Why Weight Loss Apps Probably Aren’t Helping You

Weight loss apps are interesting, convenient and seem to be the perfect way to be able to keep track of your dieting in order to ensure success. After all, we’re always told that tips and tracking are the key to dieting success. These mobile applications can provide it all. So why is it that so many people who use these tools don’t actually end up reaching their weight loss goals?
The problem with weight loss apps isn’t in what they provide. It’s in a number of other weaknesses that can be just enough that they don’t give people quite what they require to reach their goals. It isn’t that it is impossible to lose weight with the assistance of an application. However, just because you have one, it doesn’t mean that you will be successful in getting where you want to be.
The following areas some of the areas in which weight loss apps aren’t quite where they need to be, on average, in order to help people to diet effectively:
They are greatly limited – the very nature of these applications is in their generalizations. They simply aren’t powerful enough to provide the type of range of behavioral strategies that would give every dieter what they need to truly change their eating and exercising habits in the way they must. While they might provide a small segment of users with exactly what they need, this is not the case when taking the vast majority into consideration. For instance, if a person’s reason for not eating right or not exercising is that they don’t have time to prepare the meals themselves or to go to the gym, the average application doesn’t have what it takes to solve that struggle.
They still require a lot of motivation – due to the strategy limitations offered by these mobile apps, the user is the one who needs to provide all the motivation to consult the app, follow up on what is recommended and then to keep up with it over time. Most people don’t have the motivation to stick to that sort of effort over the longer term.
They are not all created equal – since diet and fitness applications are some of the most popular categories in mobile, it means they have been flooded with all manner of options. While some of these apps can be fantastic for some people, some of them are of no real benefit to anyone. As a user, it’s hard to know the difference until you try one and fail to reach your goal.