If you’re trying to eat better, improve your fitness or lose weight, your mobile phone can be a helpful tool. And if you pair it with the right app, it can become your best ally in achieving a healthier lifestyle. We’ve looked at various health and fitness apps to find the best Android and iPhone apps that will help you achieve your goals, and at the same time, provide you with some motivation, guidance, and accountability. Read on for our top 6 picks.

MyFitnessPal

This app allows you to track all your fitness needs with a set of carefully designed tools. The most popular and perhaps most widely used is its searchable food database with over 300,000 items.  With options like barcode scanning, saving your favorite food, or adding your own recipes, you can track what you eat and your calorie intake quickly and easily. Keeping a food diary will help you understand your habits and improve your odds of hitting your health goals. If your goals are related to your weight, you can also get a customized diet plan, and physical activity plans to help you reach the set goals. 

Moreover, the app logs exercise statistics, offers over 350 cardio and strength workouts and integrates several apps and devices. To sync all of your fitness activities, MyFitnessPal integrates with more than 50 apps and devices. As a user, you will become a member of its community, where you can learn from others, share your experience, receive and give support, and make friends. All the basic features of healthcare and fitness apps, and a lot more, are free to use for both Android and iPhone users. But the premium version will provide you with more advanced options, such as guided fitness and nutrition plan, food analysis and insights, a custom home screen dashboard, etc.

C25K 5K Trainer

An audio coach will alert you when to walk or run, and the Zen Power Playlist will boost your energy with some great music from the top DJs. This simple and pretty straightforward app integrates with MyFitnessPal, Google Fit, and Apple Health Kit so you can track your calories and distance as well. 

If you’re a beginner and a non-runner, C25K will move you from your couch and train you for a 5K run! Its training plan is designed to help you achieve that goal in 8 weeks, as long as you stick to the schedule and run three times a week. The program is a mix of running and walking; each session is between 30-40 minutes long, including 5 minutes of warming up and 5 minutes of cooling down. 

HumanGo

While C25K is a great choice to get you running, HumaGo is a great option to try if you’re looking for a complete sports training app. HumanGo uses the best AI science to analyze health data from your wearables, information on sports activities you prefer, your routine and training philosophy, as well as your current life events. Using the analytics, HumanGo creates a personalized and flexible fitness plan, whether you’re a seasoned athlete or a beginner switching to a healthier lifestyle. 

The app will provide you with science-based guidance, help with your motivation, and support you in achieving your goals while maintaining the sport-life balance.

HumanGo also offers various social features - you can find athletes to train with, join or create tribes, invite friends for a workout, have fun creating challenges, and post all about it on social media.

Headspace

COVID-19 pandemic has raised our stress level sky-high, and the need to reduce it and somehow relieve all the tension has become the top priority. A meditation and mindfulness app - Headspace, has become the gold standard for balancing stress levels, improving mental health, and consequently, helping you achieve optimal physical health.

The program is not generic; it starts by taking you through detailed sessions to teach you the skill of meditation and everyday mindfulness. After you’ve completed the basics, it will help you achieve your other goals - easing your chronic pain, anxiety, or your depression, helping you focus or sleep better. To make their app effective, Headspace uses clinically validated, independent research. The app is free to download for iOS and Android, and the monthly fee is around $13.

Nike Training Club 

Through training designed by top Nike Master Trainers, this free app can help you reach your goals, whatever your current fitness level is. The app gives access to 4-to-6-week training plans, with the workouts varying from bodyweight-only to full-equipment training. NTC also offers the option of tailor-made programs and a library of 190 plus free workouts, including endurance, strength, cardio, yoga, and mobility. Training sessions last from 15-45 minutes, and the app will explain how to perform each exercise with how-to videos.

Zombies, Run!

If you’re looking for fun ways to exercise, you can try transforming your ordinary running routines into zombie-infested pathways. This app will actually wreak havoc on your regular running session, as you will have to escape hordes of zombies in this interactive running game.You start this experience by selecting a mission from the list. Each one has different distances and speeds, and you need to keep up the targeted pace to survive. You can have fun using a treadmill, jogging in a park, or running along a beach. 

The fun in this app comes from your headphones - story plot twists, zombie screams, and radio communication from your team members. To keep things fresh and exciting, you can experience a new story with each run. The app is free to download for Android and iOS, but you need to pay a subscription fee if you want to unlock all the game modes and features.

Wrapping up

So, now it’s up to you to pick the one you’ve liked the most and press that download button on your phone! The sooner you start, the closer you are to reaching your goals.