Our LivWell Spotlight series focuses on how health and technology overlap, covering ways to improve wellness with the right tools.
We’re into both wellness and tech so we’re all about using apps to track health. Here are three apps worth trying! P.S. This page may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure for more information.
All of these apps track food and exercise in some way. The best path to success is to follow the plan for each!
Noom
$60 per month or $200 per year, plus other monthly plan options
Noom is a good app if you are OK with tracking calories. The app also focuses on learning about health. It uses psychology to teach you tips about how to combat overeating and other bad habits. Noom offers optional group chats and coaching sessions so you get support from peers and professionals too.
“Our products are developed using evidence-based approaches and scientifically-proven principles, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help people build sustainable habits that last a lifetime,” says the site.
For success with this app you need to track foods accurately and stick to the calorie allotment. When you hit your calorie limit for the day you need to stop eating.
MORE: LivWell Spotlight: Our health and tech series
Weight Watchers (WW)
$20-60 per month depending on the plan
The WW app is helpful if you don’t like calorie counting but don’t mind tracking what you eat in general. There are different levels of programs, and in order to find out what works a user takes a quiz to best match their eating habits. Foods are given points and you’re allotted a certain amount of points a day.
The best part of WW is that some foods like fruits and vegetables are zero points, so you never have a limit on what you can eat. If you’re hungry, you can always have something.
For success with this app, you need to stick to your daily points budget (try to avoid dipping into your weekly points).
Coaching is a big part of this app, although we know many people who have had success without using the coaching. The app also offers workouts and meal plans.
MORE: Why I started using an Apple Watch
healthi (formerly iTrackBites)
Free or about $36 per year
Healthi (what used to be called iTrackBites) is a free but more limited version of the Weight Watchers app. The free version doesn’t have the more advanced weight loss plans and other features. You can access the community page with the free plan but with PRO you can follow and interact with anyone in the community groups.
PRO gives you meal plans and recipes too.
If you like WW but want to save money, the Better Balance plan on the Healthi PRO is the same version of WW’s blue plan but much cheaper! It’s a few dollars a month versus a few dollars a week.
MORE: Sign up for media consulting services!
MY fitness pal
Free, $10 per month or $50 per year
MyFitnessPal is like Noom in that it tracks calories. Its free option works well and allows you to do a good job tracking your nutrients each day too. For workouts and meal plans you need premium.
One final tip for these health apps: We recommend not using exercise to swap in more points or calories to what you eat each day unless you’re a serious athlete. It’s difficult to accurately calculate exercise, and that can lead to you eating more if you think you burned more calories than you did. If you want to track exercise, great, but don’t let it affect your plan.
DISCLAIMER: The information presented is not intended as advice and is for informational purposes only.
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