iPhone, Therefore iFit: Use Your Cell to Pump Your Muscles and Plan Your Diet

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SURE, THE IPHONE can make calls, but can it make over your body? We tested 50 health and fitness applications on the tech set's favorite gadget to see what has the magic touch. Here are our favorites.

» FitnessBuilder
(PumpOne, $19.99) Released in April, it's admittedly pricey. But the app, which bills itself as "the world's largest exercise library," boasts 400 ready-made workouts and 4,000 exercise images. You can view any exercise with a male or female trainer, and you can search exercises by muscle group or equipment and then play a video to see it performed. Just prepare to be overwhelmed. Want to strengthen your lower back? You'll have 47 options.

» Ifitness
(Medical Productions, $1.99) It's a similar concept but more limited — or manageable, depending on your point of view. There are very clear two-step pictures and instructions for more than 160 exercises. Double tap the photos to read instructions and learn which muscles you're working. And, as with FitnessBuilder, you can log workouts and track your progress.

» Hundred PushUps
(SoftwareX, $1.99) This simply asks you to enter the number of good-form push-ups you can do today and then creates a six-week program for reaching 100. You'll start with short sets with minute-long rest intervals and gradually up your numbers. The company also offers 200 Sit-ups, 20 Chin-ups and its brand-new program 200 Squats.

» Yoga Trainer Lite
(nexstudios.JP, Free) This offers a daily warm-up that prompts you to hold yoga poses for 45 seconds each (and there are more than 80 potential poses). But even with the app's FAQ, you'll want some basic yoga experience before taking this on — the crane pose, or bakasana, is definitely not for beginners.

» Pedometer
(Luminant Software, $2.99) This does what you might expect — it tracks steps, distance, average speed and calories burned. And it can do it while the iPhone is in your hand or pocket. It also has a built-in stopwatch, a smart lock feature that prevents you from accidentally touching buttons and a clear screen with big, bright, easy-to-read numbers.

» WebMD Mobile
(WebMD, LLC, free) This could keep hypochondriacs occupied for days with its wealth of information on symptoms, treatments and basic first aid. The Identify a Pill section, where you enter the pill by shape, color and imprint, was a bit of a letdown — it got only one out of four right in our test. But it's still a great option when dealing with minor medical mishaps such as stings, sunburns, sprains and strains.

» LoseIt!
(FitNow, free) This app has developed a sneaky way to limit your food intake. It keeps you so busy playing with its lists of food items you don't have ticme to eat! Here's how it works: You enter your current weight and your ideal weight, and it sets up a daily caloric budget. Then you enter food consumption and exercise. You can select from a giant list of supermarket brands from Alouette cream cheese to Zen Soy Banana Pudding, and it knows the calories of menu items at several dozen chain restaurants. Watch out if you want to put a banana in your morning oatmeal, though. A search on the fruit yields five options: fresh slices, small, medium, large and extra large, each with corresponding measurements.

» Electric Sheep
(Denkihitsuji.com, free) This probably won't change your life, but the little sheep jumping a fence to help you fall asleep are pretty adorable. You can adjust the animals' speed and add cool Japanese sheep-counting sounds. Also frivolous but fun: Eight Glasses a Day (Emblem Design Group free), which sets out eight glasses of water you can tap as you hydrate to watch the liquid level recede.

Written by Express contributor Melanie D.G. Kaplan
Photos by Marge Ely/Express