I have discovered great mobile applications that can help you in your weight management.

I've been struggling with the spare tire, lately. This is a result of working on the computer so much.

There are only two ways to lose weight. You eat less. You exercise more. Or, you try some combination of the two. It's not rocket surgery. Why is it so difficult?

I started walking three miles several days a week. This has helped some.

I have learned that it takes a great deal of walking to burn off a cheeseburger.

I found an application for Android phones called Cardio Trainer by Worksmartlabs.com.

Cardio Trainer is currently only availablefor Android phones; but, I'm sure iPhone has something similar available.

Cardio Trainer uses the phone's GPS to track your walking, running, biking, skiing, driving, horse riding, kayaking, rollerblading, snowboarding, hiking, or team sport. It calculates distance traveled, pace, and other useful data. Especially handy is how many calories you burned.

That takes care of the exercise portion. But, what about controlling my calories? I've often struggled with this part. I could exercise all day and ruin it with a couple of meals.

Luckily, there's an app for tracking calories. I found an app called Calorie Counter by FatSecret.com that has a great system for finding the calories in almost any food you encounter.

This app has been awesome for tracking my calorie budget.

Calorie Counter is free; and it gives you so much. You can also track your weight and activities.

The most useful feature for me is the thorough repository of food information.

If you encounter a food that's not in the library, you simply add it for everybody to use.

Calorie Counter has dietary information for fast food and even food you make at home. You can create nutritional information for your own recipes based on your ingredients and portions.

I've discovered that Calorie Counter is available for the iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Facebook, iGoogle, and FireFox. (download page)

It is very convenient to have these apps on your mobile phone. If you kept this information separately, you would need to carry a notebook, pen, and a calorie book to look up nutritional information.

I prefer pen and paper for most of my note taking; however, for exercise and calorie counting, I gladly defer to the smart phone.

My weight loss, 9 lbs. thus far, is attributed more to reducing calories than to exercise. I was just guessing, before; now I know. This changes the odds.