Burn off that Thanksgiving dinner with these fun fitness apps

The dishes are piled in the sink, slim pickings are left on the dinner table, and family members have slunk off to the comfiest available furniture for a little post feast nap. If your Thanksgiving dinner has you popping the button of your pants, here is a selection of fitness apps for your Android device to help you trim down the calories.

Burn the Turkey with Noom

We featured the Burn the Turkey widget last year, but given its seasonal appropriateness we would be remiss to not include it in this list. The fun, interactive widget portrays your calorie intake in the form of its namesake bird. As the turkey whittles down to a mere carcass you know you are making progress toward your goal.

Burn the Turkey is an easy introduction to Noom Weight Loss Coach, an app which is required to run the widget. From the maker of CardioTrainer, the app intuitively tracks your diet and exercise. Both Noom Weight Loss and CardioTrainer make excellent editions to an arsenal of apps that can utilized in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Move Your Bot!

While were talking about the folks at Noom, it’s worth mentioning one last fun fitness app they offer in the Google Play Store. Move Your Bot! turns exercise into a game. The more effort you put out, the more energy your bot gets. Using Facebook you can pit your bot against friends. The most fit bot wins. If that’s you, not only do you get to rub it in your friends’ faces, but you can also feel satisfied with your improved level of fitness.

Zombies, Run!

You just stuffed your face with pumpkin pie, but you don’t want to be the next meal for a hoard of flesh-hungry zombies. So run! Zombies, Run! combines fitness training with an augmented reality experience in which the only way to escape from being the zombie equivalent of a stuffed turkey is to run. And we mean strap on some shoes and really run.

The story line is fed through headphones as you run around collecting supplies, outpacing zombies, and completing certain tasks. When you get back from your run you can build up your home base with what you have gathered, further protecting against the living dead. It’s like ZombiU, but real life. If there is one downside, it’s the app’s $7.99 pricing.

Endomondo Sports Tracker

If zombies aren’t your thing but you still want a fun way to track your activity levels, Endomondo makes a great choice. Record your runs, bike rides, or pretty much any other outdoor activity and share the data with a social network of over 10 million users.

The app will read real-time pep talks from friends posting on your Endomondo profile, which might just be the motivation you need to get through a grueling hill climb or distance run. Or, if you choose, you can challenge them head-to-head in a race. Both free and pro versions are available from the Google Play Store.

Just the beginning…

These apps are a great way to work down that Thanksgiving gut, but they could just be the kick you need to get committed to fitness. With the smell of Christmas goose already in the air,  you’ll want to keep them handy for the after the next holiday banquet. Consider it an early start to that New Year’s resolution.