Buy a new iPhone and it will come with a little gem of an app called, quite simply, Health. Many aspects of your health can be improved with this app on iOS 10, and the common nuisance of excess weight is certainly no exception.
MyFitnessPal can be a weight loss pal
When organizing a new weight loss regime, it could be wise to start with the part of your lifestyle that is perhaps the least awkward and time-consuming to change: your diet. Firstly, daily record what you eat; this can be especially straightforward with MyFitnessPal’s calorie counter app. Here is a good run-down of why it can be so useful.
The app is great for discerning how many calories you should daily consume for gradual, sustainable weight loss. That’s a good start, but the app is also great for keeping track of how much of what nutrients you’re getting, which could further aid your weight loss endeavors. Nutritionist Rob Hobson advises boosting your intake of protein and fibre, which can help keep you full – MyFitnessPal will advise what protein and fibre levels you should aim for.
Convenient integration with the Health app
Another big reason why we’re recommending the MyFitnessPal app in particular is that you can seamlessly transfer its data about your nutritional intake into the Health app. To enable automatic syncing of this data on iOS 10, go into the Health app, tap Sources, and then the MyFitnessPal option in the Apps list that appears. Then, you can select exactly which types of data you’d like MyFitnessPal to write to the Health app.
With this set up, you should then find that the Health app is, in its Nutrition section, regularly updated with new information about the nutrients you’re getting, including the day-by-day average amount of each. This is good for ensuring that you’re making a consistent, long term habit of eating in a way that is more conducive to weight loss.
A (ahem) step-by-step guide
Walking more often could also help you to shift a little more weight. Taking 10,000 steps a day is good to aim for, especially as you could easily get a lot of those steps simply by walking on many occasions when you might typically use a car or public transport. As a daily 10,000 steps usually burns roughly 2,000 to 3,500 extra calories in a week, it could lead you to lose as much as an extra pound in that time.
Fortunately, every iPhone from the iPhone 5S onwards (not including the iPhone 5C) includes a motion coprocessor that can track your steps for recording in the Health app. This can help you discern how close you already are to reaching that 10,000-steps-a-day target. And, while we would urge you to treat this article strictly as a guide, rather than a substitute for advice from your doctor, we wish you great luck with your weight-trimming efforts.