Links to NCBI Databases

The way the information is presented; the usability of the app; the degree to which it engages and connects users; and its effectiveness, timeliness, design, and functionality are also important considerations [27]. A deeper analysis of user reviews of apps can lead to better knowledge of desired features and user preferences, and ideally increase the usability, appeal, and effectiveness of the app in achieving users’ health and nutrition goals [7]. These aspects require more academic research into user reviews [22], especially as functionality and appearance often have greater contributions to the popularity of dieting apps than the quality of the information provided by the app [28]. App developers and companies have recognized the value of user reviews and frequently examine these reviews to improve the user experience. Most mobile health apps are free to use, with the option to upgrade profiles to paid premium options (for more features or personalized advice).

• This library helped us to build a mathematical model that could classify each review by topic.
• Owing to their presence and relevance in the dieting field, diet-tracking apps have attracted the interest of many researchers who have used app evaluation strategies in an attempt to better understand and evaluate app features [29-32].
• After using MFP for many years, I recently found Lose It to be much easier to use on a day to day basis as far as data entry and scanning labels.
• Previous studies also assessed the consistency of information provided by different apps, and recommended further collaboration and harmonization of information [34,35].
• Not currently tracking but am now off the bike with an injury so i might start again soon.
• Next, easily track your food, weight, and activity and get ready to celebrate your weight-loss victories.

Mobile apps have become an important source of information for their users. A study conducted in the United States showed that more than half of the population using a mobile phone has downloaded at least one health-related app. Most of these were fitness and nutrition apps, which also have the highest reported usage rates [7,8]. Since topic modeling is an unsupervised method, it was not constrained by certain predefined standards (ie, number of topics). This high number was randomly chosen to find the optimal range for our topic number. This analysis revealed that the number of topics with the best coherence score was between 6 and 13 (Figure 1).

Would have been a perfect app but becomes utterly useless when trying to input my own foods. Everyone I enter the nutritional info it changes everything I put in to insane numbers like 2800 calories for cottage cheese. Top 50 “positive” trigrams (most frequently mentioned trigrams with ratings over 4). Weird, so it will add the activity but not the calories until maybe later? That’s odd – I’d try and fiddle with the app from your computer- I find it’s much easier to configure. I redid my goal recently and there were a few settings that I adjusted and it pulls data very accurately.

Apps for Cardiovascular Health: Nutrition and Weight Loss Apps

Despite extensive literature on nutrition apps and individual usage patterns in health and nutrition research, the investigation of these apps from the perspective of user-generated content (ie, publicly available user reviews) is in its infancy. Previous research has mainly focused on app development issues and feature evaluation to make apps more accessible and user-friendly (eg, [7,31]). Numerous studies have examined consumer opinions of existing apps through surveys, interviews, and qualitative content analysis. This existing research captured an overall positive assessment/evaluation of the available apps (ie, app liking), as well as users’ perceptions of these apps as helpful and easy to use (eg, [8,15,50]). These findings were supported by our results, as was the importance of the diet-tracking feature to users [8] and the deterrent effect of ads [8,15]. To improve the understanding of user opinions on diet-tracking apps, this study was performed based on the collection and analysis of the textual reviews and numerical ratings that users leave for these apps.

For example, the item in the previous dataset ‘’I love this app and it’s easy to use’’ is converted into the word array “love app easy use,” which was used as such for further analysis. Hidden costs and inadequate communication about the cost of using the app are some of the main reasons reported for users to stop using an app [8]. We also identified these issues as a source of numerous complaints from users leaving app reviews, along with the users’ inability to get their money refunded. Therefore, to retain users and keep them satisfied and loyal, an app should provide adequate, clear, and respectful communication regarding the costs that may be incurred through app use (eg, paid premium versions, in-app purchases, refund policies). Lifesum is the leading global healthy eating platform, founded on the belief that food fuels life. Lifesum is democratising healthy eating by empowering people with tools to understand their personal nutritional needs.

Nutrition and Weight Loss Apps

Intervention studies focusing on diet-tracking apps show that users sometimes dislike the apps due to their complexity, lack of personalization and long-term support for users, and the focus on calorie counting, which can easily become an obsession [20]. Maintaining high levels of motivation throughout the weight management journey is challenging for most people, and diet-tracking apps sometimes fail to provide proper motivational support for sustainable weight loss and weight management [20,21]. In addition, the long-term effects of diet-tracking apps on food intake and user behavior remain unexplored [16]. These issues indicate that additional research on diet-tracking apps and their features is needed [7]. Given the importance of self-monitoring and diet tracking in motivating behavior change and persistence in healthier eating [8,10], we have been focusing on the nutrition apps that provide a calorie-tracking option (ie, diet-tracking apps). These apps promote diet tracking and maintenance of healthier habits and do not necessarily include weight loss as a goal, which has often been the focus of previous studies (eg, [7]).

Topical Trigrams

“Yes I see value for certain people- but on the unimeal review flip side for my clients with any type of disordered eating, it is a major trigger, to say every single thing you’ve had to eat today,” she said. “Research shows there is a definite benefit to tracking what you eat and outcomes,” Susie said.

Methods

For the second iteration, we again reprogrammed the script to repeatedly run in this range, this time increasing by 1 to more accurately determine the best score. The best coherence (0.646) was achieved with 11 topics (Figure 2, Table 2). Since both the topical n-grams identification and topic modeling approaches have the same preprocessing steps, the same preprocessed dataset was used in both methods. For these tasks, we used the Python programming language in combination with its data science–specific tools (ie, libraries) that made this process possible given the large amount of data. The Python libraries numpy and pandas, which are well known in the data science community, were used extensively throughout the process, along with several other libraries, each specialized for a particular task.

The initial free download and use make these apps easily disposable and users’ decision to switch between them is widespread [24]. This drives app developers’ interest in listening to users’ comments, complaints, ideas, and suggestions [25]. In reviews, users are text producers for other potential consumers, businesses, and society at large.

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Like per instance MFP food scanner is now a paid feature.note I have no link with waistline or anything but i highly recommend it. If you are looking for an app to help with weight management try Healthie, Wellory, Lose It, or Noom. Not all of these are free but they do help with choosing healthy options at restaurants. In addition, users from different cultures may have different app needs (eg, product availability, serving size differences, religious and other food restrictions). To ensure the generalizability and applicability of such findings to a specific market, the results should also include analysis of additional apps and reviews (both global and local apps) in the local language.

Free Nutrition Apps

Unfortunately, the app itself is so laggy & buggy that I can’t give it more than 1-star. Personally I felt company was highly interested in my weight loss journey before I activated plan then no one cares about me, or I noticed they’ve charged me for another 3 months subscription which I did not authorize. I’ve made 3 attempts via email to make contact with [app] to end my membership and request a refund and I received an email back stating they’ll be in contact in the next 48hrs but I have never heard back from them.

Trusted By Thousands of Users

Foodnoms is available on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch with an optional paid subscription. While Susie doesn’t track food for herself, she does recommend daily logging for most of her clients. She says logging your food provides accountability and awareness of portion control. Not sure what’s going on however ever since paid ads keep popping up the app has just gone down hill. I’ve used this app for 3 years now and am seriously looking at using another app. I tried it to give it a chance thinking it was what I was looking for, but it wasn’t.

Features

Noom includes a psychology-based weight loss course, a series of 10 mini-courses that you can complete at your own pace. The app also allows you to partner with a nutrition professional who can review your uploads and provide advice along the way. DALLAS — When it comes to tracking food online, Health & Wellness Reporter Sonia Azad asked WFAA viewers which app they love the most. Easy to check total carb, fat and protein content and individual food values so I can make better choices next day. These two trigrams would then be added to the trigrams extracted from other reviews, resulting in a total of 744,808 trigrams from 72,084 reviews.