The Best Health and Fitness Apps

I’ve tested a lot of health and fitness apps over the years. I wrote it because I wanted to write about it, because I was interested in it, and because it was really useful. This is my pantheon of fitness apps. It’s the fitness app I use the most, and the one I think would be most useful to anyone. All these apps are available for both iOS and Android.

Best apps for nutrition tracking: Cronometer and Macrofactor

I’m including two apps here because one (Macrofactor) only works if you pay for a subscription. I’m a happy subscriber, but I wholeheartedly recommend Cronometer to anyone looking for a free option.

Cronometer is a functional and unobtrusive nutrition tracker, unlike certain popular apps (coughMFPcough). Don’t want to see your calorie target on the main screen? You can hide it. Want to scan barcodes on food packages? It’s a free feature. (Of course, there is a premium tier that offers even more features, but nothing important is hidden behind it.)

By the way, if you enter the name in the app store, be sure to follow my link or check the spelling. There’s at least one other app with a confusingly similar name.

Credit: Beth Skwarecki/MacroFactor

MacroFactor is a nutrition tracker, but it also has some clever features that are incredibly valuable and underappreciated in the fitness world. That is, it recognizes the calories you have eaten recently and whether your weight has changed. Based on that, it estimates your total daily calorie burn without tracking your exercise or worrying about the accuracy of your wearable. If you are eating 2,300 calories and your weight is stable, you know that your body burns 2,300 calories a day.

MacroFactor costs $11.99 per month, or approximately $71.99 per year. I learned a lot by tracking my calorie consumption with MacroFactorI highly recommend this if you don’t have trouble tracking calories and are interested in gaining weight, losing weight, or refueling for exercise.

Best app to track your runs: Strava

Credit: Beth Skwarecki/Strava

If you have a wearable that you like, matching apps are a great way to track your daily workouts. (Garmin Connect if you have a Garmin watch, Fitbit if you have a Fitbit or Pixel watch, etc.) strava It collects data from any wearable (or you can enter the run manually if you don’t want to run at all) and displays maps and statistics. plus You can see what your friends are doing.

There are caveats to this recommendation. If you want to maintain your privacy, especially if you’re running in an area with few other runners, here’s what you can do: Be aware of Strava privacy issues and Lock down settings Even with those caveats, if you’re not used to the defaults, Strava is still my choice as the best running app. The premium tier includes additional mapping tools to plan your running route and additional analysis tools to see how fast you ran. Prices are $11.99 per month or $79.99 per year

The best app to keep you running: Nike Run Club

Credit: Beth Skwarecki/Nike Run Club

There are many ways to find a workout that you can stick to. Get workouts from wearables like Garminor register for services such as apple fitness+ or peloton. But what stands out in this category are the ones that are simple, free, and well-made. it is a historical thing nike run clubyou don’t even have to wear a watch. Start your run from your phone and instantly have Coach Bennett and other friendly voices guiding you. I love this appI would happily recommend it to anyone who is tired of running.

Best app to track strength training: Hevy

Credit: Beth Skwarecki/Hevy

The caveat to this recommendation is that I don’t use strength training apps on a daily basis. I receive training from a real coach through the coaching app I use at the gym, and I record everything important on paper. training diary. But I’ve tried enough strength training apps to know which ones are out there. I definitely have a favorite. That’s heavy.

I We tested the Pixel Watch 3’s fitness tracking featuresI found the Heavy Watch app to be much better than any of the watch’s native strength training features. Heart rate is not tracked. good thing. However, you can use the wrist-based interface to track the lifts you’re doing, and the watch app updates the phone app and vice versa. Hevy also works with iPhone and Apple Watch, and of course you can use it just with your phone.

heavy You can plan your routine. You can also set a break time if you wish. Track your progress and show how you’ve gotten stronger over time. There’s also a desktop version, so you can view your workouts on your computer screen for more detailed planning.

Best app to monitor injuries and health issues: Bearable

Credit: Beth Skwarecki/Bearable

As the philosopher Lem once told us, everyone gets hurt from time to time. Sometimes you get injured while working out, or sometimes pain comes out of nowhere and you have to work around them while exercising. In some cases, Especially for lower back painhow we feel can depend on all sorts of things in our daily lives. For example, your back pain may get better on days you exercise, and it may get worse on days you experience a lot of stress at work.

It can be hard to keep track of those factors in your head, but I found tolerable To be helpful. You can decide what to track each day, such as your stress level or whether you did physical therapy exercises, to assess how much your back pain (or anything else) is bothering you. A pattern quickly emerges. As I was using it, I could see that the pain was going away, which was very encouraging. everytime It was so bad that I learned that there were actually things I could control to feel better. This is not limited to injuries, but can also be used to track chronic health issues and mental health.