Customized Fitness on DailyBurn

DailyBurn is a fitness and health site, that tries to cater to every possible type of user and offers a ranges of apps and devices to continue interacting off-site. After you create an account, you select a fitness goal – loss weight, get stronger, increase endurance or become more athletic. Right from the get-go there’s an important distinction from other health-based apps. Most assume that users are only interested in losing weight, even though weight is not a strong indicator of health. Sure, many people want to be slimmer, but there are many other ways to be fitter. You can be overweight and still be strong, healthy and active.

The set up process goes on to cater diet options based on the type of body you want. Low fat – (For weight loss and the less active) , Low carb – (For weight loss and general fitness), Bodybuilder – (For strength building), Balanced – (For all around fitness and nutrition).  Once you’ve chosen your goal, DailyBurn estimates  your recommended daily calorie, carbohydrate, protein, and fat intake. By upgrading to the Pro level you can also track fiber, sugar, sodium, sat. fat, cholesterol & potassium. Again, we see a distinct difference from the norm here. The Daily Burn looks at more than just counting calories or grams of fat and uses a more complex points system for better data and results. There are also water and sleep trackers to make sure you’re getting enough of each. And while you can add what food you’ve eaten like Lose It!, the improvement here is that you can plan meals in advance to keep yourself within budget.

There is a free version and Pro (paid) version to the site. There are enough options in the free version to make the site very functional, but still enough motivation to level up. One of the main draws is how customizable the site is, and that only increases with the paid tier. Being able to choose from so many options not only makes the site more engaging, but more useful as well. However, I hit a snag right at the start when it came time to choose a training plan. Many of the “beginner” options require a Pro account. Why would I pay money into a site if I haven’t used it and gotten positive results? It makes sense to charge for the more advanced work out plans, but if a user is going from completely sedentary to working out at home, offer the basics to get them started before they give up entirely!

The site also has a lot of opportunities to be social. You can add friends to your list of “Motivators” and leave comments on training plan pages to help other users. You can also chat in the forums and join groups. You can also create and join in challenges to earn trophies. Some are competitive and there are others wherein “everyone wins” like losing 5 lbs.

DailyBurn is easy to integrate into your routine. There are 2 iPhone apps (one is a food scanner), a Safari toolbar, an iGoogle gadget and WiFi enabled products like the Zeo Personal Sleep Coach and the Withings Body Scale that automatically update your progress on your profile. All-in-all, DailyBurn is engaging, highly social and offers a lot of ways to develop a healthier lifestyle, no matter what your current state.