Smart Phone Apps for Health and Fitness

At a recent health forum held at Stanford University, Stanford doctors shared a number of smartphone apps they recommend for help with weight control, exercise and stress reduction. They revealed current research which shows excellent results from these programs when they help people to set individualized goals, get immediate feedback and measure their results. Presenters stressed the importance of picking just one thing to work on at a time because too many efforts at once can lead to discouragement.

These are some of their recommendations: 

Lose It: http://www.loseit.com/
Lose It is one of the all-time great freebies. Lose It sets a weight goal, then tracks your daily calories and exercise via one of the prettiest interfaces in the diet-app category. It also lets you connect with friends who use the app and keep tabs on each other's progress.

My Diet Diary: http://www.medhelp.org/land/calorie-counter-app 
Another free app, My Diet Diary calorie counter is a weight loss app to help you track your food, exercise, weight, water consumption and more to see at any given time whether you are on track to lose weight, gain weight or stay the same, so that you can make the right choices to reach your goal.  

My Fitness Pal: http://www.myfitnesspal.com
My Fitness Pal is a diet and fitness community built with one purpose in mind: providing you with the tools and support you need to achieve your weight loss goals. Medical studies prove that the best way to lose weight and keep it off forever is to simply keep track of the foods you eat.  

10,000 Steps a Day: http://www.thewalkingsite.com/10000steps.html 
This is not a smartphone app, but is an online program to use with your pedometer to track your daily steps and/or mileage; and keep notes on how you feel, how your body is improving, or other changes you are making to improve your health.