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13 Best Weight Loss Apps of 2024: Shed Those Stubborn Pounds This Year
Discover the 13 best apps of this year to fast-track your weight loss and help you achieve your health and fitness goals.
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You’ve tried eating less, dragging yourself out for runs, and reading inspirational quotes, but nothing seems to be helping you lose weight. If this sounds all too familiar, you may benefit from downloading a weight loss app.
From providing that initial burst of motivation to keeping you on track, these apps have a variety of benefits, but how do you find the right one for you?
Keep reading to discover our top 13 picks that could help you to lose weight and keep it off for good.
- 7 popular intermittent fasting periods to choose from
- Customized daily fasting schedule
- Weekly summary progress tracker
- Water, step, and calorie tracker
- More than 5,000 healthy recipes
- Workout routines
- Provides personalized workout programs
- Progress tracker
- Over 300 fun workout games
- Offers a unique way for users to enjoy exercise
- Tracks calories, macros, and water intake
- Goal setting feature
- Weight loss plan tailored to your needs
- Meal and exercise planning
Top 13 Best Weight Loss Apps
#1 DoFasting: Best overall
- Useful progress tracker and calendar
- Calorie tracker to track daily caloric intake
- Over 5,000 nutritious recipes
If you’re looking for support and motivation on your intermittent fasting journey, then DoFasting is the best weight loss app for you.
Something unique about this app is that it creates a completely personalized program. Studies show that those who follow programs tailored to their goals, eating habits, and preferences are likely to lose more weight overall.
The weight loss app, therefore, ensures that you’ll make progress and achieve your health and wellness aims, which can be monitored on your very own fasting tracker.
DoFasting also offers an extensive recipe library, a customized exercise program, and a calorie counter, along with plenty of educational content to help you learn more about the benefits of intermittent fasting, from weight loss and boosted immunity to stronger brain functions.
#2 Tuby: Best for making fitness fun
- Alters perspective on regular exercise
- Motivates users to get up and exercise
- No need for a gym membership or exercise equipment
Tuby is a motion-based app designed to make exercise fun. It turns workouts into play-like activities to encourage users to stick to a regular exercise routine, helping them achieve their weight loss goals more quickly.
By placing your phone, tablet, or TV in front of you, the app uses artificial intelligence to register your movements in each personalized workout. While following along with one of 300+ games, you can boost your cardiovascular fitness, build muscle, and lose weight, all while having fun.
Studies show that those who engage in physical activity that is enjoyable and provides a novel stimulus are more likely to stick to it over time, which ultimately improves their health and well-being. You can also invite a friend to join you, which can boost your motivation even further and help you lose weight fast.
#3 Lose It!: Best for quick weight loss
- Track calories, macros, and water intake
- Goal setting feature
- Weight loss plan tailored to your needs
- Meal and exercise planning
Lose It! is a calorie-counting app that delivers a personalized weight loss plan for every user. You’ll receive a daily calorie target based on your age, current measurements, and goals, which will help you to lose weight quickly yet safely.
Like apps such as MyFitnessPal, the Lose It! app allows you to track everything that you eat by logging your meals. You can scan barcodes on food labels to see accurate nutrient information and add your favorite recipes for ease. Along with food intake, you’ll also be able to monitor your physical activity output and daily steps.
If you’re struggling to shift stubborn fat, then you may benefit from upgrading to the premium version. This provides automated reports that allow users to understand their behavior and lifestyle habits, which can help you see where you may be going wrong.
#4 Perfect Body: Best for non-restrictive dieting
- Non-restrictive meal plan tailored to individual needs
- More than 1,000 recipes
- Shopping list
- Option to add workouts
Fed up with following restrictive diets to get to your goal weight? The Perfect Body weight loss program allows you to continue enjoying daily treats or desserts after dinner while making great progress toward your unique fitness goals.
Choose from the app or web version, which both offer a range of healthy, hand-picked recipes designed to get you out of the habit of ordering fast food and excited about cooking.
There are also several workout options, along with a weight loss and water tracker, to keep you focused.
#5 Weight Watchers: Best for nutrition knowledge
- Daily points system to easily track food intake
- Personalized weight loss meal plans
- Encourages users to stay active
- Provides educational content
Recommended by doctors, Weight Watchers is a program that not only boosts weight loss but also encourages users to learn more about nutrition. This means that you’ll be building a wealth of knowledge and long-term habits that will keep you healthy for life.
Weight Watchers works on a point system, with high-protein, low-fat foods and fruits or vegetables typically being low in points. As junk food scores high, you’ll be encouraged to eat less to stay within your personalized points goal.
Users are also invited to attend in-person or online workshops, which are led by expert coaches and provide members with accountability and support.
#6 Cronometer: Best for monitoring macros
- Log meals, exercise, and health metrics
- Track up to 84 macro and micronutrients
- Health reports and charts
- Intermittent fasting timer
Whether you’re looking for the best keto app or are trying out an intermittent fasting diet, Cronometer is a food-tracking app that supports a range of weight loss approaches and goals.
Cronometer allows you to track your own personal macronutrient intake but focuses on overall nutrition to help you stay healthy for life. Before accessing the app’s basic features, you’ll be asked to enter your age, gender, height, and weight so that Cronometer can provide tips that are relevant to you.
You can track your meals using the public database or create custom foods and import your favorite recipes. Signing up for the Cronometer app also gives you access to a community of over 6 million users who provide weight loss tricks and inspiration to keep you on track.
#7 Greatness: Best for healthy habit formation
- Fully customized habit programs
- Habit tracking
- Expert-curated audio courses
- Mental health coaching library
- Guided video workouts
- Intermittent fasting tracker
Developed with Samuel Salzer, one of the world’s leading behavioral scientists, Greatness is a lifestyle design and management app that encourages users to improve their lives with healthy habits rather than relying on willpower alone.
The app makes it easy for you to effortlessly incorporate healthier routines into your daily life, such as regular exercise and eating a balanced diet. It uses cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques to help you regain control over your own behaviors, allowing you to make small changes and meet your weight loss goals.
After completing a short quiz to help Greatness discover more about your goals, daily routine, and current habits, it will then provide you with a personalized growth plan. This features custom daily routines, a habit tracker, and expert-curated courses on everything from fitness to eating well.
#8 MyFitnessPal: Best for food tracking
- Food diary to track intake
- Calorie and nutrient breakdown for foods
- Barcode scanner and Quick Tools for easy tracking
- Recipe inspiration and workout tips
MyFitnessPal is a food and exercise tracking app designed to keep you on a steady path to weight loss. In a similar way to Cronometer, simply use the barcode scanner, select from the vast database, or manually input the foods you eat, and the app adds up the calories and other nutrients for you.
Taking into account your age, current weight and height, and goal, MyFitnessPal sets a daily calorie target for you to stick to. It also features meal inspiration and workout routines to help you stay on track.
What’s great about MyFitnessPal is that it integrates with more than 50 other apps and smartwatches to track your total steps and water intake. Monitoring these factors can aid your weight loss journey greatly, as keeping your step count high boosts your calorie burn, while water is a natural appetite suppressant that helps the body metabolize stored fat effectively.
#9 Peloton: Best for workout variety
- Live workout classes
- Library of pre-recorded On Demand classes
- Build a custom exercise routine
- Progress tracker
Originally known for their indoor cycling bikes, Peloton now creates fitness products for those who want to work out from home or on the treadmill. Whether you prefer high-energy cardio workouts or yoga and meditation, the Peloton app has a wide variety of classes to keep you motivated on your weight loss journey.
The app allows you to build your own 2-week personal workout schedule so that you can fit exercise into your daily routine. It also has a unique Leaderboard, which helps members connect and compete with one another.
These features mean that you’ll be motivated to keep pushing yourself to reach your weight loss goals and are more likely to stick to your workout schedule in the long term.
Choose from daily live classes or select one from the pre-recorded workout library.
#10 Noom: Best for making positive behavioral changes
- Personalized weight loss plan
- Focuses on long-term behavioral changes
- Mini educational lessons
- Color-coding system to indicate nutritional value
In contrast to restrictive weight loss approaches, Noom is a subscription-based app that favors making positive behavioral changes rather than adhering to the concept of dieting.
By encouraging you to form healthier physical and mental habits like Weight Watchers does, Noom helps users to lose weight and keep it off, providing long-term results. The app does this through its mini lessons, which teach you about everything from mindful eating to weight loss plateaus.
After answering a few questions about your personal health and habits, Noom creates a tailored diet plan with a recommended calorie budget. You’ll be encouraged to track your daily food intake to ensure that you keep losing weight in a calorie deficit.
#11 Fitbit: Best for keeping you on track
- Track your steps, daily exercise, and calorie burn
- 240+ at-home video workouts
- Nightly sleep score
- Log your food and water intake
The Fitbit app is ideal for those who may be struggling to incorporate physical activity into their daily routine. Getting those steps in each day is crucial, as it increases your non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), which boosts energy expenditure.
This app is ideal for improving your NEAT as it keeps track of the number of steps done, distance traveled, and calories burned while working out, which encourages you to keep pushing toward your goals. It’s designed to be used with a Fitbit smartwatch, a wearable device that allows you to monitor these stats while on the go.
You’ll also find free video and audio workouts, a nutrition tracking tool, and a nightly sleep score that ensures you have enough energy to continue on your weight loss journey.
#12 Lifesum: Best for nutritious meal plans
- Food diary and meal planner
- Exercise and habit tracker
- Barcode scanner for food logging
- Track your weight loss progress
Lifesum is a digital self-care app that focuses on eating well to help users reach their health and weight goals.
You can choose from one of many ongoing diets depending on your lifestyle and food preferences, including Clean Eating and High Protein. Users will then be able to choose a 7 to 21-day meal plan, with 4 pre-planned recipes a day to keep you on track.
The app also provides hundreds of other easy-to-follow recipes, with plenty of nutritional information to keep track of your daily energy intake. Use the barcode scanner to log each food item and track your physical activity too.
#13 Happy Scale: Best for tracking weight loss progress
- Makes predictions for when you’ll hit your goal weight
- Create small milestones to achieve larger goals
- Smoothes out weight fluctuations using mathematical analysis
Happy Scale is a unique app, as it makes predictions about when you’ll hit your goals. Unlike other weight loss apps where users need to record their weight every day for several weeks, Happy Scale uses a mathematical algorithm. This provides insights into how quickly you’re losing weight and gives you a target date to work towards.
This is ideal for those whose motivation may be fading due to weight loss plateaus or fluctuating scale weights. You can use the moving average tracking options to see steady progress every day and break your goal into smaller, incremental milestones.
Comparison Table
Suitable for beginners and pros
Choice of 3 monthly pricing options
Easy navigation
100% science-based
No equipment needed
Workouts can be performed anywhere, at any time
Multiplayer option
Simple, user-friendly interface
Smart camera allows you to detect multiple foods at once
Connects with multiple apps and devices
Meal plans are designed by nutritionists
Ingredients for meals can be found easily in grocery stores
Web version available
Recommended by doctors
Programs are easy to follow
Expert coaches and members community provide support
Free version available
You can set your own macronutrient intake
Sync with a wide range of apps and devices
Created by experts in behavioral science
Habits can easily be fit into a busy schedule
Can choose your own goals and custom reminders
Compatible with other fitness apps and trackers
Database of over 14 million foods
Large fitness community offers 24/7 support
No equipment needed
Workout from anywhere
Free to sign up
Doesn’t restrict any food groups
Teaches users why they are making changes
Can adjust your goals easily
Premium version offers a 90-day free trial
Encourages you to reach your step count with regular reminders
Integrates with many other apps
Suitable for a range of dietary requirements
Can be personalized to suit your preferences
Sync between all of your devices
Use with other popular apps, like Apple Health
Keeps your profile private with a passcode
No free trial offered
Premium features cost more
Smaller food database than other weight loss apps
Ads on the free version
Need a premium subscription to access more features
No free trial
Unsuitable for those who are pregnant or breastfeeding
Virtual or in-person workshops aren’t for everyone
App interface can be hard to navigate
The weight loss app itself isn’t run by physicians
Premium features only available on the Gold version
Users may choose the wrong macronutrient ratio for their goals
Requires a monthly subscription
Not compatible with smartwatches
Barcode scanner doesn’t always work
Slow navigation
Large ads on the free version
Free app only offers a limited collection of classes
Memberships are quite pricey
Recommends that users weigh themselves daily
Relatively expensive
No custom meal plans
Requires a Fitbit tracker or smartwatch to work
Stats aren’t always 100% accurate
No personalized meal or training plans available
No personalized fitness programs
Users can add to the food database, so it may not be accurate
Only offers basic nutritional information
No fitness or nutritional information
Can only track weight loss
How to Choose the Best Weight Loss Apps in 2024
If you’re looking for the best app to boost your weight loss, there are several factors that need to be considered, ranging from the quality of tracking features and food diaries to compatibility with other apps and pricing.
We selected our top picks based on the following 4 categories:
Quality
All good quality apps should be easy to navigate, shouldn’t glitch, and should be updated frequently. Whether based on food, exercise, or both, the best weight loss apps should also prioritize high-quality content like personalized meal plans and comprehensive workout routines that meet the needs of a range of users.
Price
Some of the apps we’ve chosen have a higher price point but make up for it in the number of personalized features they offer. However, many of them also provide free trials or a basic free subscription so that anyone can benefit from their services.
Brand reputation
The apps we selected were all developed by experts in nutrition, fitness, or behavioral science, which means they provide reliable information to help users reach their goals. Each selected brand is also well-known and has a strong reputation in the industry.
Effectiveness
Before recommending any weight loss apps, we looked at customer reviews and expert testimonials to decide whether they were effective in helping a variety of people meet their goals. Overall, we found that every app is rated highly by users.
FAQs
DoFasting is the most accurate weight loss app, as it creates a fasting schedule that is suited specifically to your needs and preferences. Before getting started, it takes users through a comprehensive quiz to learn as much about them as possible so that all of the advice, data, and plans the app provides are accurate.
The best free weight loss app is Lose It! This is a personalized calorie-counting app that makes it easy to log your food intake with a tailored meal plan, along with tracking your daily exercise and step count.
Weight loss apps work if they teach users long-term, sustainable habits that help them to live a healthier lifestyle.
You will need to be in a calorie deficit, which means you burn more calories than you consume. To do this, try to eat more protein-rich foods, include more fruit and vegetables in your diet, begin exercising regularly, and get plenty of sleep. Remember that everyone loses weight at different rates, depending on their age, gender, starting weight, and lifestyle.
A Word From Our Medical Team
Using an app can be an effective way of building new healthy habits that help you lose weight. They can also teach you more about different ways of losing weight, such as keto and intermittent fasting.
Many apps have progress tracking features, which ensures that you are more consistent with your plan. This is crucial for long-term weight loss success.
It’s important to lose weight slowly and steadily if you want to keep it off for good. Sudden and drastic weight loss can lead to nutrient deficiencies, fatigue, and even hair loss, and you’re likely to put fat back on quickly when you return to a normal eating pattern.
Other things that you’ll need to do to shift the pounds include eating in a calorie deficit, exercising regularly, drinking plenty of water, and getting 7–9 hours of sleep per night.
Conclusion
The best weight loss apps are those that provide you with the tools to lose weight steadily and keep it off. This includes personalized programs, progress tracking, and educational content that teaches users more about nutrition and fitness. Our top 3 recommendations for helping you to achieve your goals are DoFasting, Lose It!, and Tuby.
If you’re unsure of how to lose weight safely, then you should consult a doctor, personal trainer, or nutritionist, who can give you advice based on your unique needs.