The Best Weight-Loss Apps — Free and Paid Weight-Loss Apps – Shape Magazine

Lauren Mazzo has been working as a health and fitness writer and editor since 2015 — including six years at Shape, where she was formerly the senior editor. She's certified as a personal trainer and fitness nutrition specialist through the American Council on Exercise, and is currently working on her health coach certification. In 2015, she graduated from Ithaca College with a B.A. in Journalism and minors in Writing and Honors, and while there, she also studied Sex, Gender, and Desire and The Science and Philosophy of Sex and Love. Prior to Shape, she worked for the digital team at Self Magazine and interned at Marie Claire. Her passion for all things health and fitness began as a teenager, when she first started learning about nutrition and training as a competitive cheerleader. Since then, she's explored a variety of workouts, from weightlifting, running, and cycling to yoga, and continued cheering on the nonprofit team Cheer New York in New York City. While she's currently traveling the world as a nomad, you can catch her learning about the psychology of dating, attempting new adventure sports, and embracing the Blue Zone way of life.
Your smartphone is a perfect tool for getting and staying in shape. Think about it: It's always with you, it lets you listen to music during your workout, and it provides you with many powerful (and free!) weight-loss apps, right at your fingertips. A fitness app can lead you through workouts without the high price of a personal trainer, and using a calorie-counter app is as simple as sending a text. Together, these weight loss apps are a quick and easy way to start reaching your goals, whatever they might be.
Most weight-loss apps allow you to track your food and make smarter nutrition choices — and a few of those programs are below. That said, the best weight-loss apps also let you track your workouts and hydration as well as sync with wearable devices too.
Available for: Android & iOS
Cost: 2-week free trial; then $59/monthly, $99/2 months, or $129/4 months
Try it: Noom
Noom is a head-to-tail weight-loss app that helps you set goals and track your progress. The app has three main functions: It helps you set a weight-loss goal and see your progress; it tracks your food intake to help keep you accountable; and it logs your exercise, even from daily out-and-about activities, to help you make healthier choices. Considered one of the best weight-loss apps out there, Noom’s all based on the science of behavior change in order to help you make lasting lifestyle changes — not just provide a quick fix. (Read more here: What Is the Noom Diet?)
Available for: Android & iOS
Cost: $15/month for a digital-only membership
Try it: WW App
WW (formerly Weight Watchers) has moved far beyond its traditional IRL group setting. They offer different membership options now: a basic one with digital access (to the WW site and app), an option with digital access and virtual workshops, and a third with digital access and personal coaching. ICYDK, WW uses a point system (instead of, say, counting calories) to help you gauge your food intake for the day and make healthy choices. You can use the WW app to track your food points, log workouts (or connect a wearable device), connect with coaches 24/7, and socialize with the online community. (And, hey, if Oprah and Kate Hudson love it, this weight-loss app might be worth a try!)
Available for: Android & iOS
Cost: Free with premium option ($50/year)
Try it: MyFitnessPal
This is one of the best free weight-loss apps because it has a full-fledged website, too, that can help you crush your goals. MyFitnessPal allows you to track your food intake and exercise as well as pair it with countless other fitness and weight-loss apps, including Endomondo Sports Tracker, MapMyRun, RunKeeper, Strava, FitBit, and more. You can quickly scan barcodes to get nutrition facts or log foods or pick from their giant database of foods. The community aspect adds a Facebook-like feed for you to stay connected and accountable. (This is also a great food tracking app if you want to try dieting according to your macros.)
Available for: Android & iOS
Cost: Free with premium option ($5/month or $60/year)
Try it: MyNetDiary
Losing weight involves behavior changes, exercise, and diet, and this free weight-loss app takes the guesswork out of the latter. By far the most powerful nutrition-focused of the best weight-loss apps listed here, MyNetDiary tracks your calorie and nutrition intake as well as your exercise to help you feel in control throughout your goal-reaching journey. Charts and graphs provide powerful motivation as they show how far you’ve come. It’s also super-easy to use; just scan the bar code of packaged food or type the first few letters of a dish’s name to search the app’s 420,000-food database. (Healthy body, healthy mind? Download these mental health apps too.)
Available for: Android & iOS
Cost: Free with a premium option ($4/month to $90/life)
Try it: Fooducate
That protein bar you’re nibbling on claims to be healthy, but could there be something better? Scan a food’s UPC and Fooducate goes beyond the nutrition facts to tell you more about your munchies (i.e. if the sodium level is dangerous or if the vitamins come from nature instead of chemicals). It even grades the food relative to alternatives and helps you pick a healthier selection. Overall, this best weight-loss app is a great companion to a nutrition plan and a fun way for the non-dieter to improve their menu. (Also read: The 10 Rules of Weight Loss That Lasts)
Available for: Android & iOS
Cost: Free with premium option ($5)
Try it: My Diet Coach
My Diet Coach has a fun design to help keep you motivated throughout your weight-loss journey. It features a mini avatar of you at your current weight and at your desired weight to help you visualize where you want to be. Like most of the other best weight-loss apps, it lets you track your food and exercise, but this bad boy also offers other challenges: Pledge to drink more water, exercise more often, or get rewarded for every food craving that you curb. You can also pay $5 to receive special features.
Available for: Android & iOS
Cost: Free with premium option ($40/year)
Try it: Lose It!
If you're all about no-fuss apps, then Lose It! could be what you're looking for in a weight-loss app. It's simple: You input your goal and track your food and exercise as well as your progress toward that goal. The app also helps you find better food alternatives that are healthier and good for your body. You can use their barcode scanner to track calories, take pics of your meals for easy tracking, and even sync with the Apple Health and Google Fit apps. Upgrade to premium for ~$3/month to get access to additional features such as a meal planning tool, water tracking, macronutrient analysis, and connection with your Fitbit or other activity trackers.
While exercise is just one factor in losing weight, staying active can help you burn more calories, build muscle, and, arguably most importantly, feel stronger, healthier, and happier in your body. The following weight-loss apps are focused specifically on fitness and can help you stay accountable to your weight-loss goals. (This is just the tip of the iceberg — here are even more workout apps you should check out, whether you’re into lifting, running, biking, or yoga.)
Available for: Android & iOS
Cost: Free with premium option ($7/month or $40/year)
Try it: JEFIT
If you’re a fan of sweating it out in a studio for, say, Pilates or prefer pounding the pavement for some cardio, then this best weight-loss app isn’t for you. If you hit the gym religiously and need the most in-depth exercise tracking and training around, then say no more. This weight-loss app is for the true gym rat. It boasts hundreds of exercises that can be selected from an anatomical map; helps create power-packed super-set workouts; logs your progress photos so you can see the toning taking place, and more! (If you’re also interested in interval training, you need these HIIT workout apps.)
Available for: Android & iOS
Cost: Free
Try it: Nike Training Club
If you want an instructor-led fitness routine but aren't comfortable with the cost and awkwardness of a personal trainer (simply want to sweat at home), this app can fit the bill. One of the best free weight-loss apps, this download gives you dozens of workouts from Nike's professionals, pro athletes, celebrity trainers, and more and considers your requirements and abilities to pick them. Plus, you can enroll in multi-week programs to stay accountable with your fitness routine for a longer period of time.
Available for: Android & iOS
Cost: Free 60-day trial, then $15/month
Try it: Daily Burn
This app, made by the fitness wizards at the popular health blog Daily Burn, is great for beginners who aren’t sure how much power they need in their workout app. Out of the metaphorical box, this best weight-loss app lets you view professionally written wellness and exercise articles, create weight goals, and track workouts and weight. While it’s not free forever, you can do a 60-day trial and decide if you want to spend $15 per month to keep using it. If you decide to keep going, you’ll get new workouts every day, tailored to your needs.
These weight-loss apps aren't strictly about tracking your food or fitness but can help you monitor your weight or intermittent fasting goals.
Available for: iOS
Cost: Free with premium option ($2/month, $12/year, or $30/life)
Try it: Happy Scale
It can be super frustrating when you get on the scale and the number you see is higher than the one from yesterday — even after a long workout or a day of eating well. Happy Scale goes beyond the typical duties of a weight-loss app and helps you understand why that number fluctuates so much while also keeping track of your long- and short-term goals, monitoring your weight loss or gain, and predicting when you could possibly reach your goal.
Available for: Android & iOS
Cost: Free with premium option ($50/year)
Try It: Zero
If you’re trying intermittent fasting for weight loss and are tired of doing time math in your head to calculate how long you’ve been fasting, Zero can be a great tool for you. The best weight-loss app also offers a premium version with extra content from experts, Q&As with fasting coaches, and more. You can track your daily fasts, set goals for the number of hours or days you want to fast, track your weight and sleep, and learn all about the science of fasting. (Not sure IF is for you? Before you download this weight-loss app, you might want to read more about how IF can affect your mental health.)
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