The Best Weight Loss Apps for All Your Fitness Goals in 2023

Weight loss is a struggle for millions around the world. While some may lack a good metabolism, others may lack the knowledge, resources or time to maintain a healthy diet or fitness routine. However, every person’s experience with being overweight is different, and finding the right source of help can be a struggle on its own. Despite the weight loss industry being nothing new, weight loss apps have revolutionized how people can gain insight and knowledge to help them achieve their fitness goals and improve their overall well-being. 

Weight loss apps offer an accessible and affordable alternative to nutritionists and personal trainers. While some may be skeptical, the best diet and exercise apps have helped many change their lives and improve their health. Here, we share our top picks for the best weight loss apps of 2023, with the hopes of helping those looking to lose weight choose the best diet app for them regardless of their body type, goals or needs. 

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• Best Weight Loss App for Fitness – Future
• Best Weight Loss App for Women – Noom
• Best Nutrient-Tracking Weight Loss App – Cronometer
• Best Weight Loss App for Beginners – MyFitnessPal
• Best Free Weight Loss App – FatSecret
• Best Meal-Planning Weight Loss App – Fooducate
• Best Community Weight Loss App – WW
• Best Intermittent Fasting Weight Loss App – Zero
• Best Vegetarian Weight Loss App – Lifesum
• Best Calorie-Tracking Weight Loss App – MyPlate

Future is a unique fitness and weight loss app that connects you to a real-life personal trainer who will work with you directly on your weight loss journey. As soon as you begin, Future seeks to understand your fitness status, activity level, goals and needs. From there, this workout app will connect you to one of its certified personal trainers that best match your answers. Once matched with your trainer, you work together to establish a combined fitness and dietary plan structured around your set goals and current circumstances. As you work your program, you can expect guided workouts, advice and everything typical of having an in-person personal trainer. However, Future goes further, with their trainers regularly checking up on you, motivating you and evaluating your progress to determine if the program you have established is working or needs to be changed. Notably, if your trainer is not meeting your needs or the chemistry isn’t there, Future will find you another one. Future is there when you need it, with their trainers available for daily correspondence and constantly working with your circumstances (traveling, sick, frustrated, etc.).

Despite being a digital platform, you can expect to experience all the benefits of a one-on-one fitness coach but at a drastically lower price. Future is available for $149 a month, which may seem pricey. But, compared to a typical dietitian or fitness coach’s hourly rates of anywhere from $50 to $150 an hour, the personal experience Future offers its users could be deemed a considerable bargain. Future offers a unique opportunity to experience the benefits of first-hand weight loss and fitness coaching regardless of your wallet’s budget or schedule’s flexibility.

Noom is an app to help you lose weight that takes the unique approach of considering someone’s psychology and behavioral practices when helping them on their journey. The app is all about proposing the most sensible and realistic diet or weight-loss plans. Rather than offering dismissive or obvious advice such as “go to the gym” or “eat more vegetables,” the app looks to challenge you in a way that won’t overwhelm you or leave you feeling helpless. In addition to this nuanced approach, Noom has an entire customizable program dedicated to women experiencing perimenopause or menopause, as research demonstrates that women going through both more often than not experience some level of weight gain. Whether a result of sudden hormonal imbalances, sleep disruptions or stress, Noom has programs and health coaches to help women experiencing these transitions avoid excess weight gain or obesity.

Noom is accessible to all, starting you off with an extensive evaluation of your current fitness situation, and designing a comprehensive program that is unique to you. From there, you are assigned a coach who motivates you, guides you and checks up on your progress and mental state. The app also connects you to groups of others who have overcome or currently struggle with being overweight to share experiences, inspire one another and exchange knowledge. Notably, Noom is one of the few weight loss apps recognized by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for helping countless individuals to fight diabetes. A Noom subscription costs $59 a month, and the estimated time of using the app depends on your goals and when you achieve them. Regardless of where you’re at or how much you’ve struggled to lose weight, Noom is for everyone and has proven to work for countless people looking to improve their health.

Understanding if you are getting enough macronutrients and micronutrients in your diet is essential in preserving your general wellness. The Cronometer app calculates your nutrient intake to inform you of the nutritional value of what you put in your body and what you may lack in your diet. Able to identify upwards of 84 macro and micronutrients, the app stands out as a totalistic diet app that can help you to lose weight, reflect on what you’re eating, strengthen your immune system and even help athletes to enhance their performance. You can scan foods or manually insert your food intake to build up a food diary. As you build your food diary, the Cronometer weight loss app will remember meals and recipes, making it easier to use as it can promptly guess your meals. In addition, your food log will enable the app to present your health metrics over time to help inform you of what you may be lacking in your diet or what you may be overconsuming.

The app also is compatible with most activity trackers, including Fitbit, Garmin or Strava. You can also manually insert your workouts. Notably, with gathering your workout routines, the Cronometer uses this information to correctly calculate if your diet is genuinely appropriate for you (as some diets are only healthy if done with an exercise routine). The app also lets you customize your diet plan to meet your personalized weight loss or fitness goals. The app has grown wildly popular due to its precision health reports and a multi-faceted health approach, with over 6 million people reportedly using it for advice. The Cronometer helps you get the full picture of your food intake and lifestyle choices, helping you lose weight and live a healthier life.

Starting anything from scratch can be frustrating, and losing weight is no exception. MyFitnessPal is one of the best diet apps that offers everyone, especially beginners, a great jumping-off point to understand if their daily calorie budget or physical activities are helping them to achieve their fitness goals. Notably, MyFitnessPal has a gigantic food database, which includes 14 million different foods, that can be scanned or inserted into the app to determine if your diet choices are helping you achieve your desired results. In addition to calorie counting, the app also informs you of all the macro and micronutrients you consume, giving you a broader idea of the health benefits of dieting beyond simply losing weight. The app offers you an accessible food-tracking diary that breaks your days down by the meal and the snack, pointing out the times of day you may be disrupting your progress or if you are missing essential nutrients or under-eating. Furthermore, MyFitnessPal can act as a fitness app, recording your routines via most fitness trackers or by manually inserting your workouts. The app then compares your fitness metrics with your daily food consumption and health goals to calculate your achievements and better educate you in making the right choices or developing a long-term routine.

MyFitnessPal also connects you to various community forums where people share their information and progress. You can also use the app to connect with friends, share stats and hold each other accountable. A free version is available, which includes ads, but gives you a chance to see if the app is right for you. If you enjoy the app, an ad-free premium version that includes additional coaching and customized diet and workout plans is available for a bargain rate. So whether you’re looking to lose weight or better understand what you put in your body, MyFitnessPal is an app built for everyone, regardless of your goals or fitness status.

A 100% free app that is actually effective in helping someone begin losing weight or continue to maintain their diet sounds like an unlikely find. However, Fatsecret is just that. Fatsecret is a 100% free weight loss app that helps you count calories, discover healthy recipes and connect to a broader community of other individuals looking to get fit or lose some weight. Being a bargain is an understatement, as Fatsecret can compete with similar weight loss apps that come with a cost without even overwhelming you with annoying ads. Beyond tracking your calorie and food intake, the app also calculates the calories you burn from your fitness routine or just the steps you take walking throughout the day.

If inserting every meal into an app is annoying, Fatsecret makes it easy to track food with a barcode scanner and a database that saves your meals, allowing for easier input over time. Notably, the app is compatible with both Android and Apple products and can be used on most devices. So whether you’re looking to lose weight, bulk up or maintain your current physique, Fatsecret is an excellent opportunity to keep track of your food or exercise habits and get some help or guidance; for free!

Determining a healthier diet is not only a matter of cutting calories. It is also about planning meals and incorporating foods with nutritional benefits for your overall well-being. Fooducate is a weight loss app that helps you understand how to design meals that can help you lose weight, receive essential vitamins and avoid foods containing chemicals or carcinogens. Fooducate lets you scan your groceries or insert your meals into the app, and from there, the app will grade your food choices ranging from A to D. Beyond calorie counting with regards to weight loss, Fooducate also judges the quality and benefits of certain food items. The app goes into detail to explain why your food choice scored the grade it gave it. For example, maybe your food choice is low in fat but received a bad grade because it lacks digestible fiber. Or perhaps a product is high in fat and received a positive grade, like olive oil or avocados, because the fat in these foods is good for you. These are all considered in the grading process and intended to help you improve your daily habits and enhance the quality of your meals.

Fooducate offers podcasts, recipe ideas, dieting tips and access to an array of forums connecting people looking to lose weight or improve their overall health. The health app is also very customizable, allowing you to insert details such as your weight, food or fitness habits and incorporating this information into how it guides you to make smarter food decisions and develop a healthy lifestyle. The app is available for free but also offers a pro plan for $3.99 a month or a pro plan with allergen info (gluten, peanuts, etc.) for $4.99 a month. The pro plans include helpful additional features such as offering you alternatives to junk food you may enjoy and diabetes-focused information. Fooducate resembles its name, offering comprehensive information to help educate you to better understand food in pursuit of healthier meals and a healthier life.

The frustrations of losing weight can sometimes be overwhelming. This is why having access to the motivation, guidance and support of a community that understands the ins and outs of losing weight can be a critical part of anyone’s weight loss journey. For over 50 years, Weight Watchers has been helping people to achieve their fitness goals. The company continues to maintain popularity due to its accessible diet approach, quality dietitians and a massive community of support. Today, the Weight Watchers diet and weight loss app acts as both a tool and social media platform for its members, delivering a safe and regulated space for people to share their struggles, recipes and inspirations. The app works like any social media platform, allowing users to request friends, engage in public chats and follow hashtags to help find the answers they need. The app’s groups and forums are available to post on, in real time, 24/7, with the company committed to preserving a safe space free of body shaming or discouragement. Unlike many other social media platforms, Weight Watchers prioritizes creating a genuinely members-only safe space that helps ensure users feel more comfortable asking questions and more trustworthy of the answers they get.

In addition to being an excellent opportunity for support, the Weight Watchers app offers the brand’s notorious diet program through the convenience of your phone. When you sign up, you are asked a variety of questions to determine your needs and goals accurately (are you always on the go, vegetarian, etc.). Then you are assigned a diet program determined by a point-based grading system. You are given daily and weekly points designed around the foods you eat and the exercises you do, giving you a concrete understanding of how your decisions impact your body. Weight Watchers attests to their program, claiming users are twice as likely to achieve their goals using it. And considering how long Weight Watchers has proven helpful to millions struggling with weight loss, we imagine the program isn’t mere hype. For a combination of community support and practical dieting that is accessible regardless of where you currently stand, consider Weight Watchers!

In recent years, intermittent fasting has become a huge trend. While there are various diet approaches and health benefits to intermittent fasting, the main idea is to lengthen the period your body burns calories after a meal so it starts burning fat. The Zero fasting app provides users with a comprehensive and user-friendly tool to engage in intermittent fasting in pursuit of weight loss and improved health. Zero offers a calorie counter, water tracker and daily guidance to ensure users safely engage in their fast. From the beginning, the app asks you a series of personal questions to determine if intermittent fasting is a good weight loss choice based on your lifestyle. From there, a plan and structured approach is formulated for you, with the necessary tools to help you follow their plan safely and efficiently. In addition, Zero offers a unique fasting journal tool, which allows you to record your mood swings while fasting, then coordinates an easy-to-view mood graph that can help you better understand how and when to best challenge yourself to stay the course.

Intermittent fasting has a variety of benefits beyond weight loss,  such as a way to improve the health of your heart or brain. While this diet approach has worked for many, it can be complex and challenging. However, Zero offers an excellent opportunity to experiment with and experience safely and effectively the benefits of intermittent fasting.

Will and discipline are crucial elements of starting a new diet. However, knowledge as to how to begin is also essential. Lifesum is a top weight-loss app offering an array of in-depth educational programs helping individuals learn how to change their eating practices and consider diets they may have thought once impossible for them. Whether paleo, keto, sugar detox, veganism or vegetarianism, Lifesum offers users access to accessible diet plans, helping them ease in or dive right into these potentially life-changing diet choices. In particular, Lifesum is an exceptional choice for people already vegan or vegetarian or those aspiring to become so. Beyond extensive vegan and vegetarian weight-loss programs available on the app, Lifesum also shows people how to cut back on meats while still accomplishing their protein needs, helping people find practical paths to embrace these new diets and practices.

When you sign up with Lifesum, the app immediately interviews you to understand your goals. Lifesum not only offers weight loss programs but also helps people seeking to gain weight or maintain their current weight. The interview process allows Lifesum to understand both your goals and current lifestyle to help coordinate the way forward on your weight loss journey. Once you begin the diet and program best suited for you, Lifesum offers efficient diet and fitness tracking (compatible with Google Fit, Apple Health and most fitness trackers). Allowing you to scan or insert your meals, track your water intake and record your workout metrics. Lifesum will calculate everything to help you understand your progress and where you could improve your habits. Beyond weight, the app also tracks the nutritional quality of your meals and lifestyle, informing you if you are drinking enough water or eating enough fruit and vegetables. Whether you want to remain vegan and lose weight or become vegetarian but maintain your muscle mass, Lifesum is a practical tool for learning the ins and outs of dieting right.

Determining your calorie intake vs. loss is essential to any weight loss diet’s success. MyPlate is a US government-approved calorie-counting, weight loss tracker app that looks to help users improve their eating practices and lose weight. Based on your body type, fitness level and goals, MyPlate offers an easy-to-use interface that enables you to redesign your meals in pursuit of both losing weight and improving your broader health. By scanning foods or manually inserting them into the app, MyPlate keeps track of your calorie intake and suggests what you may be lacking in your diet. In addition to counting calories, MyPlate strives to help you understand if you are getting enough macro or micronutrients and suggests recipes or ways to help introduce foods into your life that can ensure you get what you need daily.

MyPlate offers daily, weekly or monthly calorie and nutrient tracking, helping you understand your diet practices in the short and long term. MyPlate also helps users understand healthier ways of eating foods. For example, the app may explain the benefits of eating oranges rather than drinking orange juice. By describing how eating a whole orange includes fiber that can better break down the sugar of an orange, while juice lacks this fiber, users learn exciting lessons about the importance of eating whole foods. What really stands out about MyPlate is its ability to help shoppers on a budget find more affordable healthy foods based on where they live. The app lets users input their zip code to find healthy foods on sale in their areas, helping shatter the illusion that eating healthy is solely a matter of finances. If you are looking for a precise calorie counter that also helps you understand how to improve your broader health, MyPlate is a great tool.

How to Find the Best Weight Loss App for You

Choosing the right apps to help you lose weight is best determined by your unique health and fitness goals. Understanding what you want to achieve in advance and comparing this to where you currently stand and what an app offers will help ensure you choose a weight loss app that works for you. 

Personal Weight Loss Goals

Your personal weight loss goals, whether you are struggling with obesity or just looking to shed a few pounds, are an essential consideration in choosing the right app for you. Some apps specialize in helping battle diabetes, overcome obesity or simply help someone achieve a more toned physique. Evaluating and establishing these goals in advance and comparing them to what an app offers you will best ensure if that app is right for you.

Weight Loss Approach

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by a new diet. Life changes and discipline can be harder for some than others, especially when it comes to losing weight and improving your health. Some may be ready to jump into the most extreme low-carb diets, while others may need time to transition out of their unhealthy eating habits. Being honest with yourself and what you’re ready to commit to is essential in choosing the right app. However, selecting an app that can meet you halfway without overwhelming you is equally crucial. A weight loss app that proposes programs that match and adapt to your specific needs is an app that can work for you. Functionality and fit are important things to consider when picking an app.

Ratings

Before choosing an app, consult user reviews on non-bias community forums or weight-loss and fitness review websites unrelated to the app’s parent company. This will help you to understand better if an app genuinely lives up to its claims and whether or not it is suitable for you and your goals.

Features

A weight loss app having many features is not the sole reason to choose it. For example, depending on your goal, you may need an app specializing in food tracking or an app that offers a wide selection of healthy recipes and meal plans. On the other hand, you may need an app that provides the same quality in both features. As with choosing any weight loss app, its features are as important as how much they can help you. So, try your best to understand what you are looking for in the app to help you achieve, and ensure it has all the features available to help you do so.