One study of more than 500 adults found that food and exercise logging, along with coaching through Noom, was more effective for weight loss over 6 months than food logging or personalized coaching alone. Start Simple with MyPlate is an app from the USDA designed for people who are beginning to make nutrition changes and for those who just want a straightforward app. It allows you to set goals within food groups—grains, vegetables, fruit, protein, or dairy—and provides education based on your nutrition needs. As previously mentioned, certified health coaches guide you through your food choices, which are color-coded using a red, yellow, and green light system.

Other apps provide feedback on strategies for reaching a moderate weight, changing a person’s relationship with food, or getting into better shape. Eating a balanced diet is not always easy, especially when eating out, trying to cook new recipes, or managing the demands of a busy life. MyFitnessPal is considered the best free nutrition tracker app and is available on the App Store and Google Play. The OnPoint Nutrition app connects you directly with your dietitian or nutritionist so you have support with you, anytime, anywhere. If you haven’t already, spend some time educating yourself on each app, the features they offer, and how those features match up with your needs. Am I Hungry is a virtual mindful eating coaching app designed and developed by Dr. Michelle May, founder of the Am I Hungry?

Best food tracking: Lose It!

Like Cronometer, you can import recipes from the web, photo-log meals and scan barcodes. You can also log meals with a voice memo — which is a game-changer when it comes to inputting restaurant meals or home recipes, such as soup, that are harder to identify with the photo-logging tool. A food tracking app can be a great tool to incorporate when you have weight loss goals, according to Barkyoumb. When researching and evaluating food tracking apps specifically, we look for ease of use, robust food databases, community support and up-to-date and effective information. If you’re following a specific diet — keto, paleo, or high-protein — this is the app for you.

RD and nutrition and wellness expert, Samantha Cassetty, said there are benefits to both and that even basic food trackers are valuable. The Zero app is a great resource for understanding what and when to eat, and how to go about the fasting windows, and also provides a helpful timer to let you know how much longer you have to fast. Although anyone can just keep track via their watch or any other clock, the timer is an interactive way to keep on the diet since it also informs you of whether you’re in fat-burning mode or not. Fitbit also has a community component to help you stay motivated; it offers an informative blog, sleep meditations, fitness groups and chats.

Best for Diet Plans

It also gives you specific information on how foods can fuel you before your workout and how what you eat after your workout affects your metabolism. The Walking.Diet app is a fitness-based app that focuses on the benefits of regular walking. It has an activity tracker to help you stay on top of your workouts, along with an easy-to-follow meal plan. The meal plans offered by the Walking.Diet app are easy to make and only take 15–20 minutes. Recent research suggests that nutrition apps that set a clear goal, allow personalization, and have a wide food database may encourage more people to use the app. Users can get insightful details about their macro and micronutrient intake and monitor their exercise activities.

When you are logging everything that you consume, you might be surprised at how many calories you are taking in, and that could encourage you to make different choices. As a bonus, these apps can help to keep you on track with staying properly hydrated and maintaining physical activity. DoFasting is a well-known intermittent fasting app that many people use for weight loss, hence why it has an excellent water tracking feature since this plays a huge role in fasting. From there you input each time you drink and watch as the progress bar moves closer and closer to your goal. A 2023 review found that weight loss apps are just as effective as traditional programs in helping individuals lose weight. This might be partly due to the types of resources many weight loss apps offer, including goal tracking, social support, and educational content.

In this study, apps that provided education and created engaging user experiences were the most helpful in improving behaviors. You can find apps designed to support behavioral aspects of nutrition, such as emotional eating, meal planning, community support, and more. The best nutrition app for you is the one that matches your health needs and goals, but here are five good options to consider (plus why a nutrition app can be beneficial).

The comprehensive nutrition tracking provides detailed guidance through the “caloric wilderness,” helping users understand not just how much they’re eating but the quality of their nutritional intake. 8Fit also provides personalized meal plans based on your dietary preferences and restrictions. You can select meal plans for a specific diet style (for example, paleo or keto) and even exclude specific ingredients.

Fitness Events

First, the app starts by gathering information about the user’s goals, weight, activity level, preferred workout frequency, dietary preferences, and restrictions. Noom sets itself apart from most food apps by combining nutritional guidance with psychology and an emphasis on behavioral changes to help people lose weight in a sustainable and healthy way for good. LifeSum can create a meal plan for that goal and even make it diet-specific, such as keto. Food trackers remain important tools for keeping tabs on what you are eating for health, wellness and weight benefits. But our experts stress that it can be hard to accurately capture food when you are dining out and that not all foods in every database are vetted, so treat the app as one tool in assessing your eating habits. In the meantime, here are the 10 best dietitian-approved food tracking apps to help you follow an eating plan (without the stress!).

More Health and Fitness

The PlateJoy app creates personalized meal plans based on your dietary preferences. Tracking everything you eat and drink may exacerbate behaviors that are high risk for disordered eating or eating disorders (like being preoccupied with weight loss). Instead of viewing food as nourishing, it can feel like certain meals and drinks are only valued based on their calories instead of their nutritional qualities. However, for the best results, it is usually better to use a dedicated fitness app (like Strava or Nike Run Club) and sync that data into your nutrition tracker.

MyNet Diary Calorie Counter

In addition to giving food grades, the Fooducate app provides tips on making healthier choices. The app has a limited database in some regions, particularly for local or specialty products. There are also occasional inaccuracies in the analysis, which might lead to misleading conclusions about certain foods. Despite these limitations, Yuka’s focus on ingredient transparency makes it valuable for health-conscious shoppers who want to understand what’s in their food.

Lifestyle Quizzes

Enter the realm of technology, where innovation meets necessity, bringing forth the best nutrition apps. The app also allows you to track your water intake, sync with Apple Health, and even log exercise activity. One drawback is that calories burned through exercise are added to your daily total (perhaps to compensate for the initially low calorie recommendations), and you can’t seem to turn it off. The food library is extensive, and each entry includes a detailed nutritional breakdown. You can create and store recipes, save your favorite meals to reuse, and log foods more quickly from the ‘Recent’ tab.

Best for meal planning: Forks over Knives

Unlike some apps that try to guilt you into logging all of your meals or punish you for not being 100% consistent, MacroFactor is more intuitive and accepts the fact that we can’t always be on point. Before deciding to go on a diet, we invite you to gain a broader perspective with our exploration of the hazards of diet culture. Andi Breitowich is a Chicago-based writer and graduate student at Northwestern Medill. She’s a mass consumer of social media and cares about women’s rights, holistic wellness, and non-stigmatizing reproductive care. As a former collegiate pole vaulter, she has a love for all things fitness and is currently obsessed with Peloton Tread workouts and hot yoga. Franco is also a corporate wellness consultant who conducts wellness counseling and seminars for organizations of every size.

Best for Fitness Plans

The Keto Cycle app is a personalized healthy eating app with over 10,000 recipes for you to choose from. It caters to an array of dietary requirements, helps you make grocery lists, and provides quick and easy meals for you unimeal app review to make. It also offers swaps and substitutions for ingredients you cannot find or cannot eat.

Best Nutrition App for Meal Planning: Fay

• But unfortunately, there’s no shortage of health misinformation out there.
• Second, the app prioritizes macro tracking by displaying your protein, carbohydrate, and fat intake clearly on the home screen.
• While premium app subscriptions offer additional features, these apps not only rank as the best weight loss apps free of charge but also offer comprehensive features for effective weight management.
• Don’t forget the supportive WeightWatchers community, which makes this platform a true standout.
• Use the app, which syncs with other health trackers, to connect with your weight loss coach and keep track of movement, nutrition, sleep, stress, and more.
• This unique approach addresses the mental patterns that influence food choices, creating lasting behavioral change.

“THERE’S AN APP for that” takes on a whole new meaning when it comes to weight loss. You can find an app to do just about https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/healthy-diet anything for you, like track your food, offer mental health help, and even find restaurants with healthy options. But unfortunately, there’s no shortage of health misinformation out there. And when it comes to your health, you don’t have time to waste on the bad ones to find the good. There are dozens of food tracking apps available for your smartphone but thanks to its versatility and smarts, Lose It!