Jake and I are almost constantly moving around the world, and are ALWAYS on a budget. So unless there’s a crazy good deal, we just don’t spend money on going to a gym. Over the years I’ve used almost every workout/weight loss app there is, and these are the ones that have worked the best for me while traveling or working out at home!
1. Lose IT!
Although there are a couple of apps like this on the market, I’ve used this one since college and it never fails me! In fact, after I lived in Chile for almost 2 years and gained 50 pounds (!!) I came home and used this app to get back to my “home weight.”
Lose It! is basically a free calorie counter, where you can log your weight and your food to keep track of what you eat. You can set your goal to lose 1/2 pound per week to 2 pounds per week and then set your personal information and your goal weight.
If you’re a habitual eater like me (I seriously could eat a bowl of plain Cheerios and a banana for breakfast every day for the rest of my life) then the app will start to learn what you put in every day and label it a “meal.”
Or you can make “meals” yourself so that you don’t have to look up each individual item every day (ie 1/2 cup milk, 1 cup Cheerios, 1/2 banana).
The main goal of each day is obviously to stay under your calorie limit for the day. I would weigh myself every week on the same day before eating or drinking anything.
Pro Tip: you might eat better on the weekends if you have to weigh in on Monday morning!
While traveling, you might not have access to a scale. There are a couple of things you could do. One is to buy a cheap scale in the place you’re long-term traveling in, but if you’re like us and traveling with only a carry-on, that’s not an option.
Another is to just use the scale in the store! Nobody will care, trust me. The last option is to try to find scales outside of a convenience store that have you pay like 50 cents to weigh yourself.
They probably aren’t the most accurate, but at least you have an idea of how things are going!
Although weight is not the tell-all of how healthy you are, sometimes its nice to have a reference point. I also travel with a measuring tape, but I never seem to be able to keep up with using it.
2. 8Fit
If you don’t like running, this app is the BEST! It’s my go-to for working out at home (by “home” I mean in whatever Airbnb we’ve rented that month!) Although it says “Try it Free for 14 days” you can use the basics of this app for free.
8Fit is basically a collection of HIIT workouts that focus on different areas of your body. Depending on the workout, you can burn anywhere from 200 to 500 calories in a super short period of time (5-20 minutes).
With this app, you can connect it to your “Lose It” app, which is definitely my favorite part!
So if I know I’m gonna eat a lot of pizza that night, I can even do two or three of these (super exhausting and I’m dripping by the end, but pizza is worth it!) and then the app will give me those extra calories on the Lose It App!
3. Tone it up
In college, my roommate and I used to find “Tone It Up” workouts on Pinterest and memorize them so we could do them wherever we wanted.
Now, they’ve have gotten big enough that they have their own app! You get a free workout every day.
It’s pretty similar to 8Fit. You can choose to pay for more workouts or meal plans, but the basics of the app are free!
4. Strava
I don’t love running… but if I’m gonna do it, then I want to know how far I’ve gone and how fast I’m going! This free app will tell you all of that, even if you don’t have wifi/service!
My husband likes to call this app “Facebook for Runners” because after you finish your run you can share it on the app for others to see and comment on. Jake loves to take pictures on his run and then write a little about how it went.
He actually gets quite a few people reading his crazy running stories!
My favorite part of this app is knowing my pace WHILE I’m running, even without wifi. Since I don’t like to run for long periods of time, it’s always fun to make goals and stick to a faster pace!
avoid downloading too many fitness apps
I’m sure that there are so many more out there, but trust me, I’ve downloaded them all. I’ve used these apps to workout all over the world. Plus, download too many and you run the risk of never using any of them!
I find that it’s better to stick to a couple that way you don’t waste your time or get too overwhelmed learning a new workout routine or wondering the whole time whether the workouts will actually help you lose the weight.
