Weight Loss
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Noom is reportedly laying off up to a quarter of its wellness coaches
Noom is shrinking the number of coaches it has by around a quarter as it shifts how it handles user interactions.
Pinterest bans all weight-loss ads
The service says its community has been embracing body neutrality.
Can an Instagram for food-logging help you reach your weight loss goals?
Most diet and weight loss apps, like MyFitnessPal and Lose It, employ the calorie-tracking method of logging your food. A new app called Feast, however, aims to solve this issue by not counting calories at all.
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.
Weight Watchers pulls data from Fitbit and Jawbone fitness trackers (updated)
If you've ever belonged to Weight Watchers, you know it's pretty good at logging your food intake. But exercise? Not so much. Unless you use a qualifying pedometer, you have to manually enter your activity, which means calculating how much time you spend walking each day. Finally, though, Weight Watchers is doing the sensible thing: It's integrating its app with fitness trackers, starting with models from Jawbone and Fitbit. So, if you walk an hour while wearing your Up24 or Fitbit Flex, the Weight Watchers app will suck in that data, and convert that activity to Weight Watchers points. (People on Weight Watchers earn a sort of currency, which they can trade in for more food, if they so choose.)
Adventures with a homemade standing desk
I, Dan Cooper, am today going to review some cardboard boxes. Not Google Cardboard, nor Luckies' Cardboard Smartphone Projector (which is coming in a few weeks), but some honest-to-goodness cardboard. More precisely, the box for my Nintendo Wii + Wii Fit starter pack, the packaging for a Dyson DC19 T2 Exclusive and an Image Business five-ream printer-paper box. I should add that I haven't been paid by any of the above companies, and each one came with the implement it was purchased with -- oh, except for the paper box, which my wife brought home from her office one day.
Jawbone takes on Weight Watchers with its latest app update
There are things fitness trackers are generally pretty good at. You know, like counting your steps, measuring how many calories you burned. And then there are things fitness trackers are generally bad at. Logging your food intake is a particularly sore point. After all, it's not like the onboard sensors can tell when or what you've eaten, so you have to go through the tedious business of manually entering all your meals. What's more, companies like Jawbone and Fitbit aren't exactly weight-loss specialists, which means their food databases tend to have gaping holes compared to services like Weight Watchers. So, even if you're disciplined enough to keep a food diary, the thing you ate might not even be in the system. That goes double if you eat out -- how are tech companies supposed to know how many calories are in the brownies at that cafe around the corner?
Daily App: Fjuul is a unique activity tracker for your iPhone
Fjuul is a US$2.99 (briefly on sale for $0.99) health-related app that tracks your full body activity. The app runs in the background, and uses the iPhone sensors and your location to get a handle on what you are doing and how much exercise you are getting. Once you enter your body characteristics and age, the app calculates calories burned and allows you to set goals while you adjust your level of activity. "We've developed Fjuul using a scientific approach to activity tracking, with a focus on the intensity of someone's movements. With Fjuul, it doesn't matter whether you're training for a marathon or walking to or even moving in the shop – every move counts," said CEO and founder of Fjuul, Sascha Wischek. "We believe counting steps, duration or calories just isn't enough when it comes to measuring the impact activity is having on a person's health or levels of exercise. Fjuul understands each user and educates them about what their daily activity means, how it can be maintained or increased to have a positive effect on their overall health." When setting up Fjull you can create a free account or use your Facebook login. Enter your height, weight and age, and you can set a goal that includes things like burning off a hamburger, pasta or ice cream. Unlike a lot of fitness trackers, this app has a special emphasis on leisure activity, not just running or hiking. There is also a social component to the app, which allows you to compare your activities to friends and family who are also using the app. I set the app up and took a stroll. It seemed to pretty accurately gauge my activity, and even counted my steps. That was with the iPhone in my shirt pocket. Fjull runs in the background and I did not notice any heavy hit on battery life. Fjuul is not a substitute for expensive and cumbersome performance hardware, but it did seem to register my activity in a meaningful way. The data seemed constant from session to session, so it's going to be helpful as you use it more to achieve your goals. I would say the app should best be thought of as designed to measure casual activity. The only negative is when I shut Fjull down through Apple's multi-tasking gestures the app complained about being shut down. That seemed a bit over the top. A similar app worth looking at is the free Argus pedometer. While not an exact feature-for-feature match, it will track your motion throughout a day. Fjuul is an interesting approach to activity tracking, and comes at a fair price. The app requires iOS 7 or greater and it's optimized for the iPhone 5.
CARROT Fit uses the stick to whip you into shape
I've long been a fan of CARROT To-Do for keeping me motivated with my daily list of "things I must do today." Our review of To-Do is here, but the basic idea is that the app's "AI construct" gets mad when you don't check in or accomplish tasks. While being berated, overall, isn't a good thing, sometimes you need a kick in the butt to stay on task. That same mentality was infused in CARROT Alarm, and you can read our review here. Now comes CARROT Fit (US$1.99) to help you lose weight by tracking the ups and downs, and reacting accordingly. As someone who juggles a lot of responsibilities, the CARROT To-Do app been a lifesaver in keeping me focused by reminding me in humorous but angry ways that I still have tasks to complete. Fit is a weight loss app based on this same premise: that fun, funny, grumpy programs might motivate us to achieve our goals. As Erica noted in our review of To-Do, these methodologies aren't for everyone. While I find them funny and motivating, some may find them off-putting. Also, while weight tracking is one way to track health, it is by no means the only way. This review won't go into all that, as I'll just focus on what Fit does. Design Overall, CARROT Fit is clean and simple, offering only what you need when you need it. During setup you're treated to some cute animation and, frankly, somewhat teased a bit, not unlike the promo video below. Carrot's distinctive blue color scheme and "ocular sensor" (the large circular eye over your avatar) continues in Fit. The simple "infographic" style illustrations and animations throughout are brilliant little touches that will amuse you. If you leave the app open for a bit, your little avatar will start doing pushups! When you open the app you'll have three options: Record your weight, check your logs, or access a menu with settings. The basic design makes the utility easy to understand. Yet there are little surprises in the design, like the About CARROT section, which makes a joke with a winking robot. These give the app a true sense of character, which I think helps the psychological buy-in to using CARROT to keep you motivated. Functionality Carrot's daily weigh in time can be set to your liking, and it will remind you. If you miss a day, Carrot will get mad at you, perhaps even turning red. But entering your weight is as simple as my former go-to weight tracking app, Weightbot. Unfortunately, Weightbot has no character. Carrot has kept me in check, however. To record your weight you simply tap the large logo and type it in -- decimals included. You can, in settings, input your height and gender to get a BMI, and thus see how over/under you are. Now here's where CARROT's personality comes into play. If you gain weight, it will get mad at you. It may blow steam, "shock" your avatar, but either way the displeasure is made known. The animations are funny, and sometimes make me want to gain a little just to see it get mad. When you meet your goal, however, you are treated to a shower of confetti and a ribbon! The Log of your weight is simple but useful. A chart up top tracks your progress, including weight goals. Below that you can see current weight, losses/gains, goals, BMI and how many days you've been tracking. You can also dive into the raw data for a day by day accounting. All of this looks great and is easy to understand. There's no tilting your device to see your data differently, it's just there. Conclusion, and a note on fat-shaming Unfortunately, in a Good Morning America appearance this week, the creator of CARROT, Brian Mueller (who I interviewed here), had to defend his clever drawings and animations, which some have called "fat shaming." The developer has created a fun, motivational app. It's not for everyone, but I think it hits on some of the motivators needed to keep you in shape. That said, if you have body issues or take offense easily, or if you have had an eating disorder it's likely best to try another tool that is more neutral and clinical. If this offends you, CARROT Fit is not for you. As for me, I'm overweight. For my height, my BMI is basically in the danger zone. If something "shames" me in the privacy of my own home to motivate me to get healthier, then guess what? I'm happy to use it. That means it is doing the job it was designed to do. But then, I haven't struggled with this my entire life. Again, if you think this could be problematic for you, Fit isn't the app for you. Anyway, if you are just looking to track your weight and need a reminder and some motivation, CARROT Fit is a lot of fun. It's a lot more fun than pretty much every other weight tracker out there. It is much harder to level up than other CARROT apps, however, as at day 6 (since it launched), I'm still on level one. I'll report back in about a month to see if the longer I use it, the more I'm able to change my habits. Because that's what this is: A habit-changing app. And it's a great one. Buy it here and get healthy!
Wahoo's Balance Smartphone Scale ships today for $99
Remember that Bluetooth-enabled smart scale from Wahoo? The one with the companion iOS app to keep you motivated? It was meant to ship in the first week of December, but that timeframe turned out to be as accurate as weighing yourself while leaning against a wall. Nevertheless, the device isn't too far behind schedule: the company just let us know that it'll start shipping today and will definitely reach customers before the holidays. In the meantime, stay tuned for our hands-on with the rival WS-30 scale from Withings, which should go up on the site in a couple of eons around lunchtime. Correction: We initially reported they'd ship tomorrow, but we're told that devices are actually departing from warehouses on this very day.
Lose It! announces a premium service
Lose It! is one of the most popular calorie-counting/weight loss apps on the App Store. It arrived back in the early days of iOS, but consistent updates and a big user base have kept it high up on the charts for a long time. And today, the app's developers, FitNow, have announced that they're expanding the app's functionality and introducing a premium subscription service for Lose It! users. As you'd expect, everything currently available in the app will remain free. But the premium service will add more functionality, including the ability to track things like sleep, nutrients and more. The service also features tie-ins with other popular health and fitness apps and the ability to create groups and challenges for the app's social circles. The subscription will be available for US$39.99 a year, though there's currently a launch special price of just $29.99. And FitNow says it's not a recurring subscription, so users will have the option every year to decide whether they want to renew, or just let the service end. Lose It! is a very popular and exceptional way to track your health and weight on iOS, and it'll be interesting to see how this new option does for them among their already substantial user base.
Larklife fitness tracker syncs your data over Bluetooth, knows when you're running instead of walking
In case you haven't noticed, fitness gadgets are having something of a moment right now. The past year alone has seen the launch of Nike's FuelBand, the ill-fated Jawbone Up and a refreshed line of Fitbit trackers. Now another product is arriving that promises to do basically the same thing -- namely, track your activity, sleep patterns and food intake using a wearable gadget and mobile app. That thing you see up there is called Larklife and for now, at least, it works exclusively with iOS devices. It's a splash-resistant (but not waterproof) band that has a pedometer inside, counting your steps throughout the day. It can also tell how long you sleep each night, as well as how long it takes you to nod off. There's even a vibrating alarm built into the band -- something we first saw on the Up earlier this year. (As it happens, Lark's earlier products were sleep aids, so the inclusion of this feature actually makes a lot of sense.) As for monitoring your dietary habits, Larklife doesn't automatically track your food intake, but the app does include a food diary where you can manually enter your meals. Additionally, Larklife uses Bluetooth Smart to automatically sync with your iPhone so that you don't have to plug the band into a PC just to update your fitness stats. (The new Fitbit trackers work this way this too.) Additionally, the band uses a proprietary technology that can discern when you're running or walking, which means the app will log workouts even if you forget to enter them. The last intriguing bit is that the app dishes out smart, contextually aware advice. Didn't get much sleep last night? Larklife will remind you to eat more protein than usual at breakfast, so that you have enough energy to get you through the day. The app also rewards good behavior in the form of iOS notifications and colorful on-screen badges, though competing products admittedly take a very similar approach when it comes to keeping users motivated. Larklife is up for pre-order starting today, and is priced at $150 -- a rather large premium over the new Fitbit One, which will sell for $100. As for precise availability, all we know is that retailers will start stocking Larklife "before the holidays." Whether that means Halloween, Thanksgiving or some gift-giving celebration will be revealed some other day.
Fitbit announces two new fitness trackers: the Fitbit One with a vibrating alarm, and the $60 Fitbit Zip
It was about a year ago this time that Fitbit released a new fitness tracker, the Fitbit Ultra, so now would seem like as good a time as any for a refresh. Indeed, the company just announced the Fitbit One, which will replace the Ultra, and which adds a "silent" vibrating alarm to wake you up in the morning. (Hmm, where have we seen that before?) Though the alarm is clearly the marquee feature here, the One also steps up to Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, allowing the data to sync to your phone automatically. Additionally, it sports a slimmer, flatter design (read: it looks less like a clothespin). The tracker is also splash-resistant, though not water-proof, so don't even think of taking it in the pool with you. Other than that, it does the same thing as the last-gen model: it counts steps, flights climbed, calories burned and tracks your total mileage. And, of course, the device syncs with a personalized website, where you can log your meals and view all your stats in easy-to-read graphs. The Fitbit One will arrive in mid-October for $100. If that's too pricey for you, the company also introduced the Fitbit Zip, a dumbed-down tracker that's available now for $60. Though it's every bit as water-resistant as the One, it offers just basic functionality (i.e., tracking steps taken, distance traveled and calories burned). Meaning, if the silent alarm or even the altimeter is of interest, you'll want to shell out for the pricier Fitbit One. Oh, and one other big distinction: the Zip has a replaceable battery, rated for up to six months of use. As we said, the One won't be around until later in the fall, but for now we've got a few publicity photos for your perusal.
Withings revamps its WiFi bathroom scales, orders you to stop slouching
Withings has introduced a new set of wireless bathroom scales to spare us sedentary geeks the effort of recording our weekly weigh-ins. The updated set includes Position Control technology, which we assume means it tells you to stand up straight and suck your belly in while it's sending your details to the internet. All you need is a smartphone or tablet that can use its new Health Companion App. which came out earlier this month. It arrives in Europe at the end of September, and equipping yourself for a war on weight will cost you €120.
Withings WiFi scale syncs weight with BodyMedia site, won't let you hide from the truth
Are you using a Withings WiFi Body Scale to monitor your weight-loss efforts? Are you also using a BodyMedia FIT Armband to track your activity and calories burned? Get ready for a body-stat explosion, because now you can pair the two devices to streamline all that info on your progress. Instead of manually entering your weight into the BodyMedia activity manager, just step on the Withings scale and it will be imported into your BodyMedia online dashboard via WiFi. That's all well and good, but it reminds us an awful lot of Fitbit, which sells a less-expensive body scale that integrates with the company's wearable fitness trackers. The full Withings / BodyMedia press release is after the break, but shouldn't you be out running or something?
PSA: Fitbit Aria WiFi scale available now for $130
It's been three months since Fitbit got into the WiFi scale game, but until now Withings has remained pretty much the only option for weight watchers who actually intend to buy one. Now, though, the Fitbit Aria is finally shipping and, just like Fitbit said it would, it costs $130. That's potentially not a bad deal, seeing as how it matches the $160 Withings scale in a few key areas: it tracks weight, BMI and body fat percentage, gives you the option of tweeting your poundage, and can recognize up to eight different users. Like Fitbit, too, it allows you to access your data through a website, or an iOS / Android app. Of course, the main thing the Aria has that Withings doesn't is a fitness monitor to go with it. The Aria is designed to work with the company's Fitbit trackers, which log physical activity, calories burned, stairs climbed and, if you're diligent about data entry, the various meals you've consumed. Since all that information lives online in an alphabet soup of healthiness, it might paint a more complete picture of how fit you are. Then again, you'd have to commit to wearing the Fitbit day in and day out. And, you know, pay $100 for it. Your call.
Fitbit for Android helps track your I/O
The fitness fanatics from Fitbit are looking to aid and abet the Android-loving, calorie-counting masses. The company has announced the release of its self-titled Android application, which will assist users in tracking their health and dietary goals. Through manual entry, or with the assistance of a wireless sensor, Fitbit tracks your daily activity and creates a dynamic nutrition plan to help you achieve your weight loss and fitness goals. What's more, the app and service keep a log of your progress allowing users to feel shame track their progress. The app is available via Google Play for the always attractive price of $0. Have yourself a download... and a quick jog.
Jawbone offers 'no questions asked' refund for troubled Up band, even if you keep it
While Jawbone attempts to fix the handful of substantial issues plaguing its new Up fitness band, it's now announced that it will begin giving free refunds to dissatisfied customers -- and you can even keep hold of the band afterwards. Production of it has been put on pause, but the company is continuing to roll out software tweaks for existing lifestyle metric obsessives. The new guarantee starts on December 9th, and will only cover Up bands purchased this year. You can read up on all the refund specifics -- along with Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman's apology -- at the source links below.
Jawbone Up review
Back in July, Jawbone did something surprising. The company, best known for its Bluetooth headsets, announced it was cooking up a wristband called "Up" -- a wearable device that would track the wearer's sleeping, eating and exercise habits. At the time, we didn't know much more than that, but given the company's expertise in wearable tech, we assumed it would at least have a Bluetooth radio, tying it together with all the other products Jawbone sells. As it turns out, the wristband doesn't sync your vitals wirelessly and for better or worse, it doesn't work quite the way we thought it would. To use the wristband, you'll need an iOS device -- no other platform is supported, and there isn't even a mobile website to which you can upload all your data. Then again, it does things other fitness trackers don't: it monitors when you're in deep or light sleep, so that it can wake you when you're just dozing. And because it's waterproof up to one meter and promises up to 10 days of battery life, it's low-maintenance enough that you can wear it every day, which could be key to making some healthy lifestyle changes. So how did Jawbone do, stepping so far outside its comfort zone? And should you consider this over identically priced fitness trackers such as the new Fitbit Ultra? Let's see. %Gallery-141101%
Player blasts free from overweight gamer stereotype
From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame. Teeth-gritting stereotypes aside, the intersection of fitness and gaming is something we've covered a fair amount here at WoW Insider. There's the player who set up a system of "leveling down" as he lost weight, although a visit to his blog these days doesn't turn up much action. There's the player who lost 100 pounds on a treadmill while he played WoW, before such exercise setups were relatively common. We even ran an entire series last year on shaping up, Buffing for BlizzCon. What we haven't run yet is a story on a gamer who's taken the weight off and kept it off while not only piling on new interests and active pursuits but also maintaining his love of WoW and gaming. A WoW player since the days of the original beta, Jonathan (aka Thundertotem) was a finalist in Subway Canada's Commit to Fit Ambassador search. While he wasn't ultimately chosen as the Subway representative and spokesperson, he says he remains a hardcore gamer even with his weight loss and fitness success.
