Health is subjective - it’s all about what you want to achieve. Whether that’s to lose a little weight, gain a little stamina, or just simply keep track of your health, we have the app for you.
- My Fitness Pal
- Lifesum
- Thin - Weight Loss Hypnosis
- Weight Watchers
- Calorie Counter
- Fooducate
- Lose It!
- Fitbit
- Couch to 5k
- 7 Minute Workout
- Nike Training Club
My Fitness Pal
FREE
Though it has the word “Fitness” in it, this app is predominantly focused on healthy eating, as it encourages you to keep track of your food choices.
Features
- Food database - with over 11 million foods listed to select
- Barcode scanner - so you can scan the barcode of a food item you’ve eaten, to get an accurate calorie reading
- Food insights - helps you learn how to choose the healthier option from the types of food you eat
- Calorie counter - automatically calculator the amount of calories in your recipes, meals and snacks
- Macro tracker - automatically calculates the macros in your snacks, meals, and recipes. Macros = carbohydrates, fats, protein
- Water tracking - tracks how much water you’ve drunk each day
- Customised - automatically personalises to your daily eating habits, and tailors suggestions to the weight goal you established at the beginning
- Exercise - you can also input whatever exercise you’ve done that day for a more accurate caloric intake
MyFitnessPal claims that collectively its app users have lost over 200 million pounds!
Lifesum
FREE - though subscription for Premium (£7.99 monthly)
This is a food diary app that plans diets and calculates calories, as well as allowing you to explore multiple recipes from various diet plans like keto paleo, sugar detox, vegan, and more.
Features:
- Learning - helps you understand nutrition and the importance of eating certain foods, not just for calories, but for vitamins and overall health
- Customisable diets - at the beginning, choose which diet plan you want to experiment with, and all the corresponding recipes will stick to that style
- Barcode scanner - scan the barcode on the packaging of the foods you eat for accurate caloric intake
- Ratings - receive a rating, in the form of various smiling or frowning faces, of how healthy the food you’ve chosen to eat is. At the end of the day, you’ll get an overall face sticker for how healthy you were
- Tracking - track your weight and measurements each week, along with habits like drinking water, eating fruit, eating vegetables, eating fish etc.
- Nutritional information - receive a rundown of all the types of vitamins in the food you’re eating, to know if you’re hitting your daily recommendations
With over 45 million users, this is a popular calorie counting app for those seeking to track their diet in order to lose weight.
Thin - Weight Loss Hypnosis
£6.99
This app uses hypnosis techniques to alter your habits and encourage you to think about food in a more health-conscious way through a variety of daily sessions.
Features:
- Personalise to target your eating habits, such as late night snacking, to change your relationship with food into a healthier, more positive one
- Daily sessions - reminders to attend daily hypnotic sessions that include video and audio
- Interactive - interactive coaching plan to change your food habits for the better
- Consolidation - after 14 days of your feedback, the app will retailor its techniques to make sure it’s continuously benefiting you
Developed by the world’s number one hypnotist, Paul McKenna, this app has been downloaded by over 7 million people in 90 countries. It promises to help you stop overeating, control your cravings, improve your motivation, and encourage healthier, more positive thoughts regarding food and weight loss.
Weight Watchers
FREE
From the globally successful Weight Watchers programme, comes their helpful app for people looking to make healthier choices for their body and mind.
Features:
- Personal - take a personal assessment to get matched with a plan that’s best for you, your goals, and your body
- Database - their database has over 40,000 foods
- Recipes - they have over 1000 recipes on Weight Watchers for you to browse and experiment with. There are also a number of categorical searches so you can find exactly what you’re in the mood for
- FitPoints - measure your activity by synching with your fitness device
- Rewards - when you eat healthily, you can earn “Wins”, which you can trade for WellnessWins rewards. You can then redeem these for products and experiences
- Community - on the app, you have access to a private, members-only community, where you can meet other like-minded people from around the world
- 24/7 support - from Weight Watchers coaches - with the Digital Membership
Calorie Counter
FREE
This popular app created by FatSecret tracks your food and encourages you to communicate with a host of other people aspiring to get healthier on their journey.
Features:
- Barcode scanner - so you can easily input data from the foods you are eating
- Synchronisation - with the Apple Health App for iPhones, so your data will be recorded both on the app, and in a comprehensive list on your phone’s health app
- Community - meet a community of like-minded people all inspired to reach the same goal as you. Interact and make friends to maintain the motivation on your journey
- Exercise diary - record your activities and movement to get an accurate calculation of the calories you’re eating and burning each day, so you can get an overall understanding of how much you should be eating daily for a healthy lifestyle
- Reminders - reminders for meal times and weigh-ins so you can stay on track
Fooducate
FREE
Fooducate helps you examine the value of your caloric intake, so you know you are nourishing your body properly. The app analyses information found in product nutrition panels and reveals the added sugars, artificial sweeteners, and other lesser-known facts about the food you’ve scanned. This encourages users to pick healthier choices.
Features:
- Synchronisation - with the Apple Health App so you can view your data in one comprehensive area on your iPhone
- Tracking - track your sleep, emotions, and hunger levels throughout the day so you can see how the food you’re eating impacts other areas of your life
- Calories - track the quality of your calories through added nutritional analysis to see if the type of food you’re eating matches what your body needs
- Tips catered towards your goal and eating habits
Lose It!
Lose It! creates a custom plan for you once you have input your profile details and goal weight. This app then calculates the daily calorie budget that is best for you. By entering your personal details and calories, you’ll learn more about your habits and identify areas to feel better.
Features:
- Barcode scanner - scan the barcode on your food to input the caloric and nutritional data into your app. Quickly and efficiently add your meals and snacks to your daily food diary to track what you’re eating
- Photo recognition - you can also log your food by taking a photo of the product
- Food library - there are over 27 million searchable products in the food library, so you’ll be able to find and log all of the food you consume
- Challenges - the app includes weight loss and exercise challenges to encourage you to exercise alongside the dieting
- Workout guides - there is a library of workouts to guide you through your weight loss journey, and assist in showcasing new movements and activities you can do to further your fitness and weight loss
Fitbit
FREE (subscription charges for Premium)
From the creators of the Fitbit smartwatch, the Fitbit app can be used in conjunction with your tracker, or on its own as a separate progress recorder. The Fitbit is designed to measure your activity, exercise, quality and duration of sleep, nutrition and stress levels, so you can see what’s helping and what’s hindering you from achieving your fitness goals.
Features:
- Guidance - find free workouts, nutrition programmes, meditation, and sleep tools to experiment with on the app
- Collaboration - works in conjunction with trackers, smartwatches, scales and other Fitbit products. The app can also sync your data with more than 3000 partnered health apps across your devices
- Personal - tailored to meet and exceed the goals you set at the beginning of your fitness journey
- Exercises - freedom to choose which types of exercises you want to do, both at home or outside. Choose from free video and audio tutorials of HIIT sessions, cardio, yoga, and strength training
- Sleep - use your nightly Sleep Score, bedtime reminders, sleep goals and other Fitbit tools to get a better night’s sleep. The Fitbit can calculate how deeply you are sleeping
- Meditation - access stress-relieving guided meditations to accompany your exercises to focus on both mental wellbeing and physical fitness
- Food - track your food and water intake to see if you’re getting enough vitamins to lead a healthy diet
- Heart rate - the Fitbit smartwatch can track your heartbeat so you can see how fast or slow it pumps during exercises and resting periods. This can tell you a lot about the health of your heart
- Community - share your journey to inspire others, chat with friends, collaborate on activities, get advice, and read articles
Join over 30 million people using a Fitbit to start leading a healthier, more self-aware lifestyle.
Couch to 5k
Apple - £2.99
Android - £2.79
Winner of the 2012 Appy Award for Best Healthcare and Fitness App, the Couch to 5K method has helped millions of people start and maintain running as a hobby. With weekly increases, this app allows your buddy to get accustomed to exercise so you’ll feel more encouraged to keep going.
Features:
- Coaches - take your pick from 5 distinct coaches to guide and encourage you through the Couch to 5K journey - Johnny Dead, Constance, Billie, Runicorn, or Sergeant Block
- Audio - choose to listen to the coach’s voice guide you through your running, or sync the app with your own playlists for personal music
- GPS - calculate your route, distance and pace with a GPS tracker
- Progress - analyse your progress with graphs and total calculations that you can share and compare with friends or on social media
The app claims to get you from your couch to confidently running 5K in just 9 weeks! After that, you can keep repeating workouts and runs.
7 Minute Workout
FREE (with in-app purchases)
Want to start exercising, but don’t have the time? The 7 Minute Workout app is perfect for people who just want a quick workout from the comfort of their own home. It focuses primarily on HIIT (high intensity) exercises so you can get the most out of your quick activity.
Features:
- Structure - this app has a solid structure that it sticks to for each workout, so if you like routine, you’ll enjoy knowing what to expect from each HIIT workout: 12 exercises for 30 seconds each and a 10 second rest in between
- Audio - each exercise is voice-prompted, so you don’t keep to keep looking at your device or the timer
- Video - if you don’t understand how to do a certain move, there are video and text descriptions explaining how to perform each position
- Workout log - track your workout log for custom workouts
- Control - you can alter the duration of each exercise and the rest time between each if it’s too much or too little for you
- Choose from over 10 workouts
7 Minute Workout is the #1 app for Fitness in 127 countries worldwide. Download it today for a no-equipment, HIIT, quick workout before, in the middle, or after your day’s tasks.
Nike Training Club
FREE
If you want a fitness app devised by professionals, look no further than Nike’s very own training app, designed by Nike’s world-class trainers. You can do all of their exercises at home with little to no equipment needed
Features:
- Variation - choose from over 185 free workouts, from HIIT, yoga, bodyweight, and cardio. There are also a range of ‘Collections’ you can try out, like ‘For the whole family’ or to ‘Boost your mood’
- All levels - though professionally designed, the app is customisable to suit all skill levels, from beginner to intermediate to advanced athletes. There are certain plans catered towards each level that you can begin at
- Targets - you can choose workouts to target specific areas of your body, such as the abs, arms, legs, core, shoulders, back, glutes etc
- Timings - workouts vary from 5 to 45 minutes
- Synchronises with Apple Watch, Apple Music and the Activities tab in your phone’s Health data
So there you have it - 11 apps that focus on helping you lead a healthier lifestyle. Remember that what works for someone might not necessarily work for you. Whatever your goal, one of these handy apps might be able to help you reach it.
Want to use your smartwatch for more than just fitness? Take a look at the best smartwatch apps for other pastimes and activities.
