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WW, formerly Weight Watchers, launches a weight loss app for kids
Last February, Weight Watchers drew criticism when it announced a free weight-loss program for teens ages 13 to 17. Skeptics feared the program would encourage obsessive eating habits in adolescents, but Weight Watchers -- since rebranded WW -- isn't backing down. Instead, it launched a free weight loss app for adolescents, Kurbo by WW.
Autom lady-bot will help you lose weight, love you regardless
Aw, this little cutie is so adorable -- until she denies you pizza and cheese fries. Autom, the 15-inch talking droid we first caught a glimpse of last year, is back and available for pre-order. Using the LCD touch screen, hungry dieters are prompted to enter daily calorie consumption and exercise habits -- to which the robot will respond kindly to keep you motivated. With face-tracking capabilities and a killingly sweet death stare, Autom is always watching, which might just make you feel guilty enough to skip the dip. The lady bot costs $195 for the deposit and $670 for the device through company's website. Slated to ship in 2012, apparently aiding the impending robot apocalypse doesn't come cheap. Check out little Autom in action after the break.
Bite Counter knows how many donuts you devoured, shames you into eating less
Because all you ever really wanted was an $800 bracelet that counts calories... enter the Bite Counter. It's the retro-lookin' lovechild of two Clemson University researchers that helps its hosts approximate caloric consumption by counting how many bites they take. Color us skeptical, as the meatbag wearing the gizmo has to -- gasp! -- actually remember to both start and stop the device each time they feast. The duo is hopeful it'll glean useful data for future research, as the contraption can be used "anywhere, such as at restaurants or while working" -- you know, places where scribbling how much you eat in a secret diary is frowned upon. Best of luck fellas, but until it hits a sub-century price point, we'll just stick to eating salads. PR after the jump.
Foodish takes the calorie counting out of meal tracking
We've looked at various food journals for iOS in the past, and Foodish is the latest entry into this market. It's a food diary that focuses more on providing you a visual record of what you've eaten rather than counting calories. It's pretty easy to use and has an attractive UI. Launch the app, tap the add button and take a picture of your food or drink. You can group these into meals or snacks, and select whether or not you think you've made a good food choice by tapping a facial expression. You can share the pictures of your meal via Facebook or Twitter. It's a good, basic program to use if you want to keep a food diary but don't care to count calories. Personally, I gravitate toward more feature-laden programs, such as Lose It (free), and I've also been using the Weight Watchers Mobile app (free download, requires subscription for food tracking) for keeping my food record since December. Foodish is US $3.99 in the App Store.
Six awesome iOS exercise and dieting apps
Ahhh, the holidays. It's a time to reflect on the year, enjoy time with family and friends, and pack as much food into your body as possible while lazing on the couch watching the 17th rerun of A Christmas Story. Is it any wonder that a lot of us (especially those of us who can be considered middle-aged) gain weight over the holidays? While these apps can't do a thing to motivate you to exercise and eat right, they can be valuable wingmen in terms of giving you advice about what to eat, tracking how much you eat and exercise, and giving you a goal to reach. Here are six iOS apps that can help you to go into 2011 with some good habits, knowledge, and a plan to get into shape.
Buff(ing) for BlizzCon: Raid preparation
Buff(ing) for BlizzCon is a bi-weekly fitness series written by ShrinkGeek authors Rafe Brox and Michael McGreevy. Join the WoW.com team in getting in shape for the ultimate WoW geek event: BlizzCon. Unless you're a super-casual player, there is a pretty good chance that you spend a lot of time both in and out of the game doing preparation work. From reading up on strategies, to farming materials for flasks and everything in between, there are countless ways that you can get yourself ready to take on the current shiny encounter in World of Warcraft. Unfortunately for many people, what they don't spend time thinking about before raid night is what they are going to be snacking on. If you're trying to make better food choices, this can be a serious roadblock. There aren't many guilds that will allow you to take a long enough AFK to prepare a healthy meal in the middle of a raid, so many players end up opting for "easy" food choices to satisfy a sudden onslaught of the Hungry debuff. The problem with that is that most "easy" food choices aren't all that good for you. When this type of itch is scratched, it's usually through something like a bag of chips or some sort of chemically ambiguous frozen meal, neither of which are really good choices if you're trying to eat wisely. Your likelihood of success in defeating a new boss fight is greatly increased if you prepare yourself for the encounter. Eating wisely is no different. I've got a few strategies that you can follow that just might keep you from seeing a diet Total Party Kill as a result of uncontrollable mid-raid snacking.
Buff(ing) For BlizzCon: Choose your quests wisely
Buff(ing) for BlizzCon is a bi-weekly fitness series written by ShrinkGeek authors Rafe Brox and Michael McGreevy. Join the WoW.com team in getting in shape for the ultimate WoW geek event: BlizzCon. I had serious health issues from being way too heavy not that long ago. Without going into the whole story (you can read it all here if you're so inclined), it was imperative that I lose weight and keep it off. I'm still trying to reach my overall goal, 10 years later, but I'm a lot closer now. I won't kid you – it hasn't been easy, but no epic quest with an awesome reward ever is (and, unfortunately, there isn't a development team that is going to nerf the Getting In Shape quest once the elite raiders have beaten it). I'm about to state something that nobody in the diet and fitness industries really wants to admit, because doing so might make a potential customer take their particular approach to getting healthier less seriously. The fact of the matter is, though, that it's 100% true, and if they were to deny it, they would be lying. All diets and exercise programs work. Every. Single. One.
Playing more and eating less
Staying active with Wii Sports and Dance Dance Revolution isn't the only way video games can help you lose weight. Sometimes, all you need is a distraction to keep you from overindulging your appetite. According to Cynthia Sass, RD, a nutritionist and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, playing with a portable can help you forget about food: "When you start to visualize your craving, you've already lost half the battle ... A video game occupies your eyes, your hands, and your mind." Of course, if you insist on playing games like Cooking Mama or Cheeseburger Town, you're probably not going to get the desired effect. Sitting in front of a chocolate cake while an oscillating fan blows its saccharine aroma towards you isn't going to be too helpful either. But if you can manage to avoid food-based games and afternoon desserts, and if you'd like to try something new to make you stop thinking about eating, grab your DS the next time your stomach starts asking for a snack. Maybe that'll do the trick. [Via Infendo]
MyFoodPhone diet aid app comes to Sprint
Dieting just got a little easier (or a little harder to cheat at, depending on how you look at it) for Sprint customers with cameraphones, thanks to the company's exclusive rollout of that MyFoodPhone service we first spotted nearly a year ago. Although the cost is much lower this time around -- only $10 per month compared to the pricey $150/month it once was -- the service works essentially the same as before, by providing customers with video feedback based on photos they snap and upload of each and every meal or snack they consume. Besides the bi-weekly vids from nutritional advisers, subscribers also have access to an online food journal, where they can log the all-important dieter's stats of weight lost, exercise performed, and calories burned. Sprint is positioning MyFoodPhone as only one part of an overall health and fitness regimen where your Vision-enabled phone can be of assistance, joining other services such as BIMActive exercise tracking, skynetMD medical info, and Hitech Trainer guided workouts.[Via picturephoning]
Cheesesteaks vs. PlayStation showdown
Will frequent use of the PlayStation EyeToy:Kinetic game chisel my formless flab (left) into a sleek, muscular, body-ideal (right)? Following our poll that asked readers to rank themselves on a scale of skinny to obese, I'm conducting an experiment to assess the potential for games to have a positive influence on a gamer's health. I'll be using an EyeToy: Kinetic for the PlayStation 2. The marketing hype for the product promises a "Body by PlayStation" via a "full-body fitness program like no other." I'm testing that premise with a $500 wager. Read on for details.
