I've been on plenty of diets and journeys to lose weight and get in shape. I've done drastic, MMA-style weight cuts. I've worked out religiously both in public gyms and my own home gym. There was an attempt at keto that went alright until it didn't. Some have worked and some haven't, but what I hadn't found until now, was a sustainable way to track my calorie intake. Enter the Lose It! app.
A buddy of mine showed up for a backyard beer after not having seen him for over a year due to the pandemic. He used to be a big guy, but he walked in looking like a different person. He had lost 92 lb and, when I asked him how, he said it was by using the Lose It! app and tracking his calories. As someone who has been struggling to find the motivation to get into shape, this was what I needed to put me over the top. This guy is like me in many ways, and if he could do it I knew that I could. The timing was perfect, as I was finally ready to be healthy and he provided the inspiration just when I needed it.
The Lose It! app can be quite simple. You start by inputting information like your age, weight, height, activity level, and your goals. It provides you with a daily calorie target that helps you lose a couple of pounds per week. I'm on a plan to lose two pounds per week, but you can go with one if you wish. From there, it's all about tracking what you eat by entering the data into the app. There are categories for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. And, there is a library of already verified foods so you rarely have trouble finding accurate calorie counts. I was worried about this, but it's not been a problem whatsoever. If you can't find the food, scanning the barcode with your phone typically locates it.
Where Lose It! could use some work is with the UI and social options. My wife downloaded the app purely to support me. If she makes a meal, she will create a recipe that can be saved. If you eat chicken, rice, and vegetables once a week, you can save that recipe, so you don't have to input individual calorie counts every time. Unfortunately, we can't add each other as friends for some reason, so she has to take screen grabs of things she makes and then I have to create my own recipe, instead of sharing it through the social options.
The Lose It! app gets complicated with what it can track too. It can connect to your Apple Watch to take your activity into account for your calorie targets. It can track your steps and your water intake if you wish. There are a lot of options, but it can be difficult to track these things due to a busy UI. It's the kind of thing that you'll be fine with in a couple of weeks but expect some bumbling around the app as you figure out how things work.
What I love most about Lose It!, though, is that the app feels like it's moving with me. Each Friday I input my weight, and it adjusts my daily calorie count based on that new weight. It's very subtle, though. It doesn't scream to you that you're now required to eat 25 less calories per day, it just makes the adjustment and, if you aren't paying attention, you don't notice. You just look at your ring and know you have space left. Due to weight loss since starting only 12 days ago, I'm now eating 50 less calories per day than when I began. Obviously, this is how you continue to lose weight as your body needs less calories to maintain.
There's some versatility with how you plan your week too. I'm on a static calorie count that doesn't change no matter the day of the week, but the app reminds me that there is The Weekender, where it offers you slightly less calories Monday to Thursday, and then ups your calorie count on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday so that you can indulge a bit more. Since starting Lose It! the main change in my diet is that I eat the foods I always, have, but less. I still have one or two beers, and I still eat burgers and fries, but less. Other than taking out the chips and Coke that I loved, which was something I needed to do regardless of my weight, I have not left any foods behind.
Lose It! isn't perfect, but it fits my needs right now. It's offered me a sustainable way to lose weight by slowly adjusting my daily calorie target. The plans and how it communicates with users are low impact. Instead of being on a diet, I feel like I'm on a path that I'm confident I can navigate. We'll see how it goes over the next year (my goal weight is coming July 26, 2022, apparently), but so far so good.
