App reviews: My Fitness Pal, BuyVia

My Fitness Pal

Whether you’re trying to get ahead of a little holiday weight gain or just interested in keeping better track of what you’re eating, My Fitness Pal is an easy, yet robust app that should help you with your goals. It functions both as food diary and a source of advice — though, of course, you should speak with your physician before you embark on any major change to your diet and lifestyle. Its fairly complete database of food means that you won’t have to spend a lot of time hunting around for nutritional information to input on your own. And its data not only show you how many calories you’ve consumed (and burned) throughout the day, but also give you information on how you’re doing on your intake of carbs, fat, protein and more. Users can also choose to share their progress with each other (because, sometimes, it’s not easy to go it alone). Finally, the app also works with several other popular fitness apps, including those for trackers such as Jawbone UP and Fitbit, to keep all your info in one easy-to-find place. Free, for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry devices.

BuyVia

Like it or not, the heaviest shopping season of the year is looming over us already, and chances are you’ll need at least a little bit of help to get the best deals on the items at the top of your lists. BuyVia, a shopping and deal-tracking app, has recently expanded out of its core focus of finding the best tech deals to a range of different products including fashion and household goods. Users can find deals by telling the app what products they are most interested in and get emails or push notifications telling them about flash sales, price cuts or even sales on items they want at nearby stores. Signing up for a BuyVia account also enables you to synchronize your lists across devices, so you can move easily from PC to smartphone, to tablet and back. Free, for iOS and Android devices.