App Review: FatWatch
Written on February 2, 2009 – 9:38 pm | by Jeff Ainslie
The iTunes Apps store now has more than 15,000 programs that you can use on your iPhone or iPod Touch. There are now hundreds of health and fitness applications to choose from and many of them seem to do pretty much the same things. I have been evaluating several over the last few months, but the one that I prefer and use right now is FatWatch.
This application doesn’t do as much as some of the fully featured ones, but I don’t plan to spend an hour entering in everything that I eat and do every day. The reason that I like this little application is that you don’t have to do too much work to get a lot of feedback out of it.
Instead of entering your daily calories that you consume and burn through exercise, you enter your weight on a daily basis. Based on your results, it calculates and graphs a trend line, which is similar to an average weight, but a little more complicated. The math behind the trend line is here. As this trend line moves, it calculates how many calories you are overeating or under-eating.
For people who do not want to count calories, this lets you know whether you need to eat more or less on a daily basis to reach your goals. You can also look at the numbers for the past week, two weeks, month etc to see how you are doing over time.
When you do set your goals in FatWatch, you can choose a goal weight, goal date, or just the calorie deficit that you to aim for each day and it will calculate the rest. You can reset your goals at any time as well. If you reset your goals after you have some records, it doesn’t put your start weight as that day’s weight; it uses the previously calculated trend line.
So if you have been pigging out for a couple of days and are up a few pounds, you can’t look forward to some quick weight loss in the first couple of days. It bases your new start weight on your “true” weight over time. On the other hand, I find that the trend line is motivating if you are losing weight because it doesn’t allow you to get discouraged as your weight naturally bounces around for any number of reasons. As well, if you are maintaining your weight, it really can help you keep on track. FatWatch is telling me right now that in the last quarter, I have averaged overeating by 152 calories per day as my trendline has ever so slightly crept up.
FatWatch is $9.99 and is available in the iTunes App Store.
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Tags: FatWatch, iphone, ipod touch
5 Responses to “App Review: FatWatch”
By Ann Marie Stewart on Mar 22, 2009 | Reply
Dear Russ and Jeff,
As a natural start, let me say I love your show. I now think it
absolutely imperative that anyone who is starting to live healthier
should listen to your show. I love your suggestion for the site
Gyminee. I never realized how little protein I ate and how many carbs
before I say that pie chart in front of me. Now I love love love
finding new ways to incorporate protein into my daily nutrition. Yay
for Tom Venuto’s protein pancake.
I recently tried out the Bod Pod at my gym. What it does is give a
very accurate measure (through air displacement) of what your body fat
percentage and RMR (or resting metabolic rate) is.
Here are my stats before I post my question:
My body fat is 21.2% (28.4 lbs) and my fat-free mass is 78.8% (105.7
lbs).
My RMR is 1289.
So here is my question:
What are the exact definitions of sedentary (I can eat 1598), low
active (1959), active (2243), and very active 2668)?
I currently run 9-12 miles a week and I play soccer one night a week.
I get in 10,000 steps a day besides that. Right now I consume anywhere
between 1500 and 2000 calories depending on what I am doing that day
(and sometimes where I am eating).
Where, according to my activity level do I lie on the activity meter?
Also, since I want to lose 10 lbs (not muscle), what should I put my
caloric intake at considering my weekly activity level?
Thanks so much, I adore your show.
Ann Marie Stewart
By Ann Marie Stewart on Mar 22, 2009 | Reply
I’m also 5′6″
By Linda Affleck on May 28, 2009 | Reply
I found Fat2Fit on itunes. I am so glad that it was available as I use itunes for almost all of my searching for podcasts. Now that I have an iphone, I don’t have time to look anywhere else.
This is an excellent site and I hope that it remains as a download.
Linda
By Russ Turley on May 28, 2009 | Reply
Hi Linda,
Thanks for the kind words and a special thanks for buying Season 1. Let us know if you have any problems getting the Season 1 shows on your iPhone.
Russ
By Linda on Jun 14, 2009 | Reply
I’m 58, would like to lose 10 pounds and have been trying to do so for longer than I would like to admit to.
My question is: I use a treadmill at home and perfer it over other exercises BUT I cannot get on it unless I set myself up to do 1 hour (My typical walk is at about 4.3 speed – incline at 4.0 – 5 times a week). Then my mind does not say “good job” but rather – well now that you have done an hour, next time let’s make it an hour and 15 minutes. Of course, the body kind of refuses the next time so an hour it is. I would like to be told, ok, get off at 45 minutes and that is the perfect work out for you, or only do this three days a week. When reading and hearing how to start an exercise program, it’s kind of straight forward but once your at a higher level, it seems hard not to keep pushing yourself to do an extra half hour, or an extra mile, or extra, extra, extra. So my question is a)do other people struggle with this “upping the workout” game and b)how do you control this “upping” game?
Lastly, I think those nasty 10 pounds would disappear if I would give up some of the red wine. Tough choice.
Linda