Losing weight can be a challenging experience. Whether you need to lose just a few pounds or need to lose a significant amount of weight, you can certainly benefit from the many free and paid tools that are available online and for your smartphone or tablet. Here are 5 hand tools you won’t want to be without.

Food Diary

A food diary can be massively beneficial to anyone trying to lose weight. A food diary allows you to enter everything you ingest on a daily basis, including food and drink, even chewing gum. The food diary will keep track of not just the calories, but the fat, saturated fat, carbs, sugar and also nutrition aspects of each item. At the end of the day, you can get a total of your calories and other stats, and see what you can do the next day to make your diet even more effective. You might find some hidden calories, like adding milk to your tea or adding sugar to your coffee. These are things that a food diary can alert you to, and allow you to make simple substitutions to lessen caloric intake. A food diary is also beneficial if you have a sensitive stomach or allergies. An accurate food diary can even help your doctor diagnose digestive and intestinal issues.

Goal Setting And Progress Tracking

There’s a plethora of applications and software available that allow you to set goals and track progress of your daily fitness routine. Many will even come with a pedometer or other monitoring device that you will wear.You can set goals, and see how quickly you meet them. Then when you meet your goal, you can set another, more difficult goal, and the application can provide ideas for activities to help you meet that new goal.

Calorie Counter

For people who are following a diet that focuses on calorie counting, there is no better tool than a calorie counter. There are many ways to count your calories. You can use a simple paper guide, or you can go high-tech and use a Smartphone app. When you’re in the grocery store, at a restaurant or fast food joint, a calorie counting device will help you make better, less caloric food choices, that won’t cause your diet to fail.

Activity Tracker

Also handy to have is an activity tracker. This tool can not only track your exercise regimen, but it can also take into account all other daily activity, such as walking at work or going up stairs. Knowing your total activity for the day can be an effective way to adjust your routine for maximum weight loss.

Online Bmi Calculator Tool

While there are devices you can use to calculate your BMI, like a scale or other tool, you can also now go online and use one of the many online BMI calculators. A BMI calculator will show you how much fat is on your body. It’s a handy barometer to see how well your weight loss is going. Simply enter your height and weight, and the tool will give you an estimated BMI. You can even find specialized calculators, including a BMI calculator for women and another for men.