How to choose a diet and weight loss app that's right for you, according to a nutritionist

Using a weight loss app helps you keep track of your food habits and promotes healthy and sustainable changes to your lifestyle.
The best apps don't just let you track your food intake but provide insightful feedback from nutritionists and wellness experts that help you develop and maintain healthier diets.
We spoke to nutrition expert, Samantha Cassetty, about what everyone should look for in a weight loss app, and how they can contribute to positive changes in your health.

Let's face it — when life hits a few bumps in the road, so, too, do our diets and food habits. As more people transition to a work from home lifestyle, the new normal of spending an inordinate amount of time confined to their homes and home offices takes some getting used to. There are shifts in work production, alterations of one's sleep and exercise habits, and drastic changes to what, when, and how food is consumed.

For many people, this change leads to eating habits and schedules that are less healthy than they're typically accustomed to, making it challenging to stay focused on their health and fitness goals. Thankfully, there are plenty of excellent resources a mere smartphone app away designed to help us stay on track — no matter how difficult it might seem.

Both Apple's App Store and the Google Play Store are filled with apps offering the promise of losing weight and eating healthier. But wading through the choices can be both difficult and time-consuming, as even the best apps may not be right for everyone.

To help sort through the choices, we turned to Samantha Cassetty, an MS, RD, and national nutrition and wellness expert with a private practice based in New York City, for a bit of advice — and her thoughts were especially insightful.

"There are many free and paid apps to help you learn how to eat more healthfully," Cassetty told Business Insider. "The most important thing is to find one that supports a variety of healthful foods in balanced amounts that are right for your needs."

Finding a weight loss app for you

Using a smartphone to track your diet isn't a new idea. In fact, some of the earliest apps on the App Store were aimed at helping iPhone users eat healthier. After all, we carry our mobile devices with us everywhere, making them ideal for providing insights and advice on what we should be buying at the grocery store or ordering at a restaurant.

Some of the apps that are available even create extensive meal plans, provide diet and exercise routines, or offer consultations from dietitians and nutritionists. Others simply track what we're eating in order to raise awareness of the calories we're taking in. Cassetty says there are benefits to both and that even basic food trackers are valuable.

"Free tools allow you to track your food intake, which is a form of self-monitoring that's been found helpful for reaching or maintaining a comfortable weight," she said. "They can also expose when you might be grazing or over-snacking, which happens when you're spending more time working at home with a stocked kitchen."

Don't rely entirely on the app to make healthy changes

While Cassetty does find plenty of value in the use of smartphone apps to track dietary intake, she also urges caution, saying that "unless you're getting the tools and information you need to make lasting changes, it's unlikely that you'll be able to maintain any weight you've lost."

She recommends working on developing an understanding of how to balance meals so they fill you up while tasting great at the same time. She also stresses the importance of developing healthier coping strategies rather than turning to food when we're bored, stressed, anxious, depressed, or even happy.

"Rather than focus on a goal weight, I think a better way to go is to focus on small steps you can take to create healthier habits," Cassetty said. "Examples include, limiting soda, upping your veggie intake at lunch and dinner, cooking an extra meal or two, drinking more water, and aiming for 7-9 hours of sleep each night."

Those are words of wisdom, no doubt, but Cassetty also expressed the importance of cutting ourselves some slack when things get especially stressful and difficult.

"I think it's important to be flexible and compassionate with yourself during these challenging times," she added. "You may not be able to eat as well as you'd like or maintain your healthy routines, and that's alright. As long as you're putting in some effort — versus none at all — it's a step in the right direction."

Here are our top picks for the best weight loss apps:

Best overall weight loss app: Noom
Best weight loss app for those on a budget: Weight Watchers
Best free weight loss app: MyNetDiary
Best weight loss app for total fitness: MyFitnessPal
Best weight loss food tracking app: Lose It!
Best weight loss app for busy lifestyles: Rise
Best weight loss app for at-home cooks: Fooducate

The best overall weight loss app

Noom

Noom distinguishes itself from many other diet and weight loss apps by not just looking at a user's diet and restricting their intake. Instead, it examines a person's entire lifestyle, weighing factors like age, height, weight, activity level, target goals, medical history, and so on. Then, working in conjunction with a health and nutrition expert, it crafts a plan to help them reach their goals.

The program created for Noom users not only suggests which foods to eat but also introduces physical activity and reinforces healthy habits. The goal is to give the user the tools they need to adjust their current lifestyle gradually, making small changes that can be sustained over time. This approach leads to better health and fitness all around, which makes it a more balanced option for those looking to lose weight in a healthy and sustainable fashion.

The Noom app includes features you'd expect, including a food log, calorie tracker, and an activity monitor. Each tool plays a supporting role when it comes to supporting the app's curated health plan, too. They also provide incentives for users to be more active but in a more mindful way, taking into account caloric intake, fitness levels, and a variety of variables.

The downside of Noom is that it's pricey. Plans start at $59 per month and go up to $199 for a year, rewarding users for committing to more months at the outset. While Noom's well-rounded approach may be the best in terms of helping users to get healthy and fit, it's price point may be a significant hurdle for many.

Noom is available for both iOS and Android.

The best weight loss app for those on a budget

Weight Watchers App

Weight Watchers has helped people lose weight for decades and does a great job of making the transition to the digital age. The organization's WW app is designed to supplement its proven dietary plan by putting the resources members need right at their fingertips. That includes a massive database of rated foods using the Weight Watchers point system, putting less emphasis on calories and more on total awareness of exactly what foods you're eating.

The app includes far more features than just a food-tracking database, too. It offers more than 8,000 healthy recipes, a barcode for scanning foods at the grocery store, and the ability to get advice from a diet coach at any time. Members can also connect with one another to offer advice and encouragement, while also earning a variety of tangible rewards — such as water bottles and wireless earbuds — just for leading a healthy lifestyle.

Weight Watchers members get access to the WW app as part of their benefits but the company also offers a digital-only plan for just $19.95 per month. This provides access to all of the app's features but doesn't allow digital-only users to attend workshops and coaching sessions. All things considered, that's a reasonable price for a system proven to work well over time.

The WW app is available for both iOS and Android.

The best free weight loss app

My Net Diary

For those who are more comfortable managing their own dietary choices and would prefer not to pay anything at all, MyNetDiary is an excellent option. While the app does have some premium features, its free services are very good, too.

Those features include food and exercise tracking, meal planning options, graphical charts to map your progress, daily analysis of eating habits, and even access to a large and active online community. And not only are these services free but they don't require the user to create an account. That means your data stays safe and completely anonymous.

Paying for the premium version of MyNetDiary unlocks a number of other useful upgrades, as well. They include compatibility with Fitbit devices, health tracking for those who are diabetic or pre-diabetic, and personalized diet advice from a nutritionist. Those are handy to have if you need them but aren't necessary to see beneficial functionality from this app.

MyNetDiary is available for iOS and Android.

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