Sticking to exercise and weight-loss goals can be tough. But new computer-based products can help you along the road to fitness, offering steady electronic encouragement and suggestions.
Step on a sleek black scale from Withings, a French company, for example, and you will no longer need to keep a paper record of your progress; the scale will beam your weight numbers by Wi-Fi to your computer. From there, the stats can go directly to Twitter or to many other sites, so that your friends can read the bulletin and cheer you and your willpower to victory.
The scale, which sells for $159 in the United States, has a processor and a built-in Wi-Fi connection, so it can communicate with your home network. If you approve, news of your weight loss travels from scale to computer to iPhone or iPad (using free software from Withings), to your BlackBerry phone or, starting next month, to Android phones.
For those in need of a personal electronic exercise coach, the Finnish company Suunto has a new series of watches that monitor your heart rate while also making you look stylish. I tried out the M4 model, which can create a snappy seven-day workout program and provide guidance and morale-raising messages in crisp displays on the watch face. The watch, which sells for $169 on Amazon, has a simple, three-button interface; it receives its heart rate data from a transmitter cushioned in a soft black belt that is pulled snugly across the chest.
The M-series heart rate monitors are intended for beginners and fitness enthusiasts, not for elite athletes, said Ewa Pulkkinen, a manager at Suunto.
Any exercise guided by feedback from a heart rate monitor should be undertaken prudently, said Walter R. Thompson, a professor of kinesiology and health at Georgia State University.
A maximum heart rate will vary from…