Progress answers the question, ‘can your smartphone help you lose weight?”. The short answer is, YES!
Well, you have to put in some work too. Okay, fine. A lot of work. But, your smart phone is there to help you along the way. If you and I are anything alike, you have your iPhone or Droid with you nearly every second of everyday. It’s the first thing you look at when you wake up and the last thing you put down when you go to bed. Since your phone is with you during every waking moment, your phone knows a great deal about you. Without much time Progress can help turn your phone into your personal fitness and weight loss tracker.
The Good: (There’s quite a bit!)
Progress allows you to input your measurements, this encourages to take your measurements either on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Allowing you to see how much you have lost in inches. So why is this important? For example, let’s say you had a perfect week. You worked out everyday, ate no carbs, had all your greens and still didn’t see the scale move a centimeter. You may be discouraged and reach for a brownie sundae. However, if you take the time to measure yourself, you may find a change in inches which would assure you that you are on the right track. You could see a half inch drop in measurement you may not have noticed if Progress wasn’t keeping track for you. Don’t get discouraged, let Progress track your inches to keep you satisfied.
Next, Progress tracks your fitness results, the app sync with your Health app if you are using an iPhone. This way any step you take with your iPhone in your pocket, or in your purse, is being tracked by your phone and being inputted as progress to your weight loss goals. The numbers, of course, do not lie. You will be able to access graphs about your weight loss and see the results in front of you. Having a good streak? Progress awards badges and honors to help you feel pride in your accomplishments. These badges include “Commitment”, “Winning Streak” and “GOAL”.
Many people do not realize they have lost weight until someone else notices. Progress helps you notice by taking photos in the same position, ideally wearing the same outfit, to track your progress. However, the main point of Progress is not just to see the results in numbers, but to see the results in photos. According to inquisitr.com, “to begin using Progress, users should take a “before photo,” to document how their body looked before they began their weight loss journey.”
One of most commonly sited reasons for losing weight is for personal appearance. As sited on HealthyDietBase.com, “that’s why {people} want to lose weight, they want to look good”. There is no denying this, especially in today’s world of constant status updates and photos. Our selfie culture encourages us to document every waking moment of our life. Even if you are feeling a bit self conscious, it is hard to avoid photos. However, if you are losing weight and feeling great, then most likely you will want to share, share and share some more. Progress allows you to easily share your photos via social media or send them to your friends to show off. Hey, if you’re working hard, you deserve to gloat…a little!
When you look at photos from week one and two and compare with week six or seven you will see how your body has changed. Visually seeing the results is meant to inspire you to work harder to get an even better photo the following week.
The Not-so good:
Selfies are what make Progress a great visualization tool. However, if you are in a different position, if you have different posture or are wearing tighter or looser clothing, your photos may not actually reflect your true progress. Lighting can even make a difference in the accuracy of the photo. If you are very careful, you should be able to make this work. AND if you’re results are real and obvious, this will not pose a problem!
Progress does not provide any work out ideas or fitness suggestions. This is up to you, and as we know, this is an important element to weight loss. Get your resistance bands and start your work out with Cayman Fitness to make sure your selfies are getting the results they deserve!