fitness apps

Aside from making you look instantly thinner, posture is important to a healthy body. Before you get worried stiff that your slouching is irreversible, we found an app, sports bra, and handy belt to help. Because posture affects everything from digestion to achieving flat abs, consider one of these three helpful reminders for work or workout.

• LUMOback: The LUMOback ($149) is perfect for anyone who spends long hours at a desk. A small belt that you can wear anywhere, LUMOback will gently vibrate when you slouch from your lower back, reminding you to sit or stand straight. It then uses Bluetooth to track your progress and give you feedback over time. Not only will you start to feel better, reversing the negative effects of poor posture, but you'll look better too!
• IntelliSkin: When it comes to fitness, good posture can prevent injury and improve performance. IntelliSkin makes garments like tops and sports bras to cue your muscles to work together for better postural awareness. Many athletes, like surfers and volleyball players, use IntelliSkin during practice, but you can also wear them as undergarments at work. Could these possibly be considered an athletic version of Spanx?
• Upright: Yes, your smartphone can help you stand taller! Upright ($3) is an app that helps to improve your posture by alerting you every time you slouch. Once it's calibrated, keep your phone in your pocket, and you'll be altered every time you begin to hunch. You can even start with baby steps, configuring the time period and "slouch-sensitivity."

Hoping to get a grasp on how my lifestyle habits were affecting my health, I found myself on the hunt for the best weight-loss apps to track calories and fitness. After trial runs with other services, something clicked with using the free mobile and desktop app MyFitnessPal. Easy to use, this online calorie counter monitored both my diet and exercise habits in one place.

When I first created a customized profile on MyFitnessPal, besides entering my age, gender, and activity level, I was also able to add how much weight I wanted to lose. Based on my profile, MyFitnessPal set a healthy time frame for me to do so and offered the number of calories I should strive to eat every day to hit the mark. Besides tracking calories, I like that MyFitnessPal looks at the larger picture and is more than just a straight calorie counter. Through charts and graphs, the app easily displays nutritional breakdowns, exercise habits, and weight-loss trends. All of this made it easy to see where I was overdoing it and where I needed to step up my game — whether that was exercising more or eating less sugar.

Keep reading to get a detailed breakdown of how this app measures food and exercise.

Movin' and groovin' just got even cooler thanks to the new iPhone app Moves (free)— a fitness tracking device that doesn't require "extras." There's no strapping on a fitness wristband here, because with Moves, your everyday activity and workouts are tracked just by carrying your phone in your pocket or bag.

With an easy-to-use interface and an automatic (not to mention accurate) tracking system, Moves neatly organizes your daily activity into a sleek timeline throughout the day. Comparable to the Nike FuelBand, Fitbit, and Jawbone Up — without the extra device and cost — Moves monitors daily walking, cycling, and running down to the very last step. Better yet, the app promises not to drain your battery, because it uses GPS rather than continually relying on cell tower data. The cost is free and the idea is simple . . . just move to a healthier you!

Bikes are the ultimate vehicles for urban explorers. Cycling is faster than foot travel, and you still get to enjoy the great outdoors. Lovetrack is an app that records the beautiful moments you enjoy along the ride and shares your biking route (and the pictures you took along the way) with friends.

Lovetrack maps bike routes, records biking time, and measures speed. The app also has a built-in camera that captures Instagram-like photos during the ride. After a ride's completed, users can share the route through the app and through a web-based platform.

It's a neat idea that combines a photo-based social network, crowd-sourced bike-route mapping, and a fitness app all in one. Unfortunately, Lovetrack is still in development, so consider contributing if you'd like to see the app in the App Store (get early access and a leather phone case for Galaxy S III or iPhone 4S for $30).

Watch a video of the Lovetrack app in action after the break.

We are pumped to share one of our favorite stories from Health.com here on our site.

A sleeker, stronger body could be just a tweet or a Facebook post away
By Jamie Beckman

One of the best tools for peeling off pounds is already in your bag: It's your smartphone or iPad. In fact, all that texting, tweeting, and posting — the average woman spends more than 80 minutes a day on her phone, according to a recent report from the mobile apps analytics firm Flurry — can tip the scales in your favor.

And one in three of us are already using social sites like Facebook to get slender, reports research from the University of Arizona. So go ahead and steal these suggestions from women who took their shape-up viral.

Tweet Your Way Thin
Nancy Tessier, 50, lost 28 pounds by posting all her meals and snacks to Tweet What You Eat (@twye), an online food journal that lets others eyeball your noshes. "Sometimes it was a lot easier to decide not to eat something than to have to tweet it for the world to see," she says.

Posting your weight-loss numbers can help, too. The University of Arizona research suggests that women who reveal shape-up victories on a weekly basis trim down faster than those who update less frequently. If you're feeling shy, think up a Twitter handle and upload a cartoon character as your avatar so you can share the skinny without feeling self-conscious.

Health.com: Diet Tricks the Pros Tell Their Friends

Gain a Following
Get some virtual support pronto by following Twitter hash tags like #fitblog. Carla Shorts, 27, started chiming in on #fitblog's weekly live chats — and dropped from a size 12 to a size 6 in just a year. "When my weight loss reached a plateau, having women point out that my 30-minute elliptical routine wasn't going to cut it anymore was key," she says. "I started running and began to lose again."

You can also start your own hashtag, like Sherry Pagoto, 38, from Massachusetts, did with #plankaday, a challenge to spend at least a minute in plank pose each day.

Find more ways your phone can help you lose weight after the break.