Weight Management and weight loss App Reviews

Using Apps on your iPhone, smart phone, or iPad can be a great tool in helping you manage your weight and reach your goals. There are many apps out there so it can be difficult to know which one to choose. In an effort to make it easier for you to choose an app, I reviewed the best and most popular apps for you! 

• Calorie Counter by caloriecount.com and about, inc -  Tracks your food intake, calories consumed, water intake, weight, and exercise. 

Pros - 

• App is free, who doesn't like that?
• Nice visually to look at 
• Easy to track amount of water consumed
• Calculated your BMR using your weight, height, and age for you. (Under net calories, look at calories burned, before exercise that is the amount of calories you burn every day, to lose a pound per week your consumed calories should be -500 calories of that amount), 
• App has a large database of foods to choose from and grades common foods with A-F grading system for a quick reference of healthfulness 
• Includes forums on common topics such as sharing recipes, vegetarian diet info, weight gain, and weight loss.
• Has a barcode feature to scan foods 
• Speech recognition for inputting foods

Cons 

• Does not provide you with amount of saturated fat, sodium, and fiber consumed (only total fat, total calories, carbs, and protein.) For people trying to track healthfulness rather then weight loss knowing amount of fiber, saturated fat, and sodium consumed is very important. 
• You have to create a login with your email 
• Chooses your target weight for you

• MyFitnessPal  - Tracks your diet and exercise. Allows you to see your progress by day or by week. 

Pros 

• Allows you to choose your goal weight - you decide how much you want to lose or gain 
• Takes activity level into consideration when calculating calorie needs 
• You input how many pounds you want to lose or gain (or maintain) per week and it will calculate amount of calories you need to consume per day 
• App is free
• Creates a concrete plan for you, with a deadline 
• Has a great nutrition breakdown including vitamins, fiber, type of fat consumed, cholesterol, potassium, and sodium. 

Cons 

• Smaller food database 
• Asks you to decide your workout plan ahead of time 
• Less appealing visually 

• Calorie Counter: Diet & Activities - Tracks calories, exercise, and water consumed. 

Pros 

• Very nice visuals 
• Allows you to input goal weight and date to complete by
• Allows you to edit amount of calories you want to consume from carbs, fat, proteins 
• Calculates your BMI and shows on a scale 
• Has a large database of foods 

Cons 

• The free version does not track sodium, sugar, and vitamins - you have to pay for that 
• If your are willing to pay  $4.99/month has a lot of added great features - but i think the free apps are sufficient 
• Less user friendly then the 2 other apps I reviewed 

• Fooducate (Free version) - Allows you to browse foods by either typing the name or scanning barcode and assess overall healthfulness of product by giving a grade on A-F grading system. Names key points about the product. Should be used along with a food tracking app, or good for people who do not want to track their diet so closely. 

Pros 

• Great data base
• Barcode works very quickly 
• Can be used at the supermarket while shopping to quickly choose healthy products and identify unhealthy products that should be left behind 
• Offers alternatives to products and allows you to compare two products. 
• Offers product highlights 
• Allows you to share products by email, Facebook, and twitter. 
• Free version is all you need 

For Additional App reviews by RDs check out:

http://www.eatright.org/Media/content.aspx?id=6442467041