I want to lose 10-15 pounds, can you recommend an iPhone app to help me?

December 4, 2015 9:57 AM

Hi, I'd like to lose 10-15 pounds. When I weigh what I do now (200 lbs.), I have issues with indigestion and acid reflux. When I weigh about 10-15 pounds less, I don't. So, I'd like to lose some weight. I found that using apps (FitBit and Runkeeper) really helped me run and walk more, and I'm hoping there is an app that will help me learn to be more mindful about my eating and lose a little weight. What do you suggest?
posted by Area Man to Health & Fitness (19 answers total)

MyFitnessPal. You can track meals, calories, exercise, weight and more. Its such an amazing app. I lost nearly 50lbs using it.
posted by GilvearSt at 9:59 AM on December 4, 2015 [21 favorites]

"Lose it" is a great app for being mindful about what you eat.
posted by Doc_Sock at 10:00 AM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

I really like MyFitnessPal. It's just a tracker but can give you an idea about whether you are on track or not and, if not, by how much. You say "I weigh this much, I am this active" and it gives you a calorie limit. The app is pretty easy (though it works best if you can measure your food) and syncs across desktop/device stuff.
posted by jessamyn at 10:00 AM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

You want MyFitnessPal. It's great, comprehensive, and easy. Available across most platforms, too, I think.
posted by still bill at 10:00 AM on December 4, 2015

Nthing MyFitnessPal. It will sync your activity with fitbit, too.
posted by something something at 10:08 AM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

MyFitnessPal + /r/keto/
posted by pyro979 at 10:09 AM on December 4, 2015 [3 favorites]

I'll go even SIMPLER - take a photo of what you eat every meal.

I recommend MyFitnessPal to my clients, and I use it myself when I need to reign it back in and get super strict, but as the article above says, just keeping a pen and paper diary or taking a photo of everything you eat, before you eat it, will help you track and be mindful.
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 10:23 AM on December 4, 2015 [2 favorites]

MyFitnessPal has helped me lose 40 lbs over the last year. Love the database of foods plus you can scan things with barcodes.
posted by heathrowga at 11:15 AM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

Another MyFitnessPal vote. I did C25K with the app, start to finish, and have moved on to tracking portion size and calories with MFP. It's enlightening.

Using MFP with a smartphone = automatically integrates your daily pedometer count into your daily caloric intake budget. Very handy.

My target weight is 180, I started at about 210 back in October, currently at 192. Haven't felt a bit deprived by counting calories. Mostly I've felt a little sheepish about how much I eat when I don't pay attention to reasonable portion sizes (especially when it comes to beer, which I've mostly stopped drinking day to day and likely accounts for the vast majority of the ~20 pounds I've lost). Kind of an amazing technology to have in my pocket.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 11:21 AM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

Seconding Major Matt Mason Dixon above. And, of course, there's an app for that: Two Grand.
posted by hapax_legomenon at 11:31 AM on December 4, 2015

I liked Noom. https://www.noom.com/ They gamify it without being obnoxious.
posted by edbles at 11:31 AM on December 4, 2015

I just re-started using myfitnesspal last week! It's fun at first, but I find that it works for me for a couple months, and after that I burn out on logging everything I eat.

Here's a hint: you can go into the settings and adjust the goals for each of your macronutrients. I've found the following targets on various weightlifting forums:

adding muscle (if lifting regularly)
25-35% protein
40-60% carbs
15-25% fats

maintenance
30-50% protein
25-35% carbs
25-35% fats

weight loss (low carbs)
40-50% protein
10-30% carbs
30-40% fats

I'm passing these percentages on as "a cool thing I found that might work" rather than targets I can vouch for. The myfitness app is great for targeting calories for gaining or losing weight (I've used it for both), but this is the first time I've actually tried to hit any macronutrient targets, and it's surprisingly hard.
posted by kanewai at 12:22 PM on December 4, 2015 [5 favorites]

Myfitnesspal and LoseIt both pretty much do the same thing, it just depends on which UI you prefer (I prefer LoseIt myself). Between my husband and myself we've probably lost a total of 50 lbs in the last 9 months with it.
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:00 PM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

I too like MyfitnessPal. Husbunny has lost 60 pounds with it. My Dad, the Luddite is obsessed with it and at the age of 80 has lost 30 pounds, with Diabetes no less!

Can't recommend it enough.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 1:19 PM on December 4, 2015

MyFitnessPal is great if you want to keep track of calories consistently but if you want to lose 10-15 lbs by habit I recommend apps that gamify it like edbles recommended above. I use the Rally app and enjoy it because I sign up for missions like weight training 2x a week, not eating pass full, using a smaller plate, so then I pick up healthy habits but don't obsess OBSESS over calorie counting. Like FitBit, it helps you be cognizant of your eating habits, your sleeping habits, your activity habits without causing you to scan every bit of food and track every bit.

I also do like the idea of taking a photo of all your meals. I have an Instagram account just for fitness and meal photos.
posted by xicana63 at 1:56 PM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

I agree that loseit and myfitnesspal are basically the same. I prefer LoseIt.
posted by sweetkid at 2:19 PM on December 4, 2015

I also prefer LoseIt (cleaner than MFP, less buggy, and I feel it's less pushy about social stuff if you don't like that), but its database is US-centric, so it involves a lot of inputting if you're not in the US (in case you're not). MFP has a huge database. (It's user-generated, so you have to double-check entries, but once your main rotation's in, it's easy).
posted by cotton dress sock at 2:51 PM on December 4, 2015

I learned about the TwoGrand app -- which now goes by the name of YouFood -- from AskMe, and I have found it very successful for tracking my food and exercise, and cultivating mindful eating habits. I am also however checking in with a registered dietitian every 2 to 3 months for tips on how to eat. My fitness pal could also be helpful if you would like to track calories or fat/proteins/carbohydrates. Looking up foods in a database gets onerous to me after a while though, so YouFood has been working much better for me since I have a lot of fun with taking pictures!
posted by NikitaNikita at 8:55 PM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

I use MyFitnessPal, which has helped me lose 65 pounds over 2 years and keep the weight off for the past year and counting. It does take a while at first to get things set up, and to learn correct calorie counting (a food scale is essential), but after the first couple months, it doesn't require much work. I do a lot of home cooking and have added over 100 recipes to my personal database, and it usually takes less than 5 minutes to add a new one. I usually eat the same 2-3 things for breakfast, and my lunches are usually one of 4-5 options, so those are easy.

The user-contributed database has its pros and cons. It's very big, but you have to check entries (even so-called "verified" ones) for errors.

When I was losing weight, I was fairly strict about accuracy. These days I'm more lax; if I'm eating out, I'll find something close, log it, and then write a note about the meal. In other words, I tend to use it now as a food diary, and to guesstimate calories, but not for strict calorie counting any more.

In his book The Diet Fix, Dr. Yoni Freedhoff recommends either MyFitnessPal or MyNetDiary. The latter requires a paid subscription to take advantage of many of its features, but it has an extensive offline database (so you can log food without an Internet connection, e.g. on a trip overseas).
posted by brianogilvie at 11:26 AM on December 5, 2015