Fitness apps that don't emphasize weight loss?

[rgvbaptist]

@jbsimmons I liked Caliber (free app) for a few years. It was created by a redditor and has some great features for setting up a fitness routine. When you first log in, you enter how many days a week you exercise, what equipment you have access to, and what your experience level is with lifting, and it populates a baseline plan for you that you can further change to substitute your preferred exercises or add/subtract. You can also search for specific exercises by muscle group, and it has a plate calculator built in. The premium version is a virtual personal trainer who monitors your progress and form (digitally I think, I don’t have premium) and makes suggestions. Finally, it has little mini-slideshows for beginner lifters on form, rep/set ranges, and nutrition, and you can sync Apple Health or similar apps to automatically track your steps. To my knowledge, it doesn’t track nutrition at all.

 

[veroch]

@rgvbaptist This is my dream app wow!!! Thank you for the rec. I'm loving it so far.

 

[rgvbaptist]

@veroch Here for you I’m glad you like it!!

 

[akayfx]

@rgvbaptist +1 for Caliber!

 

[denise4him]

@rgvbaptist It can sync with apps that track nutrition if that suits you. It calculates its “strength score” based on your lift weight vs. body weight, but it doesn’t ask you to update it very frequently.

 

[rgvbaptist]

@denise4him Yup! Forgot about the strength score, I really liked that feature. And premium had a body composition (from photo) feature too, not sure how accurate it is but an interesting idea.

 

[denise4him]

@rgvbaptist Yeah I like the app, it’s a great way to keep track of your lifting progress.

 

[maggiek1]

@jbsimmons I use a Fitbit Luxe and you can hide/turn off anything related to weight in the app (e.g. calories, weight measurements, food tracking, water intake). The steps tracker is nice in that I can see my steps at daily, weekly, monthly, and annually, all with daily step average counts. My husband uses a daily step average goal instead of a daily step goal, meaning some days he'll walk more and some days he walks a bit less, but overall, he meets his weekly goal. I can track workouts from my Fitbit Luxe and it'll track your heart rate (so you know if you're getting enough minutes/week). It gives an estimated calories burned afterwards, but I know these calculations are so off that I don't even look at them. I really like tracking something like a hike or a difficult workout on my Fitbit. I can redo months or a year later and see improvements in time and heart rate. My sister has a Garmin, does the same thing, better GPS, can send safety checks, looks more like a real watch, but a bit pricier.

 

[momofone1]

@jbsimmons I use MyMacros+ for food tracking. My strength training app is Hailey Happens. The Learn to Lift Program is free.

 

[thestvn]

@jbsimmons I'm not sure why people are recommending MacroFactor since it doesn't sound like you want to track your diet at all. it's a huge upgrade over MFP, but I'm not really sure why that would be useful for you either. the activity tracking in MFP is vestigial at best and actively counterproductive at worst. if I misunderstood and you do want to track your diet, then absolutely use MacroFactor. the adherence-neutral philosophy is one of many things that have kept me using it consistently for two years.

Fitbit or Google Fit/Apple Health allow you to track activity without counting calories for your diet. Fitbit will estimate calories burned but I just use that as a proxy for like, effort expended. Google Fit has a made-up measurement for this called "heart points" so I treat both similarly.

there are a bajillion workout tracking apps out there. Nike Run, Strava, Peloton have their similarities and differences. it's been years since I've tried using any of them so I can't speak to whether they're a good fit for you. for lifting I use a simple app called FitNotes to log my workouts. for cardio I just track/log it in Fitbit (tracking in real time for a walk/run, logging after the fact for a machine).

 

[jbsimmons]

@thestvn Yeah, I'm not sure either! My dietitian and I both agree that I'm happier and healthier when I'm not hyperfocused on counting macros. If that ever changes I'll be sure to check out MacroFactor, though!

Google Fit is the best fitness app I've tried so far, but I don't love their goals or analytics features. I'm doing mostly cardio but need to start working on core strength too. I'll have to check some of these out.

 

[intermediary]

@jbsimmons Macro Factor through and through.

 

[twallacejolly]

@jbsimmons MacroFactor is excellent for food stuff, I love the Stronglifts app for strength training, there’s some built in programs but I am currently using my own self created program and it works great for that too. Love the emphasis on just getting stronger. Nike Run Club is great for running, if that’s something you’re into. I liked it a lot because I actually learned the skill of running, no emphasis on weight loss at all.

 

[intermediary]

@twallacejolly Second this!

 

[solagratia118]

@jbsimmons The Calistree app is great for setting fitness/flexibility goals and giving you personalised calisthenic (body weight/no gym necessary) exercises which progress in difficulty as you do! It doesn’t involve diet at all so you wouldn’t be able to see nutritional breakdowns if you wanted them, but it’s great for the exercise side of things

 

[jbsimmons]

@solagratia118 This sounds fantastic, thank you!

 

[samyfaxo]

@jbsimmons Macrofactor lets you chose to gain, maintain, or lose weight

 

[pasifika]

@jbsimmons Activity/health tracker - Garmin Connect. Requires a Garmin watch, though. I can see it's estimated calories burned, steps, workouts, etc. on the app homepage. There is no default connection to my weight or size. This is my favorite health/fitness tracker.

Food/nutrition tracker - Cronometer. You can set goals for a deficit or surplus, but you don't have to. It provides a very comprehensive look at your nutrition/eating habits, and you can link it to a fitness tracking app like Connect, Strava, or whatever the Apple ecosystem uses. My second favorite health app.

For getting into running - JustRun. It's free and very simple. All it gives you is a workout plan for getting to 5k or 10k readiness. No emphasis on your performance, just the programs. You just start a workout and it gives you audio cues for when to change your pace, and it updates the dates for your next workouts if you miss one. I'm getting back into jogging and I like this app more than the popular C25K app.

For strength training - Strong. I think you have to pay a few bucks for it, but it's an excellent app for lifting or bodyweight exercise. No emphasis on your size. It just helps you track your volume for each workout. You can use their default workouts or create your own custom programs.

 

[adrienbchiggins]

@pasifika I second the Garmin Connect! If you’re in the market for a fitness watch, highly rec Vivo active series.

For strength training, try Stronger By The Day by megsquats! It is a powerlifting program, but she really teaches more women how to use a barbell. The community is so amazing and helpful and I’ve seen my lifts improve so much after doing the program for 3 years now.

For viewing your progress, check out MeThreeSixty. It’s a 3d scan of your composition and the measurements are accurate. You do have to weigh yourself before each scan, but it does not reflect your weight when reviewing your past scans, or during comparisons. It only shows your lean muscle mass lb/kg

 

[humble1777]

@adrienbchiggins Yep, I came here to agree with Stronger by the Day!