Five Awesome Apps to Help You Lose Weight

Research shows that people lose more weight when they track their food and exercise and receive a lot of motivation and support throughout their entire weight-loss journey.

Since it seems no one is without their smartphone or iPad these days, we’ve come up with five of our favorite apps for weight loss.

My Fitness Pal (iTunes®, free)

This app was designed to support the features of the website, My Fitness Pal. With its large database of foods, and simple design and functionality, you can track food and exercise, take photos of bar codes to identify foods and servings, and share your success with friends.

Weight Watchers® Mobile (iTunes, free)

You don’t have to be a Weight Watchers member to enjoy the perks of this weight-loss app. If you are a Weight Watchers member, you have access to the full benefits of this application. It helps you track your points, find recipes, locate a meeting, and track your weight. Not a Weight Watchers member? No worries. You can still use some of the features this app offers like recipes and Weight Watchers articles.

LIVESTRONG® MyPlate Calorie Tracker (iTunes, $2.99)

If you’re a fan of LIVESTRONG brands, you might enjoy this app for counting calories, too. LIVESTRONG MyPlate Calorie Tracker helps you determine your calorie needs based on your weight and weight goal. It has an extensive database of foods to help you track, and an easy-to-read design that inspires you to be well and eat nutritiously.

Lose It!® (iTunes, free)

Lose It! is another app for tracking food and exercise. While the database is not as large as some other apps might be, its barebones and simplistic approach to logging food and exercise keeps people motivated to lose on the go.

The Eatery® (iTunes, free)

The Eatery lets you take advantage of your phone’s camera to decide if you are eating balanced meals. What we like about this app is that it forces you to look closely, and think about what you are eating. While other people’s reviews of your plate may not be inspiring, we think it’s a great way to be mindful of how and what you eat.

Have you used an app to help you lose weight? What would you recommend?

Note: Penn Medicine does not specifically endorse any of these recommended apps. 

Penn Medicine can help you lose weight with weight-loss surgery. Learn more about weight-loss surgery at Penn in a free information session about weight-loss surgery.