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HEALTH AND FITNESS: USING THE WEB TO HELP YOU MEET YOUR GOALS
Katharine McCoy
February 13, 2009
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If you are like most people a few months, weeks, days or (like me) even hours is all it takes for our fitness goals to fall by the wayside. Research has shown that people have a much better chance of reaching their goals if they write them down. In fact, dieters who keep a diary are about twice as likely to reach their goals. But who has time to do that? Nobody really wants to spend all of the time it would take to figure out exactly what they are eating or how hard they are riding each day. That sounds too much like balancing your checkbook. But what if doing so was as easy as logging on to your email or facebook page. There are many websites that can help you not only keep track of your progress, but they even do things like calculate your calorie intake and your calories burned. They can also help you set up individual plans for reaching your goals. It is like having a free “life” coach. Although some of these sites charge money, many are available for free or feature a free version.
A Few Examples Are:
my-calorie-counter.com – This is a great website for those who are trying to watch what they eat, especially if many of your meals are not homemade. It has a large database of commercially available foods that let you estimate calories of things like a Starbucks Vanilla Latte or a Pizza Hut cheese pizza. It will also help you estimate the calories that you burn for your road ride. It is a very easy site to use but since its audience is more generalized it may not have all of the training expertise that you might want.
trainingpeaks.com – If you are looking at a more serious training website check out this site. This site is designed with athletes that have more serious training in mind. It will allow you to track your food intake as well as plan your workouts. You can even up load the information from training devices such as a heart rate monitor. Trainingpeaks.com has a free option or a choice to upgrade to a paid version, which offers things like a virtual coach and the ability to view maps and routes for workouts.
sparkspeople.com – this site is another journalized site for people hoping to meet notional and workout goals. It basically lets you set up page where you can keep track of your information as well as access groups to help you stay motivated. It is a free site.
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