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Personal Narrative: Lose It !

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Sadly, once the Christmas tree had been put away and the New Year's Eve confetti had been swept up, I could find no excuse not to tackle my most pressing post-holiday need - losing some weight. Most adults put on at least a little weight over the holidays, and crowded fitness center parking lots every January attest to the fact that a good many want to then shed that weight, at least until New Year's resolutions are forgotten. I decided to see if I could combine my weight-loss goals with my interest in technology. I found a free app for my Android phone called Lose it!, and suddenly the dreary chore of losing weight became a bit more interesting. Lose it! is available for both Android phones and the iPhone. The app works well on my Droid …show more content…

Users are first asked what they weigh, what they want to weigh (their goal weight), and how much they want to lose per week. The choices are one, one-and-a-half or two pounds per week, well within what weight-loss experts deem reasonable. More user choices exist for the app, but those can be discovered along the way. After entering the three items listed above, I was ready to go. Lose It! is essentially a calorie-counting app, and that may turn off some potential users. For me, however, it fit perfectly with my approach to weight loss. Having recently read The Physicist's Guide to Weight Loss, by Mark Buesing, I have come to think of weight loss in terms of energy. As Buesing explains in his book, energy in equals weight gain, and energy out equals weight loss. From this perspective, Lose It! is an excellent app. The foods you eat are easily entered via a variety of methods. Tap the Log tab at the top of the screen. Tap Add and then choose the meal you'd like to enter. You can conduct a generic search for a food item or - and this is my favorite feature of the app - you can scan the barcode of the food you are …show more content…

This is the introductory page. Most authors of diet books waste your valuable time droning on and on about outlandish theories and techniques. This article does not waste your time. In fact, we here at the Ultimate Keep-It-Simple Laboratories have done our best to make this book readable within two minutes. Why? Because research shows that reading, although a pleasant activity, does not burn any calories. Let's begin, shall we. Chapter One: Don't Eat Too Much Stop eating so much food. When you eat too much food, you gain weight. Chapter Two: No really, put down the turkey leg and stop eating so much. That's right, chubby. You'll have to cut down on the Double-Stuffed Oreos and Milkshakes for breakfast. Chapter Three: How do I know what foods I should eat? Here's a tip: If it tastes really, really, really good... It's probably fattening. Don't eat too much of that stuff. Here's another tip: Try eating some vegetables. They are good for you. Chapter Four: Exercise Yes, tubby, to lose weight you'll have to exercise. If you want to throw away money on a Bowflex or a swimming pool or a gym membership, be our guest. But there are lots of cheap ways to exercise. Why not save money, and go do those things. You know, running, push-ups, sit-ups, long walks on the beach. Whatever physical activity you like to do, go out and do it. Chapter Five: How Do I Know When I've Exercised Enough? Exercise to the

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