The LIVESTRONG.COM Blog

An update to our popular LIVESTRONG.COM Calorie Tracker iPhone app went live in the iTunes store today. We’ve added bidirectional sync — meaning foods you track here on the website sync back down to your iPhone or iPod touch now, too!

The updated version also features:

• Improved speed, performance, and stability
• Improved food and fitness search relevance
• Record weight in kg in addition to lbs
• Various bug fixes

You can download the latest free version here. Enjoy!

(Note: Other much-requested features like meals and access to “frequently eaten foods” are coming soon!)

Our developers released a few updates to the new Dares engine yesterday. We addressed a few of the bugs you’d pointed out, and made tracking even easier. Dare Groups have already really taken off, and we’re thrilled!

As we mentioned earlier, we’re now seeking “Adopters” to take the reigns on our most popular dares. Dare Adopters can write the welcome messages that greet new dare takers, and they serve as a sort-of Chief Motivator for the other folks who take those dares.

Our first dare adopter is JCH3, who’s now the Adopter for Dare to Quit Smoking! Check out the great work she’s already doing on that dare!

If you’d like to adopt another dare, just let us know. We’re going to keep on improving Dares in the days and weeks ahead — stay tuned!

Our astounding development team rolled out a major upgrade to our Dares system late last night (or early this morning), and we’re pretty excited about it.

Check out the Dares directory to see all the dares available. Most dares will have a custom tracker to help track your daily progress as you work to achieve whatever it is you’ve dared to do.

You’ll note right away that Dares are now more community-based, and each individual dare is centered on a unique group. For example, take a look at our hugely popular “Dare to Lose Weight” page.

Most Dares now have a custom tracker to help track your daily progress.

Lance Armstrong has published a commentary on CNN addressed to President-elect Barack Obama, focused on how the government can fight even more passionately against cancer.

Read it here!

Lance Armstrong presented at Web 2.0 yesterday, and he devoted part of his talk to this very site! You can watch the video right here:

Read more at The Official LIVESTRONG Foundation Blog!

We are thrilled to announce the immediate available of our LIVESTRONG Calorie Tracker application for iPhone and iPod Touch. You can grab it here:

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=295305241&mt=8

The application is completely free, and will allow you to track the foods you eat, the fitness activities you do, and more. Check it out, and let us know what you think!

The State of New York passed a law in April requiring all restaurants to list the amount of calories per meal on its menus. Since then, the New York Times and Gawker Media Women’s blog Jezebel have covered the trend of calorie counting, asking whether or not counting as a popular diet craze.

The greater good
Does requiring restaurants to post the calories of the meal on the menu really make a difference? Will restaurants take notice of how a high-calorie meal affects a customer’s desire to patronize their business? Apparently so—Starbucks claims to have saved the nation 17 billion calories since last October by switching out 2 percent milk instead of whole (but really, what health-conscious person doesn’t request skim anyways, right?), and a large order of French fries from McDonald’s has shrunk from 570 calories to 500 (although Morgan Spurlock may be to blame). The New York Times goes on to say that several restaurants have gone on to reducing portion sizes of their meals to reduce the amount of calories, although it didn’t affect the price.

What if you want to spoil yourself?
Sometimes at the end of the day, I really want to have a treat. I’ve eaten my six 200- to 300-calorie meals but my sweet tooth needs satisfying. Do I really want to know how many calories are in that lemon tart from Le Pain Quotidien? Maybe not, but isn’t being informed better than guessing? I happen to think so. After all, you can just ignore the calories or work them into your caloric budget if you really want to treat yourself.

The State of New York passed the law to fight the growing rate of obesity and diabetes, and it seems that the calorie craze is spreading. California became the first state to force fast-food restaurant chains to post calorie information on menus in September, and there are two proposals moving through Congress that would make calorie postings a requirement nationwide.

So how do you feel about it? I personally believe in calorie counting (I lost 20lbs on The Daily Plate cross my heart), but would YOU want to know how many calories are in your favorite meals, or when it comes to spoiling yourself is ignorance bliss? Let us know in the comments.

Last week, many of you got confused when we removed the search bar from MyPlate. (You can always search The Daily Plate and the rest of the site using the big search bar at the top of the site.) 

But we heard you, and we’ve returned the in-line search box on MyPlate to its place of glory. Enjoy!

You may remember our YouTube contest from a few weeks ago, won by the inspirational Zach DeRidder. Well, Zach’s prize bike arrived, and he was kind enough to share a few photos:

Enjoy, Zach! You’ve certainly earned it!