An oldie but goodie, MyFitnessPal was initially launched in 2005 and has hundreds of thousands of glowing ratings in the app store. The app has built a massive food library over the years, allowing users to hone in on nutrition facts of produce, snacks, and more. Users can also scan barcodes for specific food information and log their exercise. You’ll be able to calculate or manually enter your macros (how much fat, protein and carbs to eat each day) right inside the app.

Healthline’s picks for the best fitness and exercise apps

The small one-time fees or modest yearly subscriptions are well worth the price in terms of time and money saved. While there are appointment and practice reminders, family meal planning is a big part of the app. There’s a recipe database that has Cozi’s own recipes, as well as recipe collections compiled from popular family magazines. You can also add recipes via a URL from a website or enter your own recipes step-by-step from scratch.

Healthline’s picks for the best meal planning apps

Yet, it is the technological prowess of Eat This Much and Plan to Eat that signal https://www.webmd.com/diet/ss/slideshow-food-combos-weight-loss a new frontier in meal planning. With these tools, I’ve watched digital innovation redefine what it means to eat smartly, offering a futuristic twist to the entire process. Here’s to eating smarter and joyfully discovering the richness of tastes and preferences that these remarkable apps serve up. As I reflect on the plethora of meal planning apps that have graced us this year, I’m struck by the sheer variety and capability each brings to the table.

The app will keep your screen turned on while you’re working from a recipe. It can also detect timer directions within a recipe so that you can set cooking timers directly from the app. Meal planning is one of the best ways to kickstart and stay on top of your weight loss goals. Nathaniel Lee is an avid cook, drawing on his decades of home cooking and fine dining experience. He is a contributing chef at Mashed, and his recipes and contributions have been featured in Tasting Table, Edible Arrangements, Insanely Good Recipes, and The Daily Meal.

I started meal prepping almost a decade ago, as part of a unimeal reviews reddit weight loss journey. Platejoy is fairly expensive compared with some of the other options, but it offers comprehensive resources for better home cooking. Over time, you can save money — and improve your skills — by following the service’s suggestions, so Platejoy offers tremendous value overall.

Crockpot Dinner Ideas You’ll Love All Year Long

Meal planning and calorie counting can help you reach weight loss goals and build long-term habits to sustain healthy eating. Studies show that meal planning can improve diet quality and reduce weight. For instance, Noom offers live coaching, while Ate Food Journal ditches the calorie counter to hone how meals make you feel. If weight loss or healthy eating are goals for you this year, downloading a healthy eating app may help you achieve them. If meal planning is your most significant barrier to weight loss and healthy eating, PlateJoy could be game-changing. Enter your food preferences, activity level, height, weight, and goals, like reducing sugar intake or consuming heart-healthy grub.

  • So, if you are familiar with the Cozi Family Organizer, this is a nice little add-on feature.
  • I honestly don’t know what tech wizardry they worked up to make this happen, but who cares–it’s awesome.
  • Simply choose them from the dropdown menu at the top of the screen when creating a new meal plan.
  • It supports keto, paleo, intermittent fasting, and more, making it a healthy meals app for various goals.
  • You’ll be able to calculate or manually enter your macros (how much fat, protein and carbs to eat each day) right inside the app.
  • No matter where you are on your plant-based eating journey, you will want to check out Veganized.

Best for counting calories: MyPlate Calorie Counter

Paprika also has an interactive cooking encyclopedia that lets you search for recipes based on your ingredients or keyword. This is helpful if you’re too lazy to prep a meal or don’t know what to make for dinner. Read this guide to find out the perfect app that’ll make meal planning easier for you. Plan to Eat’s fantastic features and meal planning ensure you always have a satisfying and nutritious meal option. Most people always want to eat healthy, but time constraints and preferences make it very difficult to prepare full-course, home-cooked meals constantly.

healthy meal plan app

Compare the Best Meal-Planning Apps

The app includes over 5,000 on-demand classes as well as daily live classes when your schedule allows. Unique to Studio Bloom, the app teaches diaphragmatic breathing as the foundation of every exercise. It also offers free consults with in-house pelvic floor therapists after both vaginal and cesarean births. This app was also featured as one of Healthline’s picks for the best fitness gifts. Several Healthline testers have commented that the Peloton app is the key to their at-home fitness success. Tester Sydney Samuels started using the Peloton app during the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to use it to supplement her in-person gym and exercise classes.

Eat This Much (free)

In my personal culinary journey, Prepear stands out, making healthy choices and family inclusivity a reality, harmoniously woven into everyday life. This clear comparison underlines why Lasta stands out in a saturated market. By focusing on these unique selling points, Lasta leads as one of the best healthy meal planning apps available. For anyone like me, looking to redefine their dietary habits, this platform might just be the personalized guide you need. You won’t see processed foods, excess added sugars, refined grains—like white bread and white flour—or red meat more than once or twice a week.

Plan To Eat

Other apps provide feedback on strategies for reaching a moderate weight, changing a person’s relationship with food, or getting into better shape. Sarah Pflugradt is a registered dietitian who holds a Ph.D. in Health and Human Performance and is a certified strength and conditioning specialist. Her extensive background in dietetics has made her a sought-after expert in family and youth sports nutrition. BetterMe is a wellness platform for all genders that offers a little bit of everything in a very approachable manner.

What’s the Best Way to Store Recipes Online?

We help you save time, money and energy while enjoying food freedom (not food restriction). There are existing meal plans that you can utilize, or you can completely build your own from scratch. If you opt for one of the existing meal plans, you do have the option to edit it by removing any recipes you don’t like and adding ones that you do. If you choose a from-scratch plan, you’ll start with the app’s recipe database and completely build your plan from the ground up. There are over 15 options to choose from including vegetarian, vegan, keto, paleo, gluten-free, diabetic, 30-minute meals, and slow cooker meals. Perhaps most importantly, eMeals also includes a budget-friendly meal plan option, so if you’re cooking at home to save money, that’s the place to start.

Great for Dietary Restrictions

Best of all, it works both on your phone and in a web browser, and it’s completely free. Pepperplate makes it simple to try out new recipes, share your favorites with friends, and scale ingredient counts up or down to fit your preferences. You can even import recipes from other websites, or manually enter them from your favorite cookbooks. This app still works and is still used regularly, but be aware that its last update was April 1, 2023. Paprika is designed with a built-in browser so you can search recipes from anywhere on the internet and save them to your recipe box.