine is that I can’t let things go without completely learning everything I can about it. This is also why I can talk about this until I am blue in the face.
I sat in front of my computer every waking opportunity I got and STUDIED. And I STUDIED hard!
The hardest thing was sitting through the hype and the dishonest information that many put out as trustworthy. There are so many out there just trying to earn a quick dollar that they will put out dishonest and sometimes harmful advice on weigh loss.
Transforming from a guy who lost weight to a knowledgeable resource…
At the beginning it was just about transforming my own body. I was dead focused on fixing my own issues and losing weight. If I couldn’t lose my own weight, then how could I help others?
Somewhere around 3 months in I realized that I had learned so much about weight loss and health that my head was starting to hurt. Not literally! It hit me that I could and needed to share what I had learned and continue to learn with other people.
It’s in my blood, I guess…
I have a natural desire to see others succeed. If I could be the catalyst for people to have a better life then I was going to be that resource.
This is why I am here!
Yes, you will see links on my site for things you can buy from other vendors. Every one of these items I have used and still use myself. If you click and buy them, great, and thank you!
If you choose not to, then I hope the information I provide helps you in some way! My hope is that I can help you become the best healthy form of yourself for you and those you care about. Will you join me?
I’m going to make this as simple as possible! Below you will find an easy-to-follow, step-by-step outline of the process that I used to lose 40 pounds in the last 6 months and keep it off. Follow these steps to start losing weight now!
Step 1 – Track What You Eat
There are certain things that you have to do if you are going to start losing weight now. The very first step is that you have to track what you eating. If you don’t know how many calories you are consuming, you will have zero idea on how much you truly need to cut out. This isn’t about what foods you are eating. It is simply about counting what goes into your mouth when you eat.
Why does this matter?
Simply put, your body burns a certain amount of calories each day. This number changes day to day, depending on many factors. (The details information is found in my 7-Day Crash Course). In order to lose weight, you have to remain in a calorie deficit (less in than out) in any given day over a week period. The type of food doesn’t matter for losing weight, just the amount. For example, if your body burns 2500 calories a day, and consume 2000 calories of snickers, you will lose weight.
Yay…Free for All!!!
Does this mean that you should just eat whatever, as long as it is below my calorie expenditure? Absolutely not! I’m just trying to make a point! You have to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight. We call that CICO, or Calories In Calories Out. This has to happen, or the rest of this doesn’t work. I go into more detail of specific foods, macro numbers, and recipes on the 7-Day Crash Course, but for now, you need to know how much you’re eating.
There are many ways to track what you eat! The most important thing is to track. You can use Apps like MyFitnessPal, Lose It, or even a piece of paper (the hardest way).
I personally use Noom. It allows me to track my food for each meal with ease and accuracy. Noom also has a unique character to it that other apps don’t. It is backed by psychology in where it teaches you to adapt your thinking and actions to make real, lasting change. I learned many psychological tools that helped me adapt to my new lifestyle and train my mind to enjoy this new way of living. I would say that Noom is in the Top 3 of the best tools that I have use to lose weight and get healthy.
Step 2 – Know What You Burn
If you don’t know how much you are eating, and how much you burn, then you can’t do the math. What math is this? The math of CICO – Calories In Calories Out! Let me show you an easy formula so that you can find out how much you burn on average. Remember, this number changes slightly day to day. However, you will get a good estimate of where you are starting.
Women BMR = 655 + (9.6 X weight in kg) + (1.8 x height in cm) – (4.7 x age in yrs)Men BMR = 66 + (13.7 X weight in kg) + (5 x height in cm) – (6.8 x age in yrs)
To make this simpler, here is the link so that you can just plug in your numbers and find out quickly.
Based on this information, I (a 40 year old male, 6 feet tall, at 232 pounds) would burn around 3100 calories a day and around 22000 calories a week.
Now Let’s Put These 2 Number to Use to Start Losing Weight Now…
Using my numbers above, I consume around 2000 calories a day (sometimes more, sometimes less). If I burn 3100 calories and consume 2000 calories I would be in a calorie deficit of 1000 calories a day. Over one week, that would equate to a 7000 calorie deficit.
What does this mean for weight loss?
It takes a deficit of 3500 calories to burn 1 pound of fat. In any given week, I am burning around 2 pounds of fat. This is about the maximum number of weight you should lose weekly, after the initial water weight and excess that you shed at the beginning.
Step 3 – Weigh Yourself DAILY
Why do I recommend weighing daily? According to WebMD, “Research shows that people who weigh themselves every day have even more success with weight loss than those who weigh in once a week.” I took this advice and have found it to be very accurate. The reason is psychological and practical. If you weigh yourself daily, you will be more accountable to yourself and the scale. You will also see the trend going downward on the scale.
Here is the scale that I use at home that has an app that tracks it for you:
While running a mile every day would be great for your overall health and weight loss, let’s be practical. If you are overweight, and many of us significantly so, then running is the last thing on our minds.
I want to give you a simple goal for the foreseeable future…try to walk 10,000 steps a day. If you have to work your way up to it, start at 8,000 steps a day. If you can’t make 8,000, start with 5. The goal is to make it to 10,000 steps a day. Do I hit that number every day? No! Do I go over that on some days? Sometimes! But I always aim for 10,000. It is quite simple to track your steps every day. Most cells phones today have the ability to do this without a wearable device. I use my Apple Watch, but it is not a non-negotiable. Here is a step tracker that I used before I was gifted an Apple Watch. It works just as good for tracking steps, for a fraction of the price:
Once you master this feat, start adding in running, or HIIT, or other forms of aerobic exercise to your routine. In the first 4 months, I only walked on the treadmill and in my neighborhood for about 45 minutes every other day. That’s all I could handle. I now walk an hour 3 times a week and run once or twice a week for 2 miles, maybe. and I hate running! I cover more about the benefits of walking, running, and other exercise in my 7-Day Crash Course as well.
Step 5 – Do Some Form of Weight Training
I am one that hates to lift weights 4 to 5 days a week. It’s just not in my DNA, so to speak! I would rather do 10 pushups, 20 sit-ups, and 1 pullup and call it a day. I know that the struggle is real when it comes to weight lifting, but this is an important aspect of reshaping your body composition.
The saying is true that more muscle burns more fat! If you focus only on the eating aspect of weight loss you will lose weight. Lots of it! But you will also lose muscle and, in turn, lessen the ability to continue to burn fat. Can you see the issue here? Weight training is a necessary inconvenience to keep our motor at high performance for burning fat.
Now, you don’t have to go to the store and buy expensive weight machines, or a BowFlex machine (remember those?). I bought a couple of cheap weights at Goodwill and a set of resistance bands from Walmart to get started. Since then I have upgraded, a bit, but I still don’t go to the gym and spend hours pumping iron. I do simple resistance training exercises, some basic dumbbell exercises, and some squats. Then my 10 pushups, 20 sit ups, and 1 pullup. Haha! Just kidding on the last one! It’s a bit more complex than that, but I keep it as simple as possible.
If you want to see a sample of what I do in a normal workout, go over to my YouTube channel and check out my video, “My Normal Daily Workout”.
I know this one seems like a no-brainer, but this might be the hardest step in the process.
Here is a study by DealOnHealth.net,
77% of Americans are striving to eat healthier.
45 million US adults start dieting each year.
20% of dieters manage to maintain long-term weight loss.
Dieters usually regain 50% of the lost weight within two years.
The statistic that sticks out to me the most is the last one, “Dieters usually regain 50% of the lost weight within two years.” That was me! I did that so many times! I would jump from one program to another. From one pill to another. I looked like a roller coaster if you looked at my weight loss from year to year. While I have my ups and downs now, that trend line keeps going down!
You have to keep going, even when the plateaus come, when the injuries happen, or when stress hits you in the face. Keep your eye on your prize and keep going to start losing weight now!
Bonus Step – Know Your Why
I do this for one reason alone. My family! I want to be there for my family and not just be present. I have 4 young children ages 11, 8, 4, and 4 and I want to be able to run and play with them for as long as possible. This wasn’t possible for me just a year ago. This is my WHY:
You have to find your reason for doing this to start losing weight now. Whether it is just for your personally, your family, or a specific goal you have in mind. You have to have something to strive for or you will give up. When things get hard, you will throw in the towel if you don’t have a reason to keep fighting.
Zig Ziglar once said, “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”
This is ultimately what got me started on my journey to becoming to best ME I could become and ultimately learning how to lose weight fast and sustainably. I realized that I would never be what I wanted to be if I never started the process. Sitting on the couch, eating the same old diet, and watching hours of TV was never going to get me the body and health that I desperately needed.
If you are ever going to become the healthy, fit, well version of yourself that you need to become for your family, friends, and, ultimately, yourself, you are going to have to START.
Let today be the day that you START to lose weight! I am here to help you along the way, but you have to do it. Join me as I share about my journey (still ongoing) and the tips and tricks I am using to become the best version of ME and lose weight fast. READ ON to learn about me and my story! I hope you can relate and learn to become the best YOU! This is the story of how I lost weight fast and have kept it off…
Just like most people, I dieted and exercised for years on what many call the “Yo-Yo” diet…lose weight, gain weight, lose weight…and so on…
I was an athlete in high school and college in two sports…basketball and baseball. While I was never had the chiseled physique, I was a great athlete. I could run fast, jump high, throw hard, and hit with power and I didn’t struggle to round the bases, or move back and forth on the court for the entirety of the games. I would be able to play a 9 inning game on Friday night, and play in a weekend baseball tournament starting on Saturday morning with ease. My body felt like it was invincible.
In college, I put on some muscle. I ate more, lifted more, and gained more weight. I was getting stronger and enjoying the way I looked and felt.
Sometimes life throws you a big curveball, or two…
I stopped going to the gym at school, adopted a much more sedentary lifestyle, but kept eating at the same level I was before. The weight kept piling on, and the muscle quickly became a distant memory.
Fast forward a few years…intertwined with up and down weight gains and losses.
I got married in 2008 to my best friend, Sarah. After our first 2 children, we decided that we wanted one more child. Three sounded like a great number! Well, God had other plans! At an ultrasound exam, the technician informed us that we would be having Twins!!! TWO babies!!! What??? We were super excited and super scared at the same time.
After telling our families, we quickly began planning and got lost in the calamity of now getting our lives and house ready for two newborns. Every week of our almost 33-week pregnancy was filled with late nights and delivery food. From Cheesecake Factory to Olive Garden, and McDonalds to Starbucks, the pounds began to pile on like never before. My heaviest weight was before was 235. At the time the twins were born, on March 7, 2018, I weighed in at 265 pounds and my blood pressure averaged around 155/90. I hated the image of the person in the mirror. Here is my picture, just a few weeks before Christmas in 2018…
Time for Change…For a Start…
Until Summer of 2022 I kept the weight on for another 2 1/2 years. I was fed up with feeling tired, my feet hurting, and my clothes not fitting, I was having trouble sleeping, walking was a chore, and playing in my men’s softball league was exhausting. A drastic change had to be made or I wasn’t going to have the life that I needed to have for myself, my wife, and my kids.
Immediately I jumped on the internet to my favorite place, YouTube, and began doing research. I watched videos of people claiming to have a miracle cure for weight loss. (Those links are on my website menu). Others seemed as though they never struggled with food their entire lives. I heard countless stories of, just do this one thing, or take this one pill! I sifted through the muck to find the information that I felt was credible and doable. That’s when I decided to put what I learned into practice THAT DAY, I STARTED!
STEADY…Lose the Weight…and Fast!
Remember the story of the Tortoise and the Hare? Who wins? Well, in the story it is the Hare, because of his persistence and perseverance, not his speed. He never stopped moving forward and put one food in front of the other. That was my mindset over the last 6 months. I quickly learned that if I kept moving forward and stuck with the process, I would lose weight faster.
I wished that I could’ve gone to sleep and woken up with my body back in great shape. Not possible! However, I was putting myself in the mindset of GO and seeing results fast! I was losing weight day to day, week to week, month to month, CONSISTENTLY!
Here is a picture of my as of December 2, 2022…
Down 40 pounds! However, I am nowhere near done and still moving forward and that scale is moving downward. I feel better every day, and I am loving the new life that I have CREATED! I’ve been honing in on the skills and information it takes to continue to see results day after day.
Will you join me in my journey and create one for yourself? Let’s do this!
