6 Health Apps that really work for weight loss (and I use daily)

Over the last six years I’ve lost almost 20% of my body weight through diet and exercise. But when I hit a weight loss plateau in December 2019 – lots of exercise but no corresponding weight loss – I decided to use digital apps to break through the wall. It worked, and I’m back on course towards my short-term target weight. This article details the tools I’ve used to do this, and I hope it can help you too.

Background

Currently, I’m training for the Barcelona Ironman in October 2020, with a number of handicaps – 13 years since last racing that distance, being obese by WHO criteria and about to turn 43 this year. Unfortunately, I’m not alone for weight loss issues – obesity is increasing at a rapid rate in most of the EU Member States, with estimates of over 51% of the EU’s adult population being overweight in 2014. Globally, obesity has also tripled since 1975.

The good news is that anybody can lose weight, and there are more and more digital tools which can encourage us to meet our health objectives. I can say this with confidence because I used to weigh 132kgs – now I’m 109kgs and I intend to get to 94kgs by April of this year. If I succeed, I will have lost 29% of my body mass naturally and without surgery. 

Below are the Health Apps I recommend to anybody else who is trying to develop a fitter lifestyle.

Smart BMI Calculator – online at www.smartbmicalculator.com

This very useful free calculator gives you a status of where you currently stand with your Body Mass Index (BMI), which is essentially your height-to-weight ratio and optimal weight. BMI is not perfect, but at least it’s standardised. The site will also give an alternative evaluation to WHO criteria, and suggested that I was overweight rather than obese while informing me of both categories. It’s not for daily use, but it’s good to see where you stand in terms of health risks related to your weight, and could be the wake-up call that you need. I'm happy to say that I have migrated from a borderline ′very high health risk′ to just into the territory of 'moderate health risk'. In the next year or so, I'd like to have moved into 'low risk', which is where we should all be.

fatsecret – online at www.fatsecret.com and downloadable as a mobile app

fatsecret is a calorie counting and weight tracking app. It’s free and is linked to a vast database of foods. I now log all of my eating on this app religiously. Although I had a fairly good idea of the calorific values of foods, I found that I had no sense of weight and portion control. I solved this by using a kitchen scale, and now I have a much better idea of what 20 grams of cheese actually looks like (hint: small!). I’ve used it to calculate hotel and restaurant meals as well. Even a fairly modest-looking continental breakfast can pack 1,200 calories. Now consider the buffet with a full fry up… Recording the calories gives you a valuable perspective, and my food intake has dropped a lot. Also, the act of weighing in every day does keep us focused on our weight loss goals.

Strava – downloadable mobile app and online at www.strava.com

Strava is a popular sports social media app. You can sign up for monthly challenges, find routes, join virtual clubs etc. These may not sound like much when you train predominantly on your own as I do or if you are not particularly interested in social media, but it quickly grew on me. If you intend to cycle over 100km, why not get the digital trophy, kudos from friends and a sports gear voucher for 50 euros at the same time? It’s funny to realise that you really do want that digital trophy for the 110km Le Col cycling challenge and you have to do it one day if you are to complete on time. That alone can be the decider on whether you brave the rain or not. It also gives good stats and takes data from some other wearables and apps.

Polar Flow – downloadable mobile app and online at flow.polar.com, used with Polar Vantage M Sport Watch and H10 Heart Rate Monitor

Okay, this is where it gets serious. I use the Polar Vantage M Sport Watch with a chest heart rate monitor (HRM) for triathlon training, and these sorts of wearables normally cost a few hundred euros/dollars. You can get cheaper alternatives, but for heavy training most athletes prefer good data, and the quality of the data monitoring on Polar Flow is superb. When I did my last Ironman 13 years ago I had the basic heart rate, speed and calorie burn data available, but no dashboard. Now I can see the entire training history on the app and online, with very useful graphs and performance feedback (productive, over-reaching, maintaining or detraining), which is good to know. It really does function as a digital coach and shows me when I can push more, and when I have to throttle back. It shares data with Strava too. Right now, my watch is telling me to move around…

Google Fit – downloadable mobile app

I use Google Fit mostly as an aggregator and middleware because the other applications either don’t share data and if they do, the data doesn’t line up as you’d like... fatsecret doesn’t take calorie data from Polar and vice versa. But they do both share data with Google Fit. Unfortunately, Google Fit calculates calorie burn differently to Polar and is more conservative. Still, it’s nice to have some data transferring and it’s better to underestimate your calorie burn than to overestimate. Fundamentally, continuously declining weight over a period of time is really the core indicator, and so far that's what's been happening.

Prana Breath – downloadable mobile app

This one may seem an oddity as it doesn’t manage any fitness or calorie data as such. Based on Pranayama Breathing in yoga, this app is a controlled breathing exercise that reduces stress. I use it to improve my swimming, where I need to increase my strokes per breath. It was recommended to me by my swim coach, and between the app and his guidance, I’m getting faster gradually. But the app can also be used to help control appetite and nicotine cravings.

Final thoughts

I fully recommend the use of the above apps, or similar versions, to anybody with a health and fitness goal. One of the best things about current health apps is the variety – you can tailor to your objectives and what I have described is simply what works for me. Yes, you will have to surrender some of your personal data, especially location data, and you should check data privacy commitments by the app provider first. But in return, you gain an excellent understanding of your health choices and encouragement to reach your objectives. It might sound cheesy, but having Google Fit telling you that you’re amazing because you did over 120 minutes of physical activity is better than a dead silence as you wheel your bike in from an exhausting 5-hour ride in wind and rain!

Having said all of the above, without the motivation to improve on your own health, apps are pointless. You must have a personal health goal that is meaningful to you and that you can give some focus to most days of the week. It can be simple or ambitious – as long as it motivates you to become healthier, it’s a good goal. Regardless of the goal, research it properly and understand what your pathway to success looks like. Do that, and the apps will become powerful tools propelling you towards your goal, as well as helping you maintain your targets once you have reached them. Good luck!