It can be hard to consistently maintain a weight loss plan. Many people achieve their goals by doing the program with friends, by taking notes, or some other method. Recently, using a smartphone to monitor weight-loss and exercise has become more and more popular.

When using your smartphone to help you monitor your dieting and workout efforts, there are a few things you should keep in mind. One thing is that you should have an idea of how many calories are equivalent to a pound. For many people, about 3,500 calories is equal to a pound. What that means that for every 3,500 calories you burn, you would theoretically lose a pound, and for every 3,500 calories that you ate, you would gain a pound. Now this is not 100% accurate, of course, but it is a basic guideline.

Once you have that as a baseline, it is time to get technology to work for you. You can use hardware such as the Fitbit or the Jawbone and pair that with software, or you could just go the software route if you do not feel like spending too much money on a gadget.

There are a lot of different applications out there that allow you to use your smartphone to track your moves throughout the day and some can even track your calorie intake. PC Magazine covered a few of what they thought were the best fitness applications for your smartphone, so I thought I would share those here.

Argus: The Argus application is free and tracks your movements through your phone instead of a piece of hardware. You will have to keep your phone on you at all points of the day, which could get a little annoying in comparison to just wearing a watch-sized device. Argus is only available for iOS and has been known to drain your battery quickly.

Moves: Similar to Argus, Moves is an app that has been gaining popularity recently. It too is an application that allows you to track your movements without the need of a separate device. It uses GPS to record your movements and allows you to see a timeline of where you went and the associated times. You can even track the places you stopped at in between your movements. Moves is most compatible with the iPhone 5S and performs best on that device. It does not chew too much of the iPhone 5S’s battery life, but it might drain the battery of your non-iPhone 5S.

Pact: Pact, formerly known as Gympact, brings money into this whole ordeal. This app allows you to place bets on whether or not you will complete a workout. It monitors your promises by keeping up with your check-ins at venues. There is a communal pot out there and if you reach or exceed your goals, you earn money. If you do not, you will have to contribute to the pot. This app extends beyond your group of friends, so there is plenty of money to be picked up due to some of the slackers out there in the world! This app works on iOS and Android.

There are a lot of really cool exercising applications you can check out to help you keep track of everything you do and eat. Here is the complete list from PC Magazine’s review.