Best Diet and Nutrition Apps in 2015
In today's lifestyle which has become too laidback and influenced with junk foods, there has been a steady rise in health related complications. I will hereby list out a few mobile apps that would help you to keep track on what you eat and take precautions against such complications.
If you ask anyone for tips on how to lose those few kilos, anybody with commonsense will advice you to watch what you eat and keep a track on it. But it is not that easy to keep a track on it. You may not be able to resist feelings like " a little piece of cake won't make any difference" kind of temptation. You may end up adding up a few calories than losing it.
Don't worry....There are a handful of apps to help you out. Find the one that suits you and keep a track on what you gulp....1.Calorie Counter By MYFITNESSPAL
This is an unbelievably excellent free app. It prides itself in being the largest database of food.
Once you install the app, you need to enter a few personal details like age, sex, weight etc and then enter your target weight. The app calculates the calorie intake you should consume in order to attain your target.
The app requires you to input what you eat and what activities you undertake. The app sums up how many calories you have gained and burnt.
It also offers you a graph in which your weight loss regime is plotted in a very handy way.
The app has a few excellent features -
1. It is the world's largest food database with over 5,000,00 foods covered.
2. It is 100% free with no in-app purchases.
3. It tracks your diet and exercise in less than 5 minutes a day.
4. You can connect with your friends to easily track each others weight loss regime and motivate one another.
Some of the innovative aspects of this awesome apps include-
1. It has a Recipe importer which helps you visit any recipe over the Internet and track it.
2. You can receive personalised goals based on your individual profile.
3. You can view charts of your improvement.
4. It just does not cover your calorie intake - it includes the complete picture- sodium, vitamin, cholesterol intake and other nutritional information.
3. It has bar code scanner which can track food just by scanning the product bar code .It supports over 4 million bar codes.
The app has to its credit a few recommendations from some of the reputed quarters-
1. No.1 rated diet app in Consumer Reports.
2. PC Magazine's Editor's Choice selection.
3. Wired Magazine's Editor's pick or lifestyle apps.
No wonder , this is a highly rated app in its genre.2.My Diet Coach Pro
This is another awesome diet diary and calorie calculator app. Specifically designed keeping women in mind, this can however be used by men well.
Salient features of the app include-
1. It is a user friendly diet planner.
2. It has separate meal and exercise journals.
3. Bar code scanner is available, but unfortunately only for US foods.
The app lets you record your progress and view it regularly so that you can monitor and take corrective actions if needed.
Another best feature that I liked most in this app is the ability to set custom reminders for every event.
One more awesome feature that could invite attention are a few buttons. There is a Food Craving Panic button which can stop you from "that one more biscuit". A "Drink Water" button reminds you to drink enough water based on your food intake, age and weight.
The app shows your fitness/weight loss regime in the form of charts and graphs for easier understanding of the goals achieved.
The app also features a few motivational titbits to encourage your resolution to gain sound health.
1. Motivational photos
2. Virtual gifts and rewards to make you feel good on completion of some goals.
Some other interesting plus points of the app are
1. Flexibility and ease of use.
2. A single diary for meals, exercises and other events.
3. You can shoot photos of the food taken.
4. It has BMI and BMR calculators to review your performance.
5. It offers tips for every challenge-be it weight loss, health or fitness.
6. Extensive diet reminders throughout the day.
The app is available on Google play store at Rs.99.993.Calorie Counter by FatSecret
This is one of those essential apps to find the nutritional value of what you eat and keep track of your exercises, meals and weight.
The app has following features -
You need to create an account on FatSecret website to be able to use the features. There is web portal of this service wherein you can input your account credentials to view your progress on the web as well. The app syncs with your online account on the portal, so you can access your food tracking anytime, anywhere.
The app also has a beautiful home screen widget for instant tracking of your progress.
The FatSecret portal has a service tailored region wise with support for over 30 countries.
The Diet calendar aims at providing the information on the breakup of calories you have consumed and burnt.
Other exciting features of the app include-
1. You can track the net carbohydrate count of the food.
2. There is a barcode scanner to track the nutritional information of a wide range of foods. There is also an option for manual bar code entry.
3. Great reporting to the members.Conclusion
I have included only three Diet tracking apps which fascinated me. There are a lot of them on Play Store, most of them being fake or minimalist in nature. In my opinion, the app from MyFitnessPal is the best among the other apps in the genre.
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