weight

Eating tends to be a social thing. Dropping the pounds that result from such sociability, however, is mostly a solitary experience, requiring lonely denial in the kitchen and often lonelier miles on the footpath or bike trail. Small wonder, then, that most attempts to lose weight fail.

It doesn't have to be this way, of course, and an application I've been using on my iPhone suggests a way to open-source the weight-loss experience, making dropping pounds a social, fun experience.

CNET recently profiled several weight-loss applications for the computer, some of which have a social element to them.

It's a good list, but my favorite application by far in this category is Lose It!, a free app for the iPhone.

Lose It! makes it easy to track calories, monitor exercise, and track progress toward weight-loss goals. Because my iPhone is always with me, Lose It! follows me around, too, reminding me how much that bar of chocolate is going to cost me in terms of gym time, facilitating rational calorie intake/burn.

Where Lose It! fails, as do all of these weight-loss applications, is in making this process truly social.

Fixing this would give FitNow, the developer of Lose It!, a serious revenue model that would turn a seemingly universal human desire to look/feel better into a great way to make money.

Here are a few ideas for the FitNow team, several of which Bryce Roberts, a good friend and fellow Lose It! junkie (in fact, it was Bryce's example that got me using the application), offered up while we were mountain biking last week (so that we could gorge on high-calorie foods later in the day :-):… Read more

Memorial Day is fast approaching, and we're all thinking about our plans for the summer. For those of us planning beach trips, it's time for the body to come out of winter hibernation.

Earlier this year, we looked at services that give you exercising tips. But good exercise, as experts say, isn't everything behind a great beach bod. Eating well is another major component.

Below is a roundup of tools that help you track your calorie intake and exercise routines, as well as help you find support from others who are working toward the same goal.

A Calorie Counter Tracking your calorie intake is important. That's why A Calorie Counter is a useful tool. It enables you to search the USDA Food Nutrition database for anything you've eaten throughout the day. Once you find what you're looking for in the results, it reveals nutritional facts and a box that lets you change your serving size. When you update your serving size, the nutritional fact image changes to show you exactly how many calories you consumed. I was happy with the size of the database, and changing your serving size takes seconds.

BuddySlim.com BuddySlim operates on the belief that trying to lose weight alone is too difficult. Because of that, it enables folks who are trying to lose weight to form communities around their common goals and inspire each other to keep exercising. The site lets you search for others by diet, exercise, goals, location, or gender. Once you find a "buddy," you can keep in touch through a free e-mail account the site provides, as well as blogs and forums. The tool itself features a weight tracker so you (and others) can monitor your progress. But the real value of BuddySlim is its active, engaging community.

The Daily Plate The Daily Plate is primarily a calorie counter. But it does quite a bit more. The site lets you track how many calories you've burned by exercising throughout the day. You can set up weight goals and track your progress toward them with charts and graphs. Although I was happy with The Daily Plate, I wasn't overly pleased with its calorie tracking. It's not nearly as useful as A Calorie Counter.

DietTV.com This site provides an end-to-end healthy lifestyle service with calorie tracking. But one of its best features is the option to create a workout regimen. It asks you for your current weight, finds out what your ideal weight would be, determines what kind of exercises you'd like to do, and creates a full-body workout.

I was able to create a regimen that included 60 minutes of exercise, four days a week, on an elliptical machine, supplemented by weight exercises to build muscle mass. It was a fantastic tool. I also liked that DietTV lets you join a support group. Since forcing yourself to work out can be difficult at times, joining the various support groups on DietTV could help you stay motivated. Each group lets you upload your weight, include photos of your progress, and communicate with others. It's a great system that more of these tools should have.… Read more

I don't know about you, but for me, losing that gut has always been one of my New Year's resolutions. I don't mind being called fat, it's just that after Thanksgiving, Christmas, the New Year, and especially CES (tons of junk food), now when I sit down, the thing is kind of in the way.

Generally it's pretty simple to stay in good shape: eat well, sleep enough, work out regularly, and reduce indulgences. However, easier said than done; you need some sort of enforcement or reminder mechanism.

This is why, this year, I am … Read more

There may yet be a day when the ubiquitous treadmill is replaced by the Wii at the gym, and the first step could very well be on the Wii Fit. The machine, as you'll recall, senses the movement of your entire body using a device that resembles a scale. And, like a scale, it can insult you by breaking if you weigh too much.

There's just one problem: The weight limit is 300 pounds. That may be fine for the petite Japanese, but it had better be able to handle more weight if it wants to succeed in … Read more

Portal has caused something of a stir among gamers. The unassuming little physics-warping first-person puzzler has gotten a lot of attention for two of its unique characters, the SHODAN-on-valium computer system GLaDOS and the Weighted Companion Cube. GLaDOS hasn't seen much love among DIY gamers, mostly because she's a disembodied voice for most of the game. The Weighted Companion Cube, on the other hand, has seen replicas, cakes, and even (like in my case) Halloween costumes.

Valve has recognized the WCC nerd-obession and plans to duly cash in on it. The company will sell plush Weighted Companion Cubes. … Read more

Okay, it's not a costume so much as it is a cheap helmet made from a cardboard box. But it's mine, it's nerdy, and it's something I'm strangely proud of.

Out of the five games that came with The Orange Box, Portal turned out to be the surprise hit. Sure, lots of people looked forward to Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life 2 Episode 2, but Valve's crazy little space-warping puzzle-adventure managed to receive the most praise from even the most jaded reviewers (not-work-safe language in link). It was short, but chock-full of clever, challenging … Read more

"Open the donut box and pass me a glazed, Hal."

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave."

Keeping your diet in check and working out is a great way to lose weight, but robotic assistants are always a huge help.

The weight maintenance sociable robot project at the always fascinating MIT Media Lab has one goal: to help you shed pounds. The talking, face-tracking, eye-contact-making weight-loss coach is designed for in-home use.

The MIT Media Lab site has a video of the robot in action.

Daily and long-term exercise patterns and eating habits are … Read more

Sometimes, a gadget can be too smart for its own good. That's our opinion, anyway, about an unforgiving fitness device called the "Body Watch."

Why? Because this little sadist will unflinchingly deliver unwelcome news about the state of your physical condition--complete with body fat, body water and body mass--all in real time . And if you try to blame the results on mechanical error, be aware that the watch uses "bio-electrical impedance analysis" and "strain gauge precision technology" to determine the effects of all those Krispy Kremes, according to OhGizmo.

On the flip side, … Read more

Okay, I might like Dance Dance Revolution, but I'm not this hardcore about it by any means. Nevertheless, apparently some people are. JustDDR.com is selling a souped-up DDR deck called the "Metal Pad DDR Platinum Pro." The foot pads on this luxe dance machine are made of stainless steel, so that you can bring your home arcade a major notch above the norm. The pricing information is in Japanese, so I'm not positive how much it costs, but I'm sure it ain't cheap.

Now that's heavy metal.

(Via Red Ferret)