According to the Centers for Disease Control, over a third of U.S. adults are obese. Whether you've tried the grapefruit or paleo diet, the Jane Fonda workout or Zumba, you're always looking for a new plan of action to shed that weight. Here are 20 of the most popular apps that people are using to drop weight for good. BMI Calculator - Ideal Weight Android- 4.4 stars with 10,626 ratings – Free I phone – 0 ratings – Free Developed in the 19th century by Belgian mathematician Adolphe Quetelet, the Body Mass Index (BMI) tells you your body mass divided by the square of your height. Used to estimate adiposity or obesity, as a statistical device, or in medical underwriting, it can also be used by everyday folk like yourself to see where you stand weight-wise and where your target lies. With BMI Calculator - Ideal Weight you'll be able to compute your own BMI based on age and gender. With this data you'll have the necessary information you need to reach your fitness goals. Unlock the ad-free premium version of the app for a small fee Diet Assistant - Weight Loss Android- 4.1 stars with 7,958 ratings – Free I phone– 4.5 stars with 34 ratings – Free Those of us who struggle with our weight are always thinking, "If only we had a little help." Diet Assistant provides that extra bit of aid that makes all the difference. You've heard of celebrities having personal chefs and trainers to keep them on track. With Diet Assistant you'll have both and more. You'll receive healthy, personalized diet plans (including shopping and grocery lists) whether you're vegetarian, low carb, or anything in between, nutritional facts, a weight-loss tracker, BMI calculator, diet and weight loss tips and tricks, and more. Ideal Weight (BMI) Android- 4.4 stars with 37,940 ratings – Free Ever wonder what your ideal weight is? This app will tell you. Ideal Weight will compute your BMI and will let you know where you stand. Just enter your height and weight information and discover your BMI along with your ideal weight. It's user-friendly, too. Just run your finger across the easy-to-use yellow measuring tape to enter your height and weight values and you'll get all the information you need to win the battle of the bulge. Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker by My Fitness Pal I phone – 4.5 stars with 361,483 ratings – Free Android- 4.7 stars with 377,777 ratings – Free Calories, or units of energy, are our friends. They keep us going and sustain us through long periods of physical activity. But every dieter knows that excessive calories are the enemy of any weight-loss program. Fortunately Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker by My Fitness Pal has an easy-to-use calorie counter that keeps you from getting too friendly with those pesky weight-gain culprits. The app has a customizable database of over 1.5 million foods, nutritional information, and quick and easy food and exercise data entry (including free barcode scanner). It also has a customizable list of over 350 exercises, trackable calories burned, and social media sharing. You'll be sharing your success stories in no time. Lose It! I phone - 3.5 stars with 339,127 ratings – Free Android - 4.7 stars with 15,480 ratings – Free You've suffered the health effects of obesity for far too long. Now it's time to just Lose It! With this streamlined app you'll set a goal and a daily calorie allotment to help you meet it. Simply log your food and exercise information each day and you'll uncover a breakdown of your daily nutrients — protein, fat, carbs, and more — along with what you're losing. Weight Watchers Mobile I phone– 3 stars with 88,996 ratings – Free Android – 3.5 stars with 24,050 ratings – Free Founded in 1963 the Weight Watchers diet has helped dieters lose weight for almost 50 years. Now, with Weight Watchers Mobile, you can take your personal weight loss coach with you wherever you go. You'll receive the latest recipes, obesity news, exercise information, and much, much more. Working in tandem with their popular Points Plus program, this app allows you to track your points and make smarter food choices. Still feeling uninspired? The app will connect you to success stories, a meeting in your area, or an online community of friends and fellow dieters for that added push. Diet Point • Weight Loss Android - 4.4 stars with 19,524 ratings – Free iPhone – 4 stars with 26 ratings – Free Sleek and intuitive, Diet Point is your weight loss assistant offering 55 unique diet plans from every category: vegetarian, low carb, detox, fad, and blood type. It also includes grocery lists for every diet and meal by meal instruction, along with meal reminders. You'll also receive a BMI and Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) calculator, which tracks the amount of energy you expend at rest, along with an exercise expenditure calculator. For that added push, you'll receive dieting tips and tricks along with a large discussion forum, where you can get guidance from your fellow dieters. Noom Weight Loss Coach Android – 4.4 stars with 59,435 ratings free iPhone – 4.5 stars with 60 ratings – Free All your nom nom nomming, has gotten you in need of Noom Weight Loss Coach. Along with a personalized and interactive weight loss plan, this app provides you with daily tasks: informational articles to read and fun challenges to do, activity reminders, plus easy and convenient food and exercise logging to help create more lasting changes. You'll receive new daily food and exercise tasks to keep your program fresh, an exercise tracker with real-time GPS, and a pedometer to record all your activities. The app also includes a Daily Noom score to reward you and track your progress and social networking integration with Facebook and Twitter so you can share your success stories with friends and family. Gym Pact Android – 2.9 stars with 663 ratings – Free iPhone – 3.5 stars with 2241 ratings – Free Put your money where your mouth is and shed some lbs. Gym Pact lets you make a pact with the app’s community of users. If you live up to it, you can earn money. If you don’t, you owe money. “I use this to keep me motivated,” says reviewer Prtybttrfly. “I’d rather work out for 30 minutes than pay $5.” It’s not all that easy to cheat either. The app uses GPS software to know if you’re check-in at the gym is legit, or if you’re just surfing from your couch. If you don’t use a gym, don’t worry. You can track your activity through RunKeeper, another app on this list. A new feature: the app syncs with the Jawbone UP wristband, and you get a bonus workout if you complete your 10,000 steps per day by the end of the day. 7-Min Workout iPhone – 4 stars with 15 ratings - $1.99 So you say you don’t have time to hit the gym? Maybe not, but you do have time for a workout. The 7-Min Workout brings you an intense, scientifically formulated workout that you can do just about anywhere and with almost no equipment. A ticking sound counts down your 30 seconds of exercise, and verbal commands tell you when to switch sides. You get 10 seconds of rest between each set of exercises, and a caption at the bottom of your phone tells you what’s coming next so you can be prepared. This app doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles, but as reviewer Shawkinaw says, “Does one thing and does it well!” Fitness Buddy Android – 4.3 stars with 1,897 ratings – $1.99 iPhone – 4.5 stars with 5,781 ratings – $1.99 Every tool for better exercise is at hand when you load Fitness Buddy on your smartphone. With more than 1700 exercises and over 1000 high-definition videos with detailed instructions, you may not need a personal trainer ever again. Exercises are divided into eight categories: core, lower body, chest, shoulders, back, arms, cardio, and stretches. You can quickly find your favorite workouts with a search function. Once you’ve found several exercises you like doing, you can create your own customized workout. The app also keeps track of your weight and measurements so you can see how much your body is changing. Cardio Buddy iPhone – 4.5 stars with 168 ratings - $1.99 Forget counting and checking your pulse while you run or during a cool down. This app can do it for you. Using your phone’s camera sensor, the Cardio Buddy app can check your heart rate or your friends’ heart rates. The app also tracks and plots your heart rate measurements so you can get an idea of how your heart is handling your workouts. If you feel like it, you can even share your heart rate via Facebook or Twitter and compare it with other people’s heart rates from around the world. Nike + Running Android – 4.3 stars with 52,490 ratings – Free iPhone – 4.5 stars with 32,273 ratings – Free The biggest name in sports brings you a running app that promises to get you moving. The app uses your phone’s GPS and accelerometer to record the distance, pace, and time of each run. It tells you when you’ve completed each mile, and you can sync your app with your Facebook account to get in-ear encouragement from friends monitoring your run. You can even join group runs, even if your friends are running somewhere else entirely, and you can group chat to motivate one another as you go along. If you’re looking for new running routes, you can sync your account to the Nike+ website and find routes other Nike+ users run in your area. RunKeeper Android – 4.5 stars with 68,363 ratings – Free iPhone – 4.5 stars with 22,899 ratings – Free Use your phone’s GPS to monitor your running, walking, cycling, hiking, and biking. Each entry shares your total time, pace, and calories burned. Prompts from the app can give you encouragement and feedback as you exercise. You can even set personal goals for weight loss, improved pace, or longer distances, which the app will track for you. Want to brag? You can share your exercise on social media and with other friends using the RunKeeper app. RunKeeper is used by many other apps, including MyFitnessPal, to accurately measure your exercise and log your daily movements. Endomondo Sports Tracker Android – 4.5 stars with 112,629 reviews – Free iPhone – 4.5 stars with 3,470 reviews – Free This app, with more than 15 million users, helps you track your workouts, monitor your pace and calories burned, and see your exercise history. You can sync the app with your social profiles to find other Endomondo users and create challenges and audio messages for one another. An audio coach helps you step up your pace if you’re trying to beat a time. Upgrade to Endomondo Sports Tracker PRO for greater access to interval training and graphs, plus the ability to race against yourself. You also gain greater time and calorie goal functionality and can prompt the app to work in low-power mode. JEFIT Android – 4.6 stars with 23,401 ratings – Free iPhone – 4.5 stars with 1,635 ratings – Free Strength-training stars, this one’s for you. Create a profile and enter your current stats: your weight and how much you can lift. Set a goal for yourself or pick a workout based on your fitness goal, such as “Building Your Beach Body.” The app selects a workout routine and tells you the number of sets, reps, and how much weight you should use. It also has a built in rest period. If you don’t understand an exercise, the app has detailed photos for each exercise in the workouts. Reviewer Allison Webb said, “As a beginner to strength training, I could never have accomplished what I have in the last 6 weeks without this app…One of the most important apps on my phone.” Daytum iPhone – 2.5 stars with 124 ratings – Free Are you obsessed with statistics or charts? The makers of Daytum, a personal record keeping website, created an app to help you keep track of everything – from your exercises to what you eat. You can group the items you track into categories. Track 1,000 items for free, or upgrade to Daytum Plus for $4 per month and track an unlimited number. This app doesn’t have a lot of options but for number-minded folks who just want a space to record their info, this has all you could need. Nike Training Club Android – 4.3 stars with 4,912 ratings – Free iPhone – 3 stars with 23,083 ratings – Free Take Nike’s most popular personal-training app with you to the gym, on the road, or in the privacy of your home, and get a complete workout from head to toe. Full-body workouts are either 30 or 45 minutes. Abbreviated workouts or those that target only certain areas are 15 minutes. Found a favorite? Save it, and you can find it again easily for your next workout. The app comes with 100 pre-loaded custom workouts. You can upgrade to unlock workouts from Rihanna’s personal trainer Ary Nuñez and celebrity athletes, such as Hope Solo, Serena Williams and Paula Radcliffe. The app also has step-by-step instructions, plus demonstration videos you can find easily. DailyBurn iPhone – 4 stars with 596 ratings – Free You can get the feel of a fitness class with the convenience of a portable device with this app. DailyBurn shares a collection of workout videos right on your iPhone. It’s not just cardio; this app has workouts for strength, yoga, kickboxing, abs, mobility, core, metabolic conditioning, and stretching. You don’t need to be a top-notch athlete either. Beginners will find plenty of workouts suited to their fitness level, too. The app tracks and displays how many calories you’ve burned during your workout, and it can help you boost your performance and encourage you to push through the toughest parts of the workouts. GymGoal 2 iPhone – 4.5 stars with 35 ratings - $2.99 Building on the success of their first app, the makers of GymGoal 2 combined both cardio and strength training in one tool. Useful for beginners, this app provides step-by-step instructions and animations for more than 250 exercises. Build your own routine from the collection of exercises, or use one of the 52 the app already has built for you. It doesn’t leave room for guessing, either. In strength-training exercises, the app automatically calculates what you need to use based on your current weight, and it calculates your repetition maximum (though you can adjust if it’s off). Use These Apps for an Extra Boost with Your Weight Loss According to the World Health Organization (WHO), obesity is a global epidemic and the fifth leading cause of global deaths. Childhood obesity reached 40 million in 2010, which foreshadows later adult illness and premature death. Fortunately, obesity is preventable and treatable, according to WHO. Its recommendations for keeping weight down include limiting fat and sugar intake, increasing consumption of fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and nuts, and engaging in regular physical activity. The Food and Drug Administration recommends at least an hour to 90 minutes of moderate exercise most days of the week. For that extra boost, try out these 20 apps. source
