You’ve had weight loss surgery and you’re on your way to a thinner and healthier life. You’d like to take advantage of technology and use some of the great apps out there to help you along the way. But which apps should you use? There are a lot of choices and many of them seem similar.
We reviewed over 30 of the most popular apps for weight loss and the six apps below are our favorites. Yes, some of them cost money. Pony up the .99 cents and get yourself an app that may help you keep the weigh off.
None of these apps are specific to any one procedure. In fact, many are not specific to weight loss surgery but they will help you stay focused, motivated, and engaged and the hope is that they will put you on the course to success. So whether you’ve had gastric bypass, Lap Band surgery, or gastric sleeve surgery, the apps below will work.
Baritastic
This is by far the coolest app for weight loss surgery patients and it’s totally free. The app has a ton of great features for any bariatric surgery patient.
- Track nutrition
- Track weight loss
- Weekly motivation
- Photo timelines
- Access top bariatric forums
- Listen to the number 1 bariatric podcast via the app
We highly recommend this app for anyone considering weight loss surgery or anyone who has already had surgery. Great design, great content, all specific to the bariatric patient.
You can get Baritastic here from the Apple App Store. And you can get it here from Google Play.
BariApps
BariApps makes apps for weight loss clinics and hospitals. These are not your standard “hospital apps.” These are real iPhone and Android apps specifically for bariatric surgery patients. Their apps allow patients to track their weight loss, track their nutrition, request appointments, participate in a Fitbit Challenge, ask the Dietitian questions and a whole lot of other cool features.
The real value to the bariatric patient is if your bariatric surgeon or hospital has one. If they do, it then becomes very easy to stay connected to your surgeon, access recipes and everything else I mentioned. To see if your surgeon or hospital has one, search the major app stores for your hospital’s name or your bariatric surgeon’s practice name.
Waterlogged
This app is great for weight loss surgery patients.
Its very easy to become dehydrated when you’re losing weight quickly. Water becomes an important part of your day for two reasons. Water helps stave off hunger and it replaces soda and other unhealthy drinks. No, juice doesn’t count!
This app is simple, intuitive, free (unless you want the graphs function), and awesome.
Unfortunately, this app is not available on Google Play. There are some water tracking apps on Google Play but I don’t love them like I love this one. Waterlogged, if you’re listening, make us Android users an app please!
Get Waterlogged in the Apple App Store here.
Fooducate
Fooducate is a free app, with some optional paid features, that allows you to quickly scan almost any barcode at your grocery store to find out what’s really inside the food you’re buying.
It gives you easy to use info on the spot about protein content (great for post weight loss surgery patients), gluten, sugars, and much more.
You can set the app to specifically tell you about certain warning signs. I like to be aware of protein, sugar and whole wheat.
You can also use the app to track what you ate and calculate calories from fat, protein, carbs, etc. It’s a powerful tool.
Personally, I like to occasionally scan the food in my pantry so I get a better understanding of what I’m eating and change my diet accordingly.
Get Fooducate on the Apple App Store here. Get it for Android here.
My Net Diary
This app was designed for women but men can find value in it as well.
I like the app for two reasons. First of all there are some good tips in the app that are specific to certain situations.
For instance, if you’re craving sweets, there are tips just for that that you can scroll through. I like to check these tips out a couple of times per week to keep me motivated.
The second reason I like this app is the food craving panic button. This is only available in the paid version. In fact, there are some ads on the free version and they are annoying – so I suggest dishing out the 99 cents for this one.
The food craving panic button is basically a timer that makes you wait 20 minutes before you eat anything. The theory is that most cravings go away after 20 minutes. I’ve found this to be pretty true.
Get My Diet Coach on the Apple App Store here. Get it on Android here.
Happy Scale
This is a simple to use app that allows you to track your weight loss by logging your daily or weekly weight changes.
The app takes your goal weight and breaks it up into milestones. I feel like I’m achieving something every milestone I reach.
This is app is so simple but very enjoyable. It also creates an easy to read graph that shows a trend line instead of the daily ups and downs that make us feel like we are going in the wrong direction.
Its free, so you have nothing to lose except those extra pounds.
Unfortunately, at the time of writing this article, Happy Scale is not available in an Android version.
Get Happy Scale on the Apple App Store here.
By Popular Demand:
Fitbit & Aria
The Fitbit is a device that can be worn on your wrist, in a pocket, hidden in your bra or even on your belt. Its small enough to be barely noticeable and the wristband, which I wear, is actually cool looking (in a techie sort of way). The device tracks your daily steps and some of the devices, like the Flex and the Fitbit One, track your sleep as well. Sleep is often as important as exercise when it comes to weight loss.
The App is cool because if you have an iPhone 4s or higher or a bluetooth enabled Android phone you can sync wirelessly to the app. I access my Fitbit app multiple times per day to see how I’m doing on reaching my goal of 10,000 steps per day. This is great for weight loss surgery patients because you don’t have to run 5 miles to reach your goal. I reach my goal by being active with the kids, cleaning the house, and walking my dog.
You can buy the Fitbit directly from their website or major big box stores like Best Buy (however, they seem to be sold out every time I’m there).
The Aria Scale is another very cool product. This is made by the Fitbit folks and syncs with the same apps mentioned above as well as other apps that incorporate Fitbit. The scale tracks your weight and your body fat. The data is sent to your mobile app so you can instantly see your progress without having to enter the data yourself. The scale can store up to 8 users info so your significant other and family members can use the scale as well. This makes tracking your weight loss easier than ever!