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Meet your fitness goals faster with these sites, apps and gadgets

Meeting a fitness goal

Recently, a study reported in Wired Magazine found that tweeting and retweeting may help you lose weight. But, really, what they found is that the *support and accountability* provided by the social networking site made a difference in how much people lost.

Speaking from personal experience, there are a plethora (or two) of great web tools, apps, devices, gadgets, etcetera that can provide ways for you to hold yourself accountable and get support from (and give support to!) friends – or even like-minded strangers. They range from general social media posting to a whole crop of fancy schmancy tracking gadgets.

General Social Media Posting

Some people may just post on their Facebook page or their Twitter feed about their fitness progress (a great workout, a weight loss, a healthy meal), and in doing so, reinforce the behavior, and maybe even get positive feedback from their friends and followers. True, some people find this *annoying* if it’s done excessively; other find it motivational and inspiring. As a general rule, it’s a good idea to balance it out with other types of posts. Ultimately, of course, it’s your choice, and if you’re fine with the fact that some people may choose to unfriend or unfollow you, then go nuts. More often than not, people use one of the other tools discussed below, and then share that entry to their Facebook, Twitter, etcetera; these tools generally make it very easy to do so.

The “Check In”

Foursquare is a ‘geolocation’-based social loyalty platform (app, mainly) on which people check in, earn points, get special offers, and are named “Mayor” of a place if they check in more often than anyone else. I was surprised how many people I talked to about what tools they use for fitness support said that they feel Foursquare check-ins – and sometimes, mayorships – at the gym keep them on track. There’s a strong element of personal accountability and commitment with that, as well as sometimes encouragement in comments on the check ins.

Exercise Tracking Tools

There are numerous websites/apps that enable you track your exercise – what workout you did, miles run/walked/biked, how you felt, even how many doughnuts and cheeseburgers you burned off (Daily Mile)!

Many people use the Nike + app, which works with GPS to track your distance, posts easily to your Facebook or other social networks, and lets you compare your efforts to your friends.

Other sites/apps have developed strong sport-specific communities (not sport-exclusive; they cover multiple activities), such as Daily Mile, Runkeeper and Runtastic with runners and Strava with cyclists.

I absolutely LOVE Daily Mile, as a runner…there is always inspiration to be found in the amazing community there. And I adore seeing the data – it’s so satisfying and encouraging to know that I’ve run 515 miles, burned 19 pounds off (exactly how much I have actually lost) and burned 363 doughnuts. And there’s more to it than that; users give each other encouragement via comments and attached “motivations.” They see how they stack up on the leaderboard, share routes, discuss questions in forums and create specific fitness challenges.

Fitocracy (called “Fito” by its users) is another such online support community. User Maddie Grant (author of Humanize, my favorite social media book of all time) tells me that this site was conceived for “geeks who like fitness.” So it relies even more on gamification techniques like giving “props” to other users, or even using the “prop bomb” to like everything they’ve ever done. Unlike Daily Mile, here members get points for workouts and level up when they reach point milestones. There are tons of group-specific (such as swimming) challenges and quests, and the site is constantly figuring out new ways to encourage competition against yourself and others. Maddie says, “Fitocracy has connected me to so many people who don’t even know how much they encourage me, especially on those days when a workout is the last thing you want to do and at those times when the plateau hits. It’s an integral and essential part of my quest to get ripped.” :]

Another great option here is to motivate yourself by running or biking for a cause. Charity Miles lets you easily earn funds for your chosen cause; walkers and runners earn 25¢ a mile, and bikers earn 10¢ a mile, up to the initial $1,000,000 sponsorship pool.

Nutrition Tracking Tools

Since some of us, unfortunately, can’t just eat whatever we want no matter how much we exercise (*heavy sigh*), there are also great tools for tracking your diet, calorie intake and nutrition.

Some people I spoke with swear by the Weight Watchers app; I haven’t used that one in a while but found the content in the nutrition database to be lacking, meaning I often couldn’t easily find the healthy, whole foods I was looking to track.

My favorite app/site in this category is MyFitnessPal. Though the interface is lacking visually (someone, please design a nutrition tracking app that looks fun and friendly!), the food database is extremely complete, including even the most obscure healthy foods. This tool has been absolutely integral to my weight loss progress, and I highly recommend it. I put it in the nutrition tracking category because that’s what it’s best at, though it does also allow you to enter your exercise. It then adds the calories burned in exercise to your budgeted calories for the day. The benefit of this is that it helps focus you on thinking of the food you eat relative to the exercise it will take to burn it off, or vice versa, thinking of what you can eat IF you go for that run, walk or bike ride.

Fancy Shmancy Wearable Tracking Gadgets

This is the hottest category of them all…things you wear on various body parts that track your movement, your calories burned, even your sleep patterns.

Nike kicked off the craze with its launch of FuelBand this time last year. It’s a sexy beast, indeed, using an accelerometer to measure your movement in NikeFuel, a “universal metric of activity” (copywriter speak for “we own this category.”). You wear it on your wrist and can sync it with the FuelBand app to track your progress and connect with your friends.

My friend Shelly Kramer (named one of the 200 most fearless women online, how cool is that?!) is a FuelBand devotee, and eloquently says “I use my FuelBand and work hard to reach my Fuel goal daily; I am often doing jumping jacks at 11pm so I can get to that goal because I’m so competitive (even against myself) that I can’t stand it when I don’t. I also like that Facebook lets you “compete” against other friends you’re connected to. I love seeing my friends who use the running app and it shows me that they just did a 7.1 mile run or something like that, because then if I had slacking in mind I’ll feel like a loser and get off my butt and go for a walk.”

An alternative that’s getting some traction of late is Jawbone’s UP wristband, pulled from shelves in late 2011 due to functionality issues (as in, it didn’t work) and relaunched in 2012. An Engadget review describes it as “downright subtle, compared to the LED-riddled and overpriced Nike + FuelBand” and details issues with the lack of wireless syncing.

FitBit, on the other hand (pun intended) can go on your pants, in your pocket, on your bra, wherever, if you’re not into wearing a band on your wrist, and syncs wirelessly and easily. It even has a WiFi smart scale that syncs with your online profile and wireless gadget to keep you honest. The scale is quite cool and tempting (though not wholly necessary I must admit…it’s not really *that* much work to just enter your weight).

Linda Neff (another fearless friend, and a chapter author of the Women on Fire Book 2 being published this fall) is in love with her new FitBit, and says “It’s like a pedometer, only better…a quirky little friend who cheers on your healthy lifestyle with badges and messages reminiscent of your favorite grade school teacher.”

Biggest Loser NBC (with which I am obsessed, as is my 7 year old) has been using Body Media tracking armbands for years now. The difference here is BodyMedia uses multiple sensors – an accelerometer plus skin temperature, heat flux and galvanic skin response  - which is supposed to make it the most accurate. As tempting as the increased accuracy is, I just can’t quite bring myself to wear an armband on my bicep all day.

I’ve been considering buying one of these gadgets for the past year, and it’s a tough decision as there are elements I like of each. I have a “thing” for Nike, so the FuelBand appeals from a brand standpoint. I want accuracy, so BodyMedia appeals from a geeking-out-on-data standpoint. After doing more research for this story, I think FitBit is a good combination of form and function; it also integrates with MyFitnessPal so I can still track my nutrition in MyFitnessPal and FitBit will use that data…huge bonus. Maybe the best solution is to get one of each. ;]

The Bet

Some folks use these tools just for personal tracking and some use them for a little friendly competition. Now there’s a popular site called DietBet where you can set up that friendly wager. DietBet is a four-week social dieting game, in which you create your game or join one and watch the pot grow as new players join. At the end of the game, everyone who loses 4% of their body weight splits the pot. If you’re the kind of person that needs a lot of external motivation, this might be a good solution for you in the short term…then use some of the other tools to maintain your loss.

Social Music Sharing

Just for fun, you might want to check out a social music sharing app/site like Spotify. This is a great way to keep your workout playlists fresh and motivating. People build and share their playlists for others to check out and use. Here is my current one-hour run playlist.

So, whether you are self-motivated and need something to help you hold yourself accountable or externally motivated and want to share encouragement with your communities and maybe even set up a little healthy competition…there’s a tool or three out there for you.

I’d love to hear from you in the comments on what tools you’ve tried, and how they have (or haven’t) helped you meet your goals!

photo credit: Vethod via photopin cc

Blogchat : Blogs vs. Facebook for business – buy the right house for the right reasons

Last night’s blogchat, a Twitter-based chat hosted by the always-charming Southern gentleman Mack Collier and co-moderated by AdFreak’s David Griner , was about Blogs vs. Facebook for business. And, while there is no one “right” answer to the question at hand, the mere act of seriously considering the question forces a business to know why they are doing what they are doing, so it’s a win from the start.

Ultimately, the answer to Blogs vs. Facebook, or anything vs. anything, is going to be different for every business depending on goals, audiences, available resources and passions. A good portion of last night’s talk was around the resource issue – the fact that blogging requires a huge commitment. If a business isn’t set up for that kind of commitment, Facebook may be a better choice, according to Griner. (Not that Facebook isn’t also a significant commitment. It is, but it can be quicker than blogging.) I agree with this post from Allison Boyer on how blogging is hard and not every business needs a blog. Likewise, IMHO not every business needs a Facebook page. More on that later.

At some point, I shared something in the discussion about how, since 60-80% of visitors to a “typical” corporate blog are first-time visitors, blogging may, for some companies, belong as part of SEO strategy. And, while I do believe that to sometimes be valid, a comment about blogging-as-SEO later in the discussion smacked me upside the head: “Blogging for SEO is like buying a house for the storage.” Ding ding ding. Does blogging positively impact SEO? Hell yes. Should businesses be aware that, depending on what type of business they are, it may or may not be realistic to expect a ton of comments? Hell yes. But blogging for the less functional, higher-level, more participation-driven reasons is going to be inherently more successful. Mind you, I do know this, and I do actively preach this; personally, I blog for fun and comments with total reckless disregard for SEO ; )  But David’s thought crystallized it just beautifully; thanks, David. I promise to credit you every time I steal your line.

Regarding Facebook for business, this is an area where, at least from my vantage point, so many businesses struggle to get engagement going. Does every oil change shop on the planet really need a Facebook page? Every dentist? Does anyone care? How many businesses built fan pages just because everyone else was doing it, with absolutely zero understanding of why they were doing it or how they would interact with their audience once it was built? Gazillions, that’s how many (scientific fact).

Before you start stressing because not enough people are engaging with you on Facebook, and begging or bribing people to be your friends, consider the fact that maybe, just maybe, people just don’t WANT to engage with your type of business on Facebook. No one wants to hear that, but, a lot of companies need to hear it. Sure, sure, If you’re a passion brand – a Harley-Davidson, a Ben & Jerry’s, a local favorite restaurant – be on Facebook. If you’re not, you’re going to have a much tougher time. That doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn’t try, it just means you should be realistic about what to expect from it, and, always, ALWAYS, have a strategy for how you think you’re going to do something that people will care about, interact with, and share. And how you’re going to sustain that over time. Let’s face it. The more irrelevant BS that businesses pump out onto Facebook, the more apathetic users become. So, stop it. And if you do try, try again to engage people on Facebook and still no one cares…well, consider that you may need a different house. With more storage.

The bottom line: For many businesses, a blog is the perfect home. Many businesses live and thrive on Facebook. For many businesses, the two go together like…chocolate and peanut butter. (OK, different, random metaphor, but work with me here. I like chocolate and peanut butter.) Just know what you’re trying to build and how you’re going to do it. If you don’t know how to figure that out, let’s talk.

If you’ve never checked out blogchat (Sunday nights, 8PM Central Time) I can’t recommend it highly enough. So many people participate now that sometimes it’s hard to follow threads. Don’t even bother trying to keep up with every tweet; just pick up what you can. (As a side note, I do wish that people participating would be a little more polite and listen to the moderators before we all jump on with myriad points of view, and sometimes, random tangents that are completely off topic). But, in spite of that, it remains a great group of people to chat with and a great place to mine nuggets of wisdom that might inspire you or give you the perspective of someone else’s very different experience. Which is (almost) always a good thing.

What’s your take on this question? Bring it.

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