While the world may be split two ways over how effective counting calories really is, there’s no denying that whether you want to lose weight, gain or maintain it, food plays an equally important role as exercising. Anyone who has ever indulged in a meaty burger, a pizza glistening with grease or given into their sweet-tooth cravings knows that with food, comes the guilt and its ability to throw your diet off track. Thankfully for us, there are apps that can do the math and make sure that does not happen. Below is our round-up of helpful apps that can guide you through the journey to your health goal as you jump over metaphorical hurdles of cakes and pizzas.
MyFitnessPal
With a huge database of over 5 million different types of food, a user-friendly interface and its ability to link with Apple Health, Fitbit and other health devices make it the most popular app in this spectrum. MyFitnessPal is a free app that lets you count everything from calories to macros, set meal reminders, track your workout and even calculates the calorie content of each serving from the recipes you upload.
Available for free on App Store and Google Play.
MyPlate
This free app by LiveStrong monitors your activity and automatically logs in the calories you burn. You can find out which dish you consume contains the most calories and then set personalized calorie goals for both macro and micronutrients. Along with specific workout regimens and healthy recipes, the app also lets you sign-up for meal plan recommendations and sends weekly grocery lists straight to your inbox.
Available for free on App Store and Google Play.
Lifesum
A personal health coach in the form of an app, Lifesum offers meals suggestions once you input your dietary information and even teaches you how to not miss or delay meals and eat on time. The attractive interface has an in-built exercise logging system and lets you input your body measurements to keep track of as you continue with your diet. You can also filter from a long list of recipes based on their amount of calories.
Available for free on App Store and Google Play.
FatSecret
Don’t judge the app by its name; FatSecret is a free food journal with image recognition that makes logging what you’re eating easier. The community chat feature brings together people on similar diets to share recipes, tips, success stories and even make dietary challenges that you can take with a closed group of people. It also includes an extensive food database, weight chart and exercise log.
Available for free on App Store and Google Play.
Plant Nanny
An adorable virtual plant that grows every time you drink water? Sign us up. After you input details like height, weight and physical activity level, Plant Nanny suggests the amount of water you should drink per day. All you have to do is tap the circle next to the plant whenever you drink water (the app sends push notifications as reminders) in order to log your water intake while keeping yourself and the plant hydrated.
Available for free on App Store and Google Play.
Waterlogged
This app allows you to set a daily water intake goal and then set reminders at scheduled or random intervals. You can also keep a track of other beverages besides water. The app uses real pictures of water bottles and glasses to ensure that there’s no miscalculation in recording your consumption and even lets you customize them by adding images of your own containers with their volumes.
Available for free on App Store and Google Play.
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