2017 RANKING & REVIEWS
TOP RANKING BEST HEALTH AND FITNESS APPS
Tracking Your Health and Fitness Effectively with the Best Health Apps for 2017
Our mobile devices are serving a number of purposes already, but what if they could help us to improve our health as well? With a number of up and coming healthcare apps being developed all the time, it’s possible that our phones can help us not just to stay connected but also to stay in shape and healthy.
Award Emblem: Top 6 Best Health Apps for a Healthy Lifestyle
A health tracker app can work in many different ways, depending on the specific platform. From counting your calories to keeping track of your workouts, the best health and fitness apps give you more control over a tricky aspect of your daily life. A healthy lifestyle app can put you in control and keep you moving toward a healthier life overall.
With some of the best health apps having very minimal costs, what is holding you back from achieving a healthier lifestyle in the here and now?
How do you know which of the top health apps are going to meet your specific needs? Once you can evaluate your personal health goals, AdvisoryHQ has compiled this ranking of the most highly-rated best health tracking apps to get you started.
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AdvisoryHQ’s List of the Top 6 Best Health and Fitness Apps
List is sorted alphabetically (click any of the apps below to go directly to the detailed review section for that health and fitness app):
Top 6 Best Health and Fitness Apps | Brief Comparison & Ranking
Healthcare Apps | Best for | Cost |
| Couch to 5K® | Users who need to go from no exercise to a 5K in nine weeks | $2.99 |
| Endomondo | Keeping up with a current exercise plan, including social media accountability | Free to $2.50 per month |
| Lose It! | Personalized weight loss plan with food and exercise tracking | Free to $3.33 per month |
| MyFitnessPal | Counting calories | Free |
| Strava | Tracking running or cycling routes and workouts | Free to $7.99 per month |
| Sworkit | Watching videos and creating routines using no equipment at home | Free to $7.99 per month |
Table: Top 6 Best Health Apps | Above list is sorted alphabetically
How Do I Set Fitness Goals and Choose the Best Health Apps?
For many consumers, the switch to a healthier lifestyle is fraught with uncertainty over where they should begin. Especially for consumers who have never used health and fitness apps or who don’t have a regular workout routine and diet established, this can be an incredibly difficult concept for them to gain mastery over.
Image Source: Pexels
What should you know about setting your fitness goals before you start using these apps for health?
First, you need to truly evaluate where your current lifestyle has landed you. Do you have an exercise routine that you practice regularly? If so, how often do you work out and what types of activities do you prefer?
Answering these questions can often make a quick decision on which of these healthcare apps will work the best for you. Many of the best health apps are designed to accommodate running or cycling, but there are still plenty of choices for top health apps that offer more unique exercise routines. If you regularly ski to stay in shape or have a yoga practice you prefer, there are still plenty of health and wellness apps for you to make use of.
Likewise, some of the apps for health are geared toward beginners while other health apps are for avid exercise enthusiasts.
You may also need to consider whether you’re searching for a health tracker app that keeps track of your exercise or your diet. Determining where your main struggle lies could be a deciding factor for which of the best health and fitness apps will be able to offer assistance.
Some users find that they are more apt to continue using their healthcare apps long-term if they have additional accountability. This is the reason why so many of the best health apps are compatible with social media platforms or have their own accountability community. You may feel more inspired to put on your sneakers and get moving if you’re staying in friendly competition with others in your neighborhood or around the world through your health tracker app.
Keep in mind that the best health apps will be highly dependent upon the goals you set for yourself. A combination of several of these apps for health could be the best thing to get you motivated to move and maintain a healthier lifestyle overall.
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AdvisoryHQ’s Selection Methodology
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Detailed Review – Top Ranking Best Health and Fitness Apps
Below, please find the detailed review of each app on our list of best health apps. We have highlighted some of the factors that allowed these healthcare apps to score so highly in our selection ranking.
Couch to 5K® Review
Consumers who dream of improving their fitness to keep up with their friends will love the simplicity of the Couch to 5K® healthcare apps. Designed to help you move from little to no exercise to running a 5K race in just nine weeks, you’ll find this healthy lifestyle app to be a great introductory program to get in shape.
The overall premise of these best health apps is to get you up off of the couch for at least three days each week. Sessions offered by these health apps last for a very minimal thirty minutes to ensure that it is easy, even for non-active users.
One of the many advantages to these best health and fitness apps is the ability to use all of their training tools. These apps for health offer more than just standards to meet for each of your workouts:
- Log and share workouts with other friends using the C25K app
- Sync your playlists
- Track your distance and your pace with the GPS feature
- Select a “trainer” that works best for you
Users who fall in love with the program available through this best app for health have the option to move on to training for a 10K race as well.
Rated at almost a full five stars in both iTunes and the Google Play Store, this pick for best health and fitness apps costs just $2.99 to get started.
Endomondo Review
Endomondo is an ideal choice for users who need apps for health that help to keep them accountable to their current exercise regimen. With lots of detailed features and statistics available on your workout history, this top healthcare app helps you to find new challenges and to stay motivated with your routines.
With two different versions (free and premium), Endomondo has a ton of capabilities for users who want to maximize this app for health:
- Audio coach feedback on performance
- Workout history (including maps, pictures, comments, and more)
- Workout goals for friendly competitions with yourself or others
- Heartrate sensors
- Handles multiple sports (running, cycling, walking, mountain biking, and more than forty others)
Many users will want to note that these top health apps give them better accountability for their workouts by linking them closely with friends. The social support available on the free version of Endomondo is crucial to helping some users achieve success with their health and fitness apps.
Social features allow you to see friends’ workouts on the news feed of this app for health, receive pep talks from friends during workouts, uncover new routes, and set challenges among friends. Posts on these best health and fitness apps are also compatible on most of the popular social media networks, including Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.
The basic version, detailed above, is free. You gain access to additional features, including a personal training plan and an ad-free experience, by upgrading to premium for $2.50 per month.
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Lose It! Review
Lose It! is a little different than some of the other selections for the best healthcare apps on our ranking. Designed to help users lose weight more effectively, this healthy lifestyle app allows you to track both diet and exercise in one convenient platform. This health tracker app even gives users a place to start by helping to set a goal that is appropriate for them.
Many consumers like this healthcare app because they assist you in choosing goals that are appropriate for your situation. With just a few key details like your birthday, weight, height, and gender, Lose It begins to create a personalized weight loss plan. From here, you can easily start to track progress toward your goal with the other features available on this app for health.
Image Source: Lose It!
Food tracking is especially simple with this healthy living app. Compared to calorie journals of years ago, users can update their food log in one of three simple ways:
- Search for it in their database, equipped with over seven million items
- Take a picture of your food
- Scan the barcode to upload nutritional information
With the basic version of this healthcare app, you can gain access to calorie tracking, exercise tracking, and a weight loss community. However, their premium plan offers far more for users who are searching for the most detailed options among the best healthcare apps:
- Macronutrient goal setting and tracking
- Nutritional insights
- Data analysis
- Meal planning and access to recipe and workout library
- Water tracking
The basic version of this best health and fitness app is free, but the premium version costs just $3.33 per month.
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MyFitnessPal Review
Many users who are interested in keeping better track of what they consume have already heard of MyFitnessPal. This top health app makes staying on top of your diet and your consumption easier than ever before. Recognized by a number of top media outlets (Self, Mashable, FitSugar, The Huffington Post, Marie Claire, and more), this health app gives you more power over your meals.
Claiming to have the world’s largest nutrition and calorie database with over five million foods, this pick for best health tracking app allows you to see the calories in your meal quickly. Not only is keeping a food journal proven to increase weight loss, but the ease of using this type of best health apps can contribute as well:
- Add and log recipes you find on the internet
- Syncing between web and mobile apps
- Ability to add food to your journal in just a few clicks
Consumers love that this best health tracking app is created to make keeping your food log easier than ever before. The database is very detailed, offering plenty of options even for simple items such as “eggs.”
Perhaps the best feature is that access to the full database is available on this health app for free. Whether you use the web or mobile version of MyFitnessPal, it is free for everyone. This cost-effective solution among the best health and fitness apps really cuts through some of the excuses about the potential costs.
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Strava Review
Strava is a great tool for athletes who are serious about keeping track of fitness using one of the top mobile health apps. Their health and wellness apps assume that you likely already have a fairly high degree of fitness with running or cycling. For those who want to find one of the best apps for health that allows them to be competitive with friends, Strava has an extensive list of capabilities.
Compatible with a lengthy list of GPS devices, Strava allows you to track your own performance with statistics such as:
- Heart rate
- Speed
- Pace
- Distance
- Comparison to past performances
- Suffer Score
- This app for health is well-known for its extensive marking of trails and routes by other users. You can sort by popularity or just get a quick glimpse of the area with a heatmap.
Most users enjoy the ability to share their progress with friends through their social network, but Strava goes a step further. With the Beacon function, you can share your location in real-time with anyone who can keep an eye out for you while you go on your route. Ideal in case of an emergency, this function is a top reason Strava is considered one of the most highly-rated apps for health.
From the mobile app, you can only do so much, but the desktop version has even more capabilities. Users who wanted to use their mobile health app to create detailed training plans or to plan new routes will want to be sure to look into the desktop version.
The basic version of Strava is free, but the premium version includes use of the Beacon feature and advanced statistics. The premium membership costs $7.99 per month.
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Sworkit Review
Need some instruction but don’t have the money to take classes at the gym? The Sworkit mobile health app is available to help, with personalized workout routines and a large library of videos that can get you in shape no matter where you are.
Consumers are consistently happy with the variety available from this health and wellness app. Options are available even for inactive users who don’t have much time to dedicate to a workout practice each day. Workout videos on this best health app range in length from five minutes to over an hour.
Another great feature to the workout plans provided from this best health app is the ability to do all of them without any equipment. This virtually eliminates all excuses for not maintaining a set workout routine day after day. Users can choose from categories including:
- Strength
- Cardio
- Yoga
- Pilates
- Stretching
With the free version of this best health app, you can gain access to one personalized custom workout. However, the premium version allows you to do so much more with your current fitness levels:
- Opt for low-impact exercises ideal for beginners or older adults
- Set custom exercise intervals
- Gain access to unlimited custom workouts
- Get exclusive pre-built workouts
- Higher levels of support
The Sworkit mobile health app is designed to help you create a six-week program to reach your fitness goals. Increase your flexibility, strength, or muscle tone with one of their workouts or exercises from the library.
While the basic version of Sworkit, like the other best health and fitness apps, is free, the premium version is slightly more expensive. Priced at $7.99 per month, users gain access to the more detailed features and more extensive workout routines.
Image Source: Sworkit
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Conclusion—Top 6 Best Health and Fitness Apps
Once you evaluate what your personal health goals are, you’ll find no shortage of health and fitness apps to get you started. Whether you’re searching for programs that can track your fitness or your diet, the best apps for health are relatively simple to find and put into regular usage within your current routine.
Do you need something to motivate you to put in a workout? Are you more interested in weight loss? Perhaps you just need some apps for health to keep track of your current workouts in a more organized fashion.
No matter what your specific needs are, the best health and fitness apps can provide a greater degree of accountability to reach your goals. Some consumers may find that their needs are fairly varied and that several of these healthcare apps would be worthwhile for them. Set your goals accordingly and then decide which of these best health apps is the right fit for you.
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