There are hundreds of apps now in the App Store claiming to be the next best thing in weight loss and healthy living, making it increasingly difficult for users to cut through the crap and find the good-uns.
If you’re looking to shed some pounds but don’t know where to start, our picks of the three simplest apps to help lose weight should get you off to a good start. They’re also great for helping to maintain a healthy lifestyle and best of all – they won’t cost you a penny.
NHS BMI Calculator App
Before starting your weight loss journey you need to work out how much you actually need to lose. Step forward the delightfully simple NHS BMI calculator app, which will give you a BMI score in seconds.
Just enter your height and weight and the app does the rest. There’s also a nifty tracker so you can see how your BMI changes over time and inline with your target. Just remember that the BMI calculation itself has it’s critics, as extra muscle weight is much better than extra fat weight.
Download the NHS BMI Calculator App for free on iOS:
Change4Life Smart Recipes App
The Smart Recipes App by Change4Life (again produced for the NHS) isn’t strictly a weight loss app, and instead focuses more on a healthy lifestyle.
The app is effectively a weekly meal planner, providing some inspiration for meals for you (and your family) that aren’t expensive to make. For every recipe you can see a breakdown of the calories per portion and all recipes have been formulated to make sure the calorie count is low.
It’s one of our faves due to it’s sheer simplicity – it doesn’t restrict you to eating a cabbage diet and provides simple ideas which will aid in weight loss by reducing your overall calorie intake. It’s pointless spending hours working out each day to then ruin your hard work with an unhealthy diet.
Download the Smart Recipes App on Android
Download the Smart Recipes App on iOS:
Lifesum App
So now you know your BMI, have a target set for what you’d like it to be, and have the tools to have a healthy diet, the next step is adding in some exercise.
Exercise can be laborious at times, which is why it’s vital to have some clear targets and a way to monitor your progress.
For this part, there are numerous apps that will monitor your every step, or track your daily movements and workouts. We picked the Lifesum App, again for it’s simplicity and ease of use.
Lifesum is described as a lifestyle tracker and calorie counter, helping you to reduce weight with it’s range of tools within the app. You can start by creating a health profile, before adding your key goal. It’s then a case of using their food database to track your daily calorie count against the amount you exercise.
On the exercise side, the Lifesum app is compatible with activity monitor apps such as Runkeeper, so you can easily sync the two. If you’ve got an iPhone 5S or later model, the app will also use the built-in movement sensor to track your activity.
You can then monitor your progress daily with an array of beautiful charts and summaries.
Download the Lifesum App on Android
Download the Lifesum App on iOS:
