Industry coverage, news, original feature articles, how to guides, videos, podcasts and reviews of BlackBerry service providers, software, accessories, hosted exchange providers and more

While we usually associate the holidays as a time of significant weight gain, but summer can be just as brutal on your bathroom scale. While humans do tend to shed a bit more weight in the summer because of the weather (no need to store extra fat because it’s cold), all those barbecues and cookouts can add up. We’re coming towards the end now, with Labor Day just a couple of weeks away. While it’s okay to go nuts in that time, it will probably be time to start counting the calories afterwards. Hey, you’ve gotta put in the time to reduce now, so you can fill back up on Thanksgiving in a couple of months. In this post, we’ll go over some ways you can accomplish some waist-tightening using your BlackBerry.

Sensei for Weight Loss

I found out about this application from Al Sacco, and like most Sacco finds it’s a simply excellent application. It’s ideal for the busy person, but anyone can use it to create a nutrition and exercise program that is easy to follow. Of course, the easier it is to follow the easier it is to continue over time, and that’s the whole point behind Sensei. By keeping the nutrition and exercise manageable for those with a busy lifestyle, Sensei helps ensure that you keep on doing it, taking off the pounds and maintaining a generally healthy lifestyle.

Sensei works for busy people because it takes serious planning to get onto a weight loss and nutrition plan. Trust me, I’ve tried it many a time. It means planning your weekly shopping around certain meals, and sticking to those meals. As busy people know, that’s almost impossible to stick by. Things happen, and the busier you are in general the better chance there is of more and more things popping up, preventing you from sticking to the meal plan you shopped for at the beginning of the week. That usually means a lot of takeout and delivery, which is simply not good for anyone wanting to eat healthier and lose weight.

Instead of planning only to break that plan, Sensei allows for a more spontaneous lifestyle. It creates simple recommendations that you can easily make at home or find on the go. If you’re out, Sensei can find the best nutritional choices on restaurant menus. As Sacco notes: “Wendy’s patrons might be directed toward a salad and baked potato instead of a burger with a side of French fries.” Sensei also takes into account your personal preferences, so you won’t get tons of green salads (at least at first) if you’re not used to eating them all the time. Take it from a non-salad guy: going from eating no salads to eating one a day is not sustainable. Baby steps.

Sensei is also available on your desktop, and you can sync it to your BlackBerry. The clear advantage to having it on your Berry is that you can get meal recommendations wherever you are. For those who are thinking about this, check out Sensei’s website for a slideshow walk-through. It clearly displays all of the application’s features. For those interested, you can pick it up at BlackBerry App World for $9.99.

MyNetDiary

Similar to Sensei, MyNetDiary works on a computer and syncs with your BlackBerry so you can work with it either while sitting down or on the go. It allows you to enter in your physical information — height, weight, and age — to determine your Body Mass Index (BMI). Of course, there are issues with BMI. According to that I’m overweight, but it doesn’t take muscle mass to fat ratio into account. In other words, it counts all mass as the same, even though it’s not. But I digress…

Using BMI, MyNetDiary breaks down your daily nutritional intake for maintenance. You then enter in your target weight and the program tells you what you need to cut out of you diet or otherwise make up for with exercise. The longer time period you have to do this the better. That means a smaller reduction in your current intake or a small increase in exercise (or, ideally, both), making it easier to maintain.

You can then use MyNetDiary to track your progress, using the information it has in its database of over 88,000 foods. It grows daily, too, with suggestions from members for new additions. The database seems to be one of the main selling points of the service, as they claim to have no duplicates, up-to-date information, and a team which will continue to add more foods. So while it won’t create a set eating schedule for you, it will let you know how many calories you are eating, a plus when tracking your weight loss goals.

The MyNetDiary BlackBerry application, which you can get for free at App World, but you have to sign up for a monthly plan in order to use it. It costs $60 for a year, $42 for six months, $24 for three months, or $9 for one month. That does seem a bit steep, especially considering Sensei is available for a flat $10. Still, make sure to check out their test drive to see if this service might be for you.

FoodGauge

A nutritional label can tell you a lot about a food product — if you know what each aspect means, that is. Varying levels of fat, carbohydrates, fiber, and protein can render a food worthy of regular consumption or one to avoid except on special occasions. But what’s the right balance? How many of grams of fat is acceptable? How many of protein do you need? At what point are you not getting enough fiber? Those are questions we’d all like answered.

FoodGauge attempts to help answer them. Their BlackBerry application breaks food down into the four aforementioned categories: fat, carbs, fiber, and protein. Enter the amount, in grams, from a product label and FoodGauge will spit out a number between one and five. The higher on the chart the better; these are foods you can eat all the time, so long as you’re not gorging on them. Foods rated as a one or two are ones you should avoid if you’re looking to eliminate that nuisance of a gut.

Of course, the formula isn’t perfect. Not all fats are created equally — mono and polyunsaturated fats are necessary, while saturated fat is the one to avoid in high quantities. It also doesn’t make a differentiation among carbohydrates other than fiber. For instance, there’s no place to indicate a difference between high fructose corn syrup and pure sugar, which is pretty big. So while FoodGauge can give you a general idea of your food’s nutritional value, it’s not the be-all determining factor. There is plenty more that goes on beyond those for criteria.

Still, as a general guide — and a cheap app — you could do a whole lot worse. You can check out FoodGauge at BlackBerry App World for $2.99.

Fast Food NutriGuide

Okay, so maybe you’re not totally into the weight loss thing. It’s okay: most people aren’t. But, maybe you want to cut down on the crappy food you eat while out. You know, little things to help improve your health a little bit at a time. An application called Fast Food NutriGuide can help you with that.

If you frequent fast food joints, this application can let you know what’s particularly bad for you on the menu. Just pull up a selection from your joint of choice, and see how many grams of fat, carbs, protein, and more that flame-broiled burger has. No, it’s not going to make a huge difference — you’re still easting fast food, after all — but it’s better to pick something with slightly less crap in it, rather than going full-bore with a super-sized meal with a large shake.

(In New York City, this is built in. There are calorie listings for everything on the menu. Some people despise it, but I love it. Now I know exactly how bad that sausage McGriddle is. Definitely makes me less apt to order it.)

If this is your kind of app, you can get Fast Food NutriGuide at the BBGeeks Store for $2.99 until September 27.

Don’t forget the exercise

The top two applications on this list have exercise components to them, but that’s certainly not their focus. If you plan to make yourself healthier more through exercise than nutrition (though the two go hand-in-hand), you can always check our guide to tracking your fitness with a BlackBerry.

Share on Facebook | Add to De.licio.us | Digg This! | Technorati