Can an app help you reach your weight-loss goals?

It’s time to lose weight!? Many of us have said that to ourselves and we’ve all heard friends or family utter those words. As with many things these days, your mobile phone just may be able to help you and the mobile app Lose It! might just help you with your weight loss goals.

Reach Your Weight Loss Goals

Lose It! is a weight loss app that I’ve used and can vouch for the results. Think of it like WeightWatchers in app form. Imagine you’re about to sit down for a meal: You enter all the information of the food you’re about to eat, it tabulates the calories and works out how much of your daily calorie budget that meal uses up. 

There are countless studies that show that daily tracking of food is one of the most likely indicators of successful weight loss. Regardless of the tool, the act of tracking helps you make smart choices.

In my experience, the app teaches you where you’re losing the battle. It makes you aware of the calorific content of that one doughnut, or those Costco muffins – they’re pure evil. They contain around 690 calories each. 

Crowdsourced Data for Cataloguing Products

The nice thing about Lose It! is that it includes an extensive database of foods and allows you to add items that are not found in the database. Items added by others also show up in the database and by now, pretty much everything you find at your supermarket is going to be included. You can scan any barcode with the app and it’ll pull the nutritional values straight into your daily log. You don’t have to spend too much time thinking about it. 

Of course, some things (like fruit) don’t always have a barcode but are usually included in the database, so you can pick something that is close. Furthermore, the app remembers your commonly entered items for each meal, so it’s quick to track breakfast if you generally eat the same thing most days.

Simplicity and Gamification

Unlike similar apps, Lose It! is surprisingly simple and streamlined. They focus on one topic area, and they do it well, and I can personally vouch for the results. I’ve used it on and off over the last couple of years, and whether I’m setting a weight loss goal of 5 pounds in 10 weeks or something more ambitious, I’ve found it really helps me stick to my plan, keeps me accountable, and at the end of the journey, I look and feel better.

The best part? The app works offline, so when you can’t quite get service in the ethers of the grocery store, you can still scan the products you’re buying and check their nutritional value. 

Use it or Lose It?

Lose It! is super-easy to use. It’s a free app, but they also offer paid plans. For example, if you suffer from Coeliac disease and would like to monitor gluten levels in what you’re eating, you can bump up to the paid version. Lose It! works if you want to literally track every last mouthful and have the paid plan to get the full nutritional breakdown, but it also works well as a quick, easy way to enter your food daily without it being a chore.

One thing I love about Lose It! is that you don’t have to keep using it every day. There’s no commitment, and it can support you in a limited timeframe. However, if you maintain a logging streak, it can motivate you to keep going. 

Say you’ve got a wedding coming up, and you need to lose a few pounds, Lose It! can help you reach your goals ahead of the big day. Personally, I’ve used it a few times over the last two years, and when I’m happy with my weight, I put it to the back of my mind. 

So yes, Lose It! comes 14 Oranges-approved. Several members of our team find it helps them reach their weight loss goals. Our advice? Try it for a month. You might just find it’s finally the thing that helps to keep you accountable.

About the author: Sylvain Marcotte is CEO and President of 14 Oranges.

_{Images provided by LifeWire & Lose It! App}