A Simple Formula for Weight Loss

The New York Times had an article about the results of a study on various diets and their effectiveness.  The surprising results are … <drum roll> …

“people lose weight if they lower calories, but it does not matter how.”

Wow.  The formula for weight gain/loss is very simple: calories in – calories burned = weight gain/loss.  It is as simple as that.  Eat more calories than you burn and you will gain weight.  Most of the popular diets are a distraction for people.  They give people a set of rules to follow and that helps many people in the short term.  What we really need is an emphasis on counting calories.  Track the foods you eat on a daily basis and it will be immediately obvious  how to lose weight.

I recommend The Daily Plate for this.

My Favorite iPhone Apps

I have installed a lot of the free apps on my iPhone but usually end of deleting them.  Only a handful are still on there.  I use only a few on a regular basis and they are my favorites by far. They are all free.  Here they are in order:

1.  Melodis Dialer (iTunes link).  This is a great app that makes phone calls much easier.  I put it just above my phone icon on the main screen.  Start the app, say a name, and it finds the contact for you.  Very simple and very accurate.  Free.

2.  Instapaper.  This ingenious little app is kind of like sending a web page from my PC to my iPhone.  Put a “read later” button on your browser tool bar.  Click it when you find an article you want to read later.  Viola!  It is now on your iPhone.   I usually have five or ten articles on my phone for when I have a few minutes to kill.  Free.

3.  Public Radio (iTunes link).  I often listen to NPR in my car on the way to the Metro.  This app lets me keep listening to it all the way to work.  Surprisingly, the iPhone app is about a second ahead of the radio station!!! Go figure.  Free.

4.  DC Traffic Cam.  Sure, Google Maps has live traffic but it is horribly inaccurate.  If you want to see what is really happing on your commute, try this app.  It is a live traffic feed to your iPhone.  They support many other cities in the US as well.  Free.

5.  WeatherBug (iTunes link).  I have tried a lot of weather apps to find my favorite.  I like an easy to read forecast and live radar.  This one has both.  While the PC version of WeatherBug is downright annoying, the iPhone version is simple, clean and functional.  Free.

It really is amazing how many great free apps are out there.  Please let me know which are your favorites.