Lose It App Review

Last Updated on November 19, 2020 by Single Dad In Diego

When you are a parent, trying to take off weight or keep it off can be tough. I have spent the last few years trying (and mostly failing) to do just that. In this Lose It App Review, I will show you how this simple app can really help.

I feel confident writing a Lose It app review because like most folks, I struggled to find a way to maintain a healthy weight. It was even tougher to lose weight!

Workouts and exercise are tough enough. Trying to stick to a diet is what is even tougher for me.

That is why I love the Lose It app.

The Lose It app tracks the calories you eat in a day. It shows you how many calories you can eat based on your profile and your weight loss goals.

The Lose It app is easy to set up and use even if trying to stick to what it is telling you can be tricky.

So how does the Lose It app work? 

The Lose It app works on a simple principle. It makes an estimate of how many calories you burn in a day.

It then asks you how much weight you want to lose and over what period of time. It then gives you a daily calorie budget. That budget is less than the calories you burn and as such, you (should) lose weight.

lose it app review
The Lose It App Home Screen

When I used to try and lose weight I had a simple plan. Workout pretty regularly and eat well. There was a problem that I always encountered with that plan.

I tended to see things the way I wanted. I overestimated how much I was working out. I probably also overestimated how many calories I was burning in the workouts I was doing.

To make matters worse, I wasn’t really being honest about what I was eating. I would “think” I was eating 2000 calories a day. It was probably more, if not much more than that.

Losing weight seems pretty simple. Eat fewer calories than you burn. The problem for me was that I never knew what either of those numbers was on a daily basis.

So it was time to get some technology involved. I figured there was an app for everything and sure enough there was. I cannot remember why I chose the Lose It app. It seemed pretty easy, it was free, and it did what I needed.

“Trying to lose weight is tough enough. Use the Lose It app so you are not flying blind.“

The Lose It App Review: Elegance in Its Simplicity

I think the best part of the Lose It app is how simple it is to use. All you need to do is input all the food you eat. So now you are asking “how do I input food”?

Food you make

Let’s say you make your favorite dish at home. It has five ingredients. Easy enough. Scan the barcode from the food you are using.

The Lose It app will automatically enter what a “serving” of that food is. If you use more or less you can adjust how much you are using.

If you are using something that does not have a barcode that is no problem. You can search for foods and then enter the appropriate amount.

Going to a restaurant

If you are out to eat the process is just as straightforward. Find the name of the restaurant you are at. There are a ton of brands in the Lose It app.

Then you just pick what you have eaten from that restaurant. If you do not eat the whole thing adjust the amount. Eat a little off of someone else’s plate? Add that in too.

Everything you eat is kept in your “my foods” tab so the next time around it is easy to find.

Recipes

Going back to that dish you make at home, the Lose It app makes that easy too. If this is something you make a lot, you can save it as a “recipe” in the app. So next time there is no entering into five different things. Just choose the recipe and it is entered.

Lose It App Review: Logging Exercise

lose it app review
Food Entry Screen

This may be the best part of the Lose It app. You can log the exercise you do on a daily basis. The best part of this is:

  • You get a calorie “credit” for the calories you burn. Long story short, you can eat more
  • This is going to motivate you to work out a ton. Workout more, eat more

The app includes all manner of exercise. The only variable is that you have to input an “intensity” of your workout. So if you are on the treadmill for 20 minutes the difference between a light walk and sprinting is going to be a pretty big difference in calories.

One word of advice, err on the slower side. If you are trying to lose weight, there is no benefit in overstating the calories you are burning.

Food Plus Exercise Equals Tracking

lose it app review
Workout Entry Screen

At the top of the app is your calorie counter. It shows your budget for the day, less the food you ate. It then adds back in any added calories you get from working out.

Then you get the net calorie number and whether you are over or under for the day.

The app also has sections for all your meals and snacks and calorie suggestions for all of them. If you go over or under any of these, it adjusts the other sections accordingly.

This is just for guidance. You could just put everything in one section and the result is the same.

The app tracks on a per week basis. So above the calories counter you will see how you are doing for the week. If you tap the date you will see a calendar showing you how you have done week over week.

This does not do much for your current week. It should just act as motivation. If you are not staying on a budget it (should) get you motivated to get on track. If you are staying under? Jump on the scale and see how you are doing!

Lose It App Review: The Social Section

The app includes a section that lets you incorporate the app into your social life. Want to let your friends know how you are doing? Go ahead. Want to build a group to all lose weight together? Do that here too.

I do not use this section so I am not the person to tell you about it. It looks cool but this is just something you can do as well as lose weight. I want to focus on losing weight!

Incorporate The Rest of Your Digital Life

So I am an Apple guy. Yes, I like to eat apples,  but I mean iPhone, Apple Watch, etc…. The Lose It app will sync with the Apple Health app. That app syncs with its Apple Activity app. That syncs up with your Apple Watch.

I know that is a long and winding road. Long story short, when I workout and track it with my Apple Watch, the burned calories are automatically entered into the Lose It app. The best part is that the calorie burn is pretty accurate.

My concern when I first started using the app that was if the calorie counting was accurate, but the calorie burn was always a bit of a guess. Working out with the Apple Watch solves that.

Lose It also syncs with all sorts of other tech like Fitbits, scales, and blood pressure monitors so you do not need to be an Apple person to get the tech benefits.

It should be noted that the automatic logging only happens with the premium version of the app. Even if you do not use that, you can get the info from your workout tech and enter it manually in the Lose It app pretty easily.

Is It Worth It?

Yes, I think it is. I mean it does a whole bunch even in the free version. Honestly, the only reason I went with the premium version was for the automatic logging of the workouts. The premium version also lets you track a ton of other info. I am not that interested in that and it can also be tracked in the Apple Health app so I have no need for it.

Go back to the start of this post. If you want to lose weight, you need to eat less than you burn. The only way you can be sure you are doing that is to track everything.

In six months, I have lost 25 pounds! Your mileage may vary, but if you stick to your plan it seems like the app should do the job.