Advancements in smartphone technology combined with the development of innovative apps have effectively transformed the humble mobile phone into a sophisticated fitness tracker, helping us to meet our health and well-being goals. From drinking more water to tracking steps to improving overall nutrition, we look at nine apps that can help you to improve your health and well-being without even leaving the house.
1. Nutritionix
Nutritionix enables members to instantly access accurate nutritional information for over 900,000 verified grocer, packaged, and restaurant foods ranging from chocolate bars to burritos. The app is customizable, providing an easy-to-use nutritional tracking tool for people on-the-go. Developed and maintained by qualified dietitians, Nutritionix makes tracking a breeze, thanks to a nifty voice control feature that allows members to log daily exercise and food intake. The app is also an effective tool for sharing food logs with a fitness coach or health care provider via the Track Pro Coach portal.
2. HealthTap
If you are someone who turns to Google with your symptoms and health concerns, you could save yourself an awful lot of misinformation and misunderstandings by turning to this app. HealthTap provides millions of answers to questions from real physicians on hundreds of thousands of different topics. Should you be unable to find an existing answer to your question on the app, you can post it on HealthTap and receive a reply from a physician within 24 hours. It is also possible to pay to have an expedited response if you would prefer not to wait. HealthTap also enables users to schedule virtual consultations with physicians, psychologists, and dentists via the app, as well as helping users to manage their prescriptions and view lab results.
3. Pedometer++
Pedometer++ is a simple-to-navigate app that allows users to easily keep track of their daily and weekly step counts without draining their phone battery. Members can view their progress each day from either their Apple Watch app, Today View widget, or iPhone app, although if you do use the iPhone version, it is important to keep your phone on your person throughout the day, ideally in a pocket close to your hip, to enable the app to track your daily steps accurately.
4. MyFitnessPal
Downloaded more than 100 million times globally, by 2020, MyFitnessPal had generated $128 million in revenue. A food database and calorie tracker combined, MyFitnessPal presents a personalized dashboard, enabling users to monitor their progress at a glance. For those seeking to lose weight, MyFitnessPal features a fitness diary, enabling members to keep a keep record of calorie intake and burn. The app can also tell users approximately how many calories they burned through a particular exercise, as well as informing them of the nutritional value of food they consume.
5. Calm
Research shows that getting sufficient sleep can actually amp up your metabolism, helping you to burn more calories. With a 4.8 out of 5 rating average gathered through more than 1.5 million reviews, Calm allows users to choose from hundreds of guided meditations and sounds of nature, including heavy rain, rushing streams, and ocean waves. This award-winning app also offers “sleep stories” narrated by stars such as Matthew McConaughey that are specially designed to ease users into sleep. Calm presents a variety of different programs ranging from 3 to 25 minutes long that help with everything from stretching techniques to stress and anxiety.
6. Fooducate
Fooducate educates users about food and nutrition, helping them to work toward a healthy, well-balanced diet that caters for all of their nutritional needs. For many of us, there is a huge amount we do not know, even about the foods we eat every day. Fooducate takes the mystery out of nutrition, enabling users to simply scan food items to learn about their nutritional value. This easy-to-understand app shares a food score indicating how healthy a particular item is, as well as sharing a nutritional breakdown and identifying the pros and cons of that particular food.
7. Waterlogged
Waterlogged makes keeping track of your water intake a breeze, providing reminders and personalized charts to help users stay hydrated and healthy. Waterlogged makes it easy to monitor your progress in meeting daily water intake goals. The app is customizable, enabling users to enter their chosen type and size of water bottle or glass, so that they can track their water intake more accurately.
8. Fitbit
Fitbit continues to dominate the fitness tracking app market, providing wearers with detailed data on their heart rate, calories burned, and sleep quality. A mainstay on the wrists of both fitness buffs and athletes for years, in addition to tracking fitness, the app also tracks progress towards weight, sleep, and hydration goals, logging meals and assessing calories in versus calories out.
9. 8fit
8fit is a workout and meal planner that helps members to get off to the best possible start in their fitness journey, providing them with an optimized diet and exercise plan. The platform aligns exercise plans with the user’s fitness goals, providing comprehensive guidance on hundreds of exercises. Whether the user regularly attends the gym or not, the app helps them to keep prioritizing their health 24/7.