INTRODUCTION

    iFitOne is a program designed to help you record your weight, waisitline measurement, exercise and food consumption to aide you in your weight loss efforts. It is simple and easy to use, it has useful features that we will discuss later, and yet….can you effectively lose weight by recording some numbers into your mobile phone? Read on to find out!

WHAT’S HOT

    Version 1 was released in April 2008 introducing the ability to add and customize your own goals. Since then it has been updated with new language support and so users can now use it in German, Spanish and Italian, with French and German in development.

SETUP

    I downloaded a copy of iFitOne from the our store onto my PC, and then this downloaded in turn to my PDA which is synchronised with my PC. Once installed, you can use the progam to create your profile and set it up before registering it. Once registered you have access to features such as the graphs – see Product Features

PRODUCT FEATURES

    When I first activated iFitOne I was excited because this could be a really useful way of recording my daily weight loss performance. I use my mobile phone for everything: it’s my daily diary, my task master, my communicator and my entertainer. Now it could also be my personal weight loss con-ordinator. So I set to using it with enthusiasm having in mind actual goals. not just some test ones for the purpose of the review!!

Personal goal setting

    So the first task is to set up your profile and define your own goals.

The ‘Welcome Screen’ greets you with a message telling you that your first task is to set up your profile.

    The profile is simple to set up by simply working through the list of items. All the details that you need to enter are integral to the use of the program. Specifically the email address is used to send images (more on that later), the Start Date and Goals Date are there to provide the time frame that you want to work to lose the weight and the Start Weight, Start Waist/Size, Goal Weight and Goal Waist/Size to provide the targets.

    Then the fun begins! ‘My Daily Goals’ is the section that requires you to enter the amount of food types and liquids that you will consume during your weight loss regime. By selecting each item, a number pad is shown to allow you to dictate a value for each one, either a maximum amount or minimum amount value.

    It is worth noting that the amount you consume is measured in servings/portions. So you are going to need to be strict with yourself. If you know that a realistic serving of fat say is a spread of margarine on your bread, then say 1, but if you then say only 1 serving of fat for a Krispy Kreme donut, are you being realistic and honest with yourself? Lets face it, those things have the fat content of a small dairy farm…but as all good diets say, that doesn’t mean you shoud deprive yourself altogether!

Summar

y & graphs

    Once you have completed your profile, you are provided with a one screen summary that captures the details you have entered.

These summaries can be seen in weight, size and activity so that you can assess your performance from either aspect.

    By tapping the screen you can then access the graph views which I did like. I am a very visual person, so to see my performance represented by graphs means more to me than a load of numbers. This I think is a strength for iFitOne as it is appealing to different people. The key to any weight loss programme is that you feel motivated to do it. If you can see your performance represented in a way that appeals to you, you will be more receptive and therefore motivated by what it is telling you.

    I have customised this graph to make the 2 lines a bit clearer. This graph shows weight at the top and waist size below in pink. Not brilliantly clear, and to be honest it took me a while to work out what the graphs are telling me.

    Anyone who works with graphs knows that you are supposed to clearly indicate what the graph is telling you by giving it a title and then labelling its axis. Developer One would benefit fom considering how they could improve these to make them more informative

Daily log

s, daily reminders

    The summary screens and the graphs work from the information that you feed in from the daily logs.

    Against each category you enter the number of servings you have had that day. Remember those maximum or minimum amounts you set in your profile, well these then lead the colours in the end column to show green for on target, red for off target or pink (you can change this to amber if you want!) to show that you could do better!

    From the amount of use I have made of this feature I haven’t been able to see if the data you provide on your food and drink consumption has a direct impact on your weight counter? I suspect not, as it doesn’t appear to be that sophisticated. You need to enter your weight measurement when you take it. I don’t advocate doing this daily as your weight will fluctuate day to day and this could get a bit demotivating and obssesive. Once a week is the usual.

    To make sure you complete your daily log, you can set reminders to prompt you. The reminders are useful as you can set up to 3 a day and dictate what time they go off. The ability to set them as ‘Private’ is useful when, for example, your phone synchronises with your calendar in Outlook on your PC and this will stop others being able to see what the reminders are….just in case you are keeping your weight loss efforts a secret! We’ve all done it! Then the Reminder Status allows the time to be reserved for you in your calendar.

The reminders appear in your Outlook calendar as a series of appointments and can be viewed individually or as a series, as with any other Outlook appointment.

Then each time you enter a daily log, this also creates an entry in Outlook showing what you recorded as your consumption and showing your current weight reading against your goal.

There is also a calendar in iFitOne that shows a record by month of all your entries. The faces are a cute touch. As part of your daily log you can choose a mood and this is represented by the faces you see on the calendar.

Email image

s

    The last feature that I thought was quite interesting was the ability to email an image, or what you see on the screen on your phone, to another email address.

So if perhaps you can not synchronize your phone with your PC Outlook, you could still email yourself, or someone else a copy.

Finally, there is a list of customisable features in iFitOne that are accessed via ‘Menu’/'Options’. These allow you at any time to update your profile, change your goals, change the calendar and reminder settings.

HELP SUPPORT

    The program provides a section called iFitOne Tips which is a series of screens showing instructions for:

• Getting Started – updating your profile and adding a log entry
• iFitOne Views – explaining the different views available such as month views, graphs etc.
• Month View
• Graph View
• Stats Summary View
• Daily Reminders
• Daily Calendar Summary

The iFitOne website also has instruction in it under Getting Started with iFit One within the FAQs section.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

    iFitOne will work on both versions of Windows Mobile (touchscreen and non-touchscreen) and support versions 5.0 and 6.

BUGS AND WISHES

   
Anyone who works with graphs knows that you are supposed to clearly indicate what the graph is telling you by giving it a title and then labelling its axis. Developer One would benefit fom considering how they could improve these to make them more informative and easier to read.

    iFitOne enables you to export data to a csv. file. The only problem I was I could not see this then on my phone, so I emailed it to myself. The contents of the file was not great!

    I would like to see Develop One put some time and attention into developing how well the data exports. Its current layout means nothing. They need to arrange the data in each column rather than putting it all into one.

PURCHASING

   
You can purchase iFitOne from our software store at a very cheap rate of $14.95 until June 13, 2008. After that, the price goes to $19.95.

PROS

• 
  

  Helps to personalize your goals

• Synchronizes well with Outlook
• 
  

  Useful instructions

• Works on Standard and Professional

CONS

• 
  

  The graphs need a little more thought

• Ths csv. files are poorly laid out
• May not be enough to motivate some people

Value
Ease of Use
Features
Overall

OVERALL IMPRESSION

    As I was writing this review, something started to niggle at me. With the capability of having the records stored in Outlook and being able to save images and email them, you need never be too far from an update or reminder of how you are doing. This could get quite obsessive, and obsessions aren’t always healthy! It strikes me therefore, that this could get a bit unhealthy if you are constantly looking at reminders of how you are doing. Not that motivating if you aren’t doing that well. At the end of the day it comes down to what each person wants when they are trying to lose weight. For some people this will be very useful and will give them something to think about to keep them on track during their weight loss. For others, I think they will lose interest, and I think I fall into that camp. Its a useful in the right hands, and those hands need to belong to someone who is really dedicated to their weight loss programme and is motivated enough to want to achieve their goals.