Down with laziness, it's time to train! HLS with mobile applications

My name is Ivan, I am an interface designer, coder.

After the new year, I was going to change myself and take a healthy lifestyle. For this, I decided to choose for myself a mobile application, as an assistant for training and proper nutrition.

For myself, I was looking for an application that would perform the following functions:
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• Remind me of workouts and meals
• Automatically count calories, track activity and nutrition
• Train with a virtual trainer
• Get useful tips on healthy lifestyles

Searching on Google Play and having tried many applications, unfortunately, I could not find an application that would combine all these functions and be convenient and easy to use.

So I had to use several applications
and this is what I found for myself in Google Play:

• sHealth
• Calorie Counter - Lifesum
• Fabulous - Motivate Me!

Shealth

The first useful application I found is sHealth.

sHealth - created by developers from Samsung and is positioned as a trainer and helper for leading a healthy lifestyle, as well as a platform for integration with other applications for health and fitness.



The first useful feature of the application is training programs for running .

Running training is distributed by day, for each week the application sets a higher goal for the distance that you need to run.



During the run, the voice assistant tells you with a crooked machine voice about how much distance you have run and about checkpoints in training, but only in English. At the end of the workout, the app notifies you of calories burned and gives rewards if you have completed the workout rate by distance, duration, pace.

I also liked the fact that the app reminds about training . Minus - reminders do not come on time, but I did not find the setting for the time of classes.

Adding food, as in most applications, is distributed to 6 meals, the list of dishes offers several dishes for breakfast, and you can also find dishes in the search , as well as search for restaurants. There is not enough adding products on the bar code , as in Lifesum , for example.



You can add food, but there are no nutritional recommendations in the appendix, and in my opinion, it would be very convenient if you could choose a nutritional program with a variable recommended diet and meal planning for each day.

In sHealth there is a large list of various physical exercises and workouts, which is certainly useful for tracking activity, but it will not be possible to train on them. There is no personal trainer as such, the application only counts calories.



I believe that the application lacks a full-fledged virtual trainer, for example, as in Fabulous , which shows how to do the exercises correctly and gives voice prompts for training.

They'll probably tell me that there are a lot of training applications. Yes, there really is, but most of them do not send information to the same sHealth, and in my opinion it’s not convenient to use several applications at once for those who want to track food and sleep, etc.



Who agrees with this, write in the comments.

In the end, for myself, I highlighted the pros and cons of the sHealth application:

pros

+ Training programs for running
+ Awards for achieving goals
+ Counts calories and normal BJU
+ Nice interface, convenient for recording activity and power
+ Weight Control
+ Fully translated into Russian

Minuses

- There are no recommendations and illustrations on the implementation of training
- Training is not distributed by day, not enough system
- You can not add dishes / products by barcode
- No nutritional advice.
- There are no diets necessary for system food
- You can not specify your volume of water you drink, only 250 ml
- In my opinion, the quality assessment of sleep is not correct, I always go to bed at 10-11 in the evening, and wake up at 7-8 in the morning, that is, on average I sleep 8 hours and always get enough sleep.

Lifesum

The app helps me to write food. In lifesum, this is implemented through a database search and additions by barcode , while this is the best solution for tracking power from all the applications that I found in google play. Also BJU is clearly shown for each meal.



But there is a big minus - the application provides only 4 meals - breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. This option is definitely not suitable for me and people who are engaged in fractional nutrition and most vegetarians and vegans will agree with me.



There are 3 diets, but you can access them only by subscription, the price of which bites, almost 500 rubles, when you subscribe for a month.



With tracking water consumption the same problem as sHealth , there is no way to choose your own volume of water, even if you add water, data is not unloaded into sHealth.

With exercise, the situation is no better, the coach is completely absent! Another useful feature for me is the automatic export of nutrition data to sHealth, despite the fact that all snacks are exported to sHealth as morning snacks.



There are some small tips on nutrition and water consumption, but there are not really enough useful tips and articles.




The elements on the main screen of Lifesum in my opinion are not conveniently located. The calorie counter takes up almost half of the screen, and messages (tips) appear after the counter, also take up a lot of space. Meals and workouts are always at the bottom of the main screen, although power and activity tracking is the most important function of the app.

UPD 02/25/2016

1. Added export of indicators to sHealth, it only works every other time.
   Adds the first glass, the rest are no longer counted.
2. The barcode scanner has been updated, it has become faster to work and now it recognizes barcodes not only in landscape mode.
3. The friends section was added, until I noticed the meaning in this function. Perhaps later there will be a community

In general, I summarize the pros and cons:

pros

+ Large food base in Russian
+ Add products / dishes by barcode
+ Power export to sHealth
+ Convenient indicator BZHU

Minuses

- You can not change the number of meals
- Diets are few and they are all available only by subscription.
- You can not specify your volume of water you drink, only 250 ml and 500 ml
- There is no virtual trainer and recommendations for training
- No sleep quality tracking
- The application interface is nice, but not convenient
- Few useful tips
- No rewards and motivation in the application
- Snacks are not exported correctly
- Nutrients not exported

Fabulous

The application helps to develop habits to eat properly, maintain an active lifestyle, exercise, sleep well and many others.



In the application, you can choose how you want to improve your life: feel more “charged”, lose weight, sleep better, learn to concentrate.

Depending on the chosen goal, the application gives really useful tips and offers to achieve the goal by calling yourself, for example, drinking a glass of water in the morning for 3 days.



Daily tasks, such as eating properly, drinking a glass of water in the morning, practicing, are combined into rituals for morning, evening or night.

It is very interesting and exciting to perform these rituals , there is a feeling that you are playing a certain game. Performing rituals are accompanied by pleasant music, a virtual trainer - a girl with a completely natural voice speaks to you by name and voices current actions.

Also in the application there is an opportunity to engage in training programs with a virtual trainer. The application has a popular set of exercises “7 minutes”, a warm-up for 1 minute and a press workout.




Separately, I note the attractive design of the application, made in the style of Material Design, prepared a lot of illustrations for goals and habits.



In general, the Fabulos app looks complete, but for me there is a shortage of calorie counting and statistics, tracking food and sleep.

pros

+ Convenient and beautiful interface, easy to learn
+ The original way to perform tasks presented in a game form.
+ Really useful tips for achieving goals.
+ Unobtrusive reminders
+ Voice Assistant Trainer with a natural human voice
+ Training with a virtual trainer

Minuses

- There is no record of food and workouts
- No statistics of training and nutrition, sleep, weight
- No Russian language

Having tried many different applications, I still have not found the perfect option for myself. For my purposes and needs, I had to download several applications that at least partially fulfill the functions I need.

How do I see the perfect app for a healthy lifestyle

In my understanding, the ideal application for a healthy lifestyle should look like this:

1. Simple and intuitive interface like Fabulous or sHealth
2. The appendix must have professional nutrition programs (diets) with recommended products - diets for weight loss, sports diets, diets for vegetarians, vegans, patients with diabetes, lactose intolerance, etc.
3. Training programs for the development of certain muscle groups, for weight loss, drying, etc.
4. Healthy lifestyle tips coming at the right time.
5. Integration with popular fitness bracelets (nowhere is there integration with megapopular Xiaomi Mi Band) and smart watches
6. More customization, such as adding water.
7. I would like to see a thematic community to communicate with like-minded people.
8. Opportunity to compete with community members

Thanks for attention! If you are interested in the topic of a healthy lifestyle, write what you think about the applications for healthy lifestyles for android and ios.