App of the Week – Lose it!

 

 

by Tanya Menoni of Lifewire

The Good

Free
Huge food database
Includes restaurant items

The Bad

Time consuming to use regularly

Counting calories can be an effective way to shed pounds, but keeping track of every last bite is a chore. The Lose It! app (Free, with in-app purchases) is an excellent tool for recording your food intake and exercise. The best part? Unlike the Weight Watchers app, Lose It! is not associated with any particular diet, so it’s useful no matter what approach to eating you prefer.

An Extensive Food Database

Numerous studies have shown that dieters who keep a daily food log lose more weight than those who don’t. According to Kristin Kirkpatrick, a registered dietitian with the Cleveland Clinic, most people underestimate how much they eat on a daily basis. A food log, in which you track everything you eat throughout the day, helps keep you accountable. That’s the idea behind the Lose It! app, which is one of the most popular weight loss apps in the App Store.

When you first log in to the app, you’ll be asked to enter your personal details, including starting weight, goal weight, gender, and height. You can also specify how much weight you’d like to lose each week, which will affect the calorie totals suggested by the app. You also create an account using an email address. The setup process takes a few seconds, and then the Lose It! app will display your daily calorie budget. The home screen includes a bar graph showing how many calories you have left to eat throughout the day, minus any exercise you record.

Adding foods to your log is super easy. Searching by keyword is the easiest way to get started. I was impressed with just how comprehensive the food database is.

A search for “bacon,” for example, brings up regular bacon, turkey bacon, vegetarian bacon, bacon fat, bacon drippings, and a whole lot more. The app included every food I could think of, but if it’s lacking something you can add the food manually (and it will be saved so you can choose it again later). I also love that it includes so many restaurant foods, which is helpful for checking calorie counts even when you’re dining out.

Don’t Forget to Exercise!

It’s also easy to add in your exercise totals for the day. The Lose It! app includes everything from curling to canoeing, so your calorie burn will be calculated automatically for a variety of exercises. Once you add an exercise, the app combines your calorie burn and exercise totals so you know exactly where you stand for the day.

The app also includes some other nifty features. With your free LoseIt.com account, you can add friends, back up your data online, and view weight-loss reports. There’s also a spot where you can record your daily weight so you can see your progress on a graph.

The Bottom Line

Lose It! is one of the best calorie-tracking apps I’ve tried. It is rather time consuming to log your food every day, but it gets faster once you add some foods to your favorites and get the hang of the interface.

Speaking of the interface, it is very well done. The app is intuitive, and the daily calorie budget helps you quickly make decisions on the food you eat. If weight loss is your New Year’s resolution, the Lose It! app should be one of your first downloads.

Overall rating: 5 stars out of 5.

What You’ll Need

The Lose It app works with both iOS and Android devices.

Download for iOS
Download for Android

What is your favorite Weight Loss App? Leave it in the comments below!