The term smartphone was coined to differentiate standard, non-OS mobile phones from those that run on Android, iOS, or the now forgotten Windows Phone. However, there’s more to them than that. As a matter of fact, smartphones are really smart, and it goes beyond the simple ability of scheduled calendar event notifications, taking HDR shots with the camera, or installing apps.
They’ve turned into a powerful tool for our health that truly works. People use smartwatches and smartphones to track their workouts and keep an eye on their health. While they’re not medicinal-grade equipment, you can use your smartphone to keep an eye on your heart rate, which could indicate potentially serious health problems. Tech-savvy users also keep an eye on their sleep habits using smartphones, so you can use them to improve your health instead of just spinning no download slots on social media sites.
While Android has a better range of smartphones for every type of user, iOS is widely considered the better choice. From Apple Health to third-party workout trainers running, training, and sleeping apps, we’re taking a look at the best iOS apps that can monitor and help you improve your health.
How Health Apps Work
Health apps gather data entered manually or automatically on your iPhone or smartwatch so you can view your health progress in one convenient spot. Without a smartwatch, you can only track basic stuff like the number of steps you’ve taken today, how many stairs you’ve climbed, or your walking distance. You don’t really need a smartwatch for walking or running, but if you want to go deeper, an Apple Watch or another smartwatch is what you’re looking for.
Many iOS users wonder if health apps are accurate. After a lot of studies, they’ve been proven as very accurate, with only slight average errors up to 2% compared to manual measures. Of course, the reliability of the distance covered depends on many factors, including GPS coverage, but for all intents and purposes, smartphones are the perfect fitness trackers.
Sleep Apps are the Pinnacle of Health Apps Evolution
Before the era of smartphones, we relied on special trackers that more or less worked. However, they were nowhere nearby the reliability of iOS and the specially-designed health apps. If you think tracking walking distance is impressive, you should see how good sleep apps are. To use them, you need a smartwatch, but it’s the smartphone app that relies on sleep metrics and gives you recommendations to improve your sleep. It’s one of the crucial biological processes for our health, so if you’re not sleeping well and you don’t know what the problem is, health apps can come to the rescue.
Still, smartphones are fitness trackers without a match, even if you don’t use the sleep part. You can connect an array of trackers to them from smartwatches to a smart scale, all with the simple goal of bettering yourself.
Top iOS Apps for Health Tracking
The Health App
iOS’ own Health app is a powerful tool you get for free when you purchase an iPhone. It’s a centralized hub for all health data and can connect to various third-party apps and devices. The Health app can track your fitness performance and your sleep, and the great thing about it is that it compares last week’s results with the ones before.
Enabling the health trends will show you if your fitness performance has been improving or faltering over the last week. It’s an important feature that will show you where you’re at with your fitness level and if you need to take a step back and relax or push a bit harder. It does the same for sleep, although naturally, you’ll need a smartwatch for it.
It’s free, pretty comprehensive, and probably the best iOS app you don’t pay money for. If you need something more detailed, you should scour the App Store for better apps.
MyFitness Pal
Weight loss is the most important aspect of fitness performance, and if you want to keep track of the calories you’ve lost, no one does it better than MyFitness Pal. The iPhone app is free (with optional in-app purchases), allowing you to reach your weight goals with ease.
You can set a daily calorie goal and record your exercises and daily food to see those pounds shed. Of course, you’ll need a MyFitness Pal account for it, but you may have set it up already. While it’s not a comprehensive fitness tracking app that makes the best use of several metrics, it’s the preferred calorie counting app for iOS users.
It’s pretty accurate too, as we’ve seen, allowing you to enter thousands of different foods and adjusting the servings. Track your calories with the diary within the app, and you will stay on top of your weight loss goals.
WebMD
The Internet’s leading doctor’s ‘office’ has a capable app that you can browse to find your symptoms (without exaggerating) on the go. It’s a user-friendly app with physician-reviewed content and interactive tools that can help reach your fitness goals with ease. The symptom checker is one notable tool that can be quite on-point with finding the right cause of any trouble.
You can also set a medication schedule with notifications that remind you to take your pills. Neat, right? If you want full control over your health and a symptom checker, WebMD is the right choice.
Waterlogged
Staying hydrated is very important for our health, even if many people ignore it. If you need to increase your water intake, but you’re not consistent, this app will remind you with notifications to drink a glass of water. It’s an effortless and simple app that tracks your daily water intake. You can also view charts for your water intake during previous days and weeks and see if you need to improve something.
In-app purchases further improve the app’s functionality, making it a beefy reminder of how important it is to drink water every day.
Vitogo Fitness
If you want a personal fitness coach but it’s too pricey an option for you, Vitogo is a great alternative. The app has beginner to advanced fitness plans that evolve as you progress. That’s right – it doesn’t give you the same workout routine over and over. As you get in shape and shed weight, it gives you customized programs to target the right muscles and body areas.
Of course, it tracks all your data and can connect to third-party apps with ease. For a small fee, it can also track your rest periods between sessions. It’s an excellent app that will help you improve your overall health through fitness.
Fitbit
Fitbit is one of the world’s leading health apps for the iOS ecosystem. By installing it on your iPhone, you’ll enter a community of millions of users, track basic stats, and stay motivated on your fitness journey. While it works with other hardware, a Fitbit tracker or smartwatch unlocks the app’s full potential.
The app allows you to track your heart rate, steps and distance, and various exercises. It also gives you hourly activity with 250 or more steps, reminding you that you need to stay active. The app’s great and user-friendly design makes it a breeze to use, and in-app purchases take it a step further than the competition.
Garmin Connect
Garmin is a trailblazer in the health tracking industry and its Connect app is one of the best as expected. It’s your one-stop source for all kinds of health and fitness data. Millions of people use it as their app to go when cycling, but you can also use it for accurate running stats. It’s one of the most accurate apps out there, although much of that accuracy comes from the hardware you’re wearing on your wrist.
Even without it, it can track simple stuff like steps and distance and running. Paired with a compatible Garmin device, you’ll get a stream of fitness and health data at your fingertips, making it the best at what it does.
Strava
If you run, ride, or swim, there’s probably no better stats tracking app on iOS than Strava. It can track all your runs, workouts, and rides with a compatible device and tracks your progress over time. More importantly, it keeps things fun by helping you engage in a community and racing others in virtual segments to top a leaderboard. There’s no prize in the end, but the satisfaction of beating a field of competitors is more than enough. In addition to the weight loss, of course.
It’s more than just a GPS and a simple health/fitness app tracker. Join distance challenges to keep things fun, and you’ll fall in love with the app quickly.
Conclusion
No one’s saying that you must use a fitness or health app to improve your health, but it makes everything so much easier. Tracking important steps and taking part in challenges will help you stay motivated on your weight loss journey, and today’s apps also come with eating plans and customized workouts.
Pair them with solid hardware, and that’s your ticket to reaching your health goals.
