 Deep down inside, we all know how important it is to try to live a healthy and active life, but actually making that happen every day can feel like a chore. The truth is, you don't need a personal trainer or gym membership if you want to stay on top of your activity. In fact, you don't need a wearable tracker either. The smartphone you already have in your pocket can help you stay on top of all your activity goals. The best activity tracking apps just use the motion detectors built into your phone, and they don't require you to purchase any additional hardware. They also make it easy to set and monitor goals that work for you, and motivate you along the way with timely information about your progress. The app that gets all that right, and even goes a few steps farther, is Up by Jabo. Up can learn from the data that it collects and give you a nudge when you're having an off day, or a thumbs up because you're exceeding one of your goals. Because a tracker that requires you to check in all the time is too easy to forget. The first step to getting any of these trackers to work for you is to set up some simple goals, but it's really hard to know where to start without some extra help. Most trackers start everyone out at the same 10,000 step per day goal, and expect that you adjust it to find the right balance. Instead, Up cleverly suggests a good place to start with your goals by showing you where other people with the same height, weight, and age averaged. It's a simple feature, but it goes a long way to ensure that Up feels more like an aid than an annoyance. Up can also let you customize how it keeps track of you during the day. You can set up notifications for when you've taken a certain number of steps, as well as scheduled progress reports for a more detailed overview of your day. If you're the competitive type, Up can use Twitter and Facebook to find your friends and compare your week's progress on a leaderboard. Even more game-like is a feature called Duels that lets you pick a friend to go in a head-to-head step battle with over the course of one or many days. Keeping tabs on your movement and exercise during the day can only give you a partial picture of how you're treating your body. The problem is logging everything you eat and drink is a huge pain and often far too time-consuming to maintain. Up tries and mostly succeeds at solving this problem by making it fast and easy for you to input the things you eat and drink during the day. You can use the camera to log many simple items like an apple or a peanut butter sandwich. A scanner can quickly find any prepared food or drink item with a barcode, and a list of restaurants nearby allows you to add whatever you've just ordered to your food log with a few taps. If you're using an iPhone, your next best option is Fitbit. Like Up, Fitbit lets you use your phone in place of a separate hardware tracker. Fitbit's notifications and social features are less robust, but it still does a great job of tracking your activity, weight, and food intake. On Android, your next best option is Google Fit. Google Fit is a more pared-down approach to tracking, asking you only to set up a single goal for daily activity. With its home screen widget, you can quickly check your progress or dive into the app and see how your day stacks up against your weekly average. If you're not worried about capturing things like your food intake or just want a simple way to start tracking your progress, Google Fit is a great choice. Apps like Up, Fitbit, and Google Fit let you grow into the world of fitness and health tracking. Get your feet wet with a simple step goal, and then add or subtract other goals to make these apps work for your routine. They won't track your latest marathon using GPS or build detailed graphs of your weightlifting regimen. If you're a hardcore gym rat, you probably want a dedicated wearable tracking device, which all these basic apps also support. But if all you're looking for is to monitor your step count and daily activity, JobLoan's Up app gets the job done.
 Deep down inside, we all know how important it is to try to live a healthy and active life,
 but actually making that happen every day can feel like a chore.
 The truth is, you don't need a personal trainer or gym membership if you want to stay on top of your activity.
 In fact, you don't need a wearable tracker either.
 The smartphone you already have in your pocket can help you stay on top of all your activity goals.
 The best activity tracking apps just use the motion detectors built into your phone,
 and they don't require you to purchase any additional hardware.
 They also make it easy to set and monitor goals that work for you,
 and motivate you along the way with timely information about your progress.
 The app that gets all that right, and even goes a few steps farther, is Up by Jabo.
 Up can learn from the data that it collects and give you a nudge when you're having an off day,
 or a thumbs up because you're exceeding one of your goals.
 Because a tracker that requires you to check in all the time is too easy to forget.
 The first step to getting any of these trackers to work for you is to set up some simple goals,
 but it's really hard to know where to start without some extra help.
 Most trackers start everyone out at the same 10,000 step per day goal,
 and expect that you adjust it to find the right balance.
 Instead, Up cleverly suggests a good place to start with your goals
 by showing you where other people with the same height, weight, and age averaged.
 It's a simple feature, but it goes a long way to ensure that Up feels more like an aid than an annoyance.
 Up can also let you customize how it keeps track of you during the day.
 You can set up notifications for when you've taken a certain number of steps,
 as well as scheduled progress reports for a more detailed overview of your day.
 If you're the competitive type, Up can use Twitter and Facebook to find your friends
 and compare your week's progress on a leaderboard.
 Even more game-like is a feature called Duels that lets you pick a friend to go in a head-to-head
 step battle with over the course of one or many days.
 Keeping tabs on your movement and exercise during the day can only give you a partial picture
 of how you're treating your body.
 The problem is logging everything you eat and drink is a huge pain
 and often far too time-consuming to maintain.
 Up tries and mostly succeeds at solving this problem by making it fast and easy
 for you to input the things you eat and drink during the day.
 You can use the camera to log many simple items like an apple or a peanut butter sandwich.
 A scanner can quickly find any prepared food or drink item with a barcode,
 and a list of restaurants nearby allows you to add whatever you've just ordered
 to your food log with a few taps.
 If you're using an iPhone, your next best option is Fitbit.
 Like Up, Fitbit lets you use your phone in place of a separate hardware tracker.
 Fitbit's notifications and social features are less robust,
 but it still does a great job of tracking your activity, weight, and food intake.
 On Android, your next best option is Google Fit.
 Google Fit is a more pared-down approach to tracking,
 asking you only to set up a single goal for daily activity.
 With its home screen widget, you can quickly check your progress
 or dive into the app and see how your day stacks up against your weekly average.
 If you're not worried about capturing things like your food intake
 or just want a simple way to start tracking your progress, Google Fit is a great choice.
 Apps like Up, Fitbit, and Google Fit let you grow into the world of fitness and health tracking.
 Get your feet wet with a simple step goal, and then add or subtract other goals
 to make these apps work for your routine.
 They won't track your latest marathon using GPS
 or build detailed graphs of your weightlifting regimen.
 If you're a hardcore gym rat, you probably want a dedicated wearable tracking device,
 which all these basic apps also support.
 But if all you're looking for is to monitor your step count and daily activity,
 JobLoan's Up app gets the job done.