Food revolution: 8 apps to help you be the biggest loser

Whatever your reason: a winter vacation in Thailand at the beach, a wedding, or (best of all) general fitness, losing a little (or a lot) of weight is generally a great thing if done in the proper way through exercise and correct eating. Obesity is one of the major health risks of our time, and the Jamie Olivers of the tech world have cooked up thousands of websites and apps that may help you count calories and fight the flab. Let’s take a look at 8 of the most popular (in no particular order):

MyFitnessPal (Free)

• Android – Rating: 4.7 stars (from 209,892 reviews)
• iOS – Rating: 4.5 stars (from 279,730 all-time reviews)

One of the best reviewed weight loss apps on Google Play, and an editor’s pick from both PC Mag and Wired, MyFitnessPal has a pretty impressive food database of over 2 million foods that it can count calories for. The app syncs with the service’s website which is a nice feature, includes a barcode scanner to match food to the database, lists over 350 exercises and offers the ability to connect with friends to lose weight together.

Noom (Free)

• Android – Rating: 4.3 stars (from 24,899 reviews)

Boasting it’s users have lost “over 5.5 million pounds” Noom provides personalized tasks derived from “a scientifically-backed weight loss plan”. The nice-looking app uses gamification tactics to get you motivated, and includes a logbook for meals, workouts and weight loss progress as well as integration with Facebook and Twitter.

Diet Point (Free & Paid)

• Android – Rating: 4.2 stars (from 17,732 reviews)
• iOS – Rating: 3 stars (from 3,037 all-time reviews)

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Diet Point claims to have the largest list of diet plans (55 for free, more than 150 for paid) as well as the largest mobile weight loss forum. The app comes with BMI and BMR calculators and meal reminders. The app is relatively basic looking, but the reference and community seem to be its strengths.

Diet Assistant (Free & Paid)

• Android – Rating: 4.2 stars (from 7,405 reviews)

Diet Assistant is similar to Diet Point, but seems to have a few more technological features such as customizable alerts, a home screen widget and database backup and restore.

My Diet Coach (Free & Paid)

• Android – Rating: 4.3 stars (from 3,057 reviews)

My Diet Coach takes a little different approach from the apps above, focusing solely on women and offering a bit more in the way of motivational prompts than hard data.

Restaurants Weight Loss Diet ($2.99)

• Android –  Rating: 4.6 stars (from 596 reviews)

This basic app takes another angle, providing users with calorie information on food from 300+ restaurants, fast food chains and, yes, buffets.

BMI Calculator (Free)

• Android – Rating: 4.4 stars (from 4,154 reviews)

This is a calculation app for for body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-height ratio (WhtR). Always something to be said about simplicity.

Fooducate (Free)

• Android – Rating: 4.4 stars (from 2,653 reviews)
• iOS – Rating: 4.5 stars (from 6,390 all-time reviews)

Like MyFitnessPal, Fooducate allows you to scan a UPC barcode to learn about that food’s nutrition facts before purchasing. However, while MyFitnessPal has a range of features, Fooducate focuses on giving an easy-to-understand overview of each of the 200,000+ foods you can scan into the app, giving the good – and the bad – of each food.

Image Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images