I’ve been using Lose It! for a long time because the food journal and database are extensive, but I wanted something that would help me plan my meals and my menu for the week. That is what the advertising blurbs seemed to promise, but the only program with a “weekly planner“ is the vegan plan. Yes, you can save recipes for easier tracking, but you can’t Create a menu or a shopping list unless you are on that one specific plan. If this is wrong, I am not seeing any place to do that, and there isn’t much help within the app.
It seems as if the weekly planner is only available for some of the programs. It’s a pain in the neck to get into them without accidentally switching programs, but the biggest flaw is the recipe search. I specifically picked this app because I wanted access to the Mediterranean diet program (which doesn’t seem to have a planner) because I wanted to be able to search recipes. Low sodium is a priority for me because of a disorder, and I don’t expect the meal programs to all be low sodium. When I go in and filter for. Low sodium is the only filter, I get back recipes, which have at least 500 mg per serving and in at least three cases, 1700 mg or more per serving. Other filters, such as prep time, and Mediterranean-based recipes are equally an accurate, but the low sodium one is the worst. There’s no way to even see how to make those recipes lower sodium.
Developer Response
Thanks for your feedback!
There is a difference between Meal Plans and Diet Plans.
Under "Programs" in the app there are both Diet Plans and Meal Plans.
The Meal Plans come with a daily meal guide with suggested recipes for each meal.
The Diet Plans do not, with them you can instead find suitable recipes under the Recipe tab when you have activated the plan.
Here is a link to all our Meal Plans: https://lifesum.helpshift.com/hc/en/3-lifesum/faq/372-meal-plans-complete-list-of-available-meal-plans-and-how-to-get-started/
Generally a very good app. The design is clean and it’s pretty simple to use. The guidelines about how much to eat and how the nutrients should be balances are extremely useful and have gotten me to reassess my eating habits. But it’s glitchy in annoying ways that would make it easier to use. It offers an option to automatically import data from FitBit and other devices, but I’ve found the information it brings in is wildly inaccurate. Like it would reflect 150 calories burned for an exercise when the actual total was 600+. So I’ve found it’s easier and more accurate to manually enter exercise information. The app also will offer to automatically track the same meal you ate the day before, but when you click on it, it doesn’t actually track the information. So you have to manually enter all the foods and ingredients again to track them. The app also will occasionally prompt me to start an intermittent fasting schedule — which I’m already on. So I’ll essentially have to reset those settings again and again instead of switching the timer on and off between intervals like I’m supposed to. And sometimes things won’t be that responsive and I have to restart the app. It’s a good app, but these small problems really interfere and make it harder to use than it should be. If the developers don’t fix these problems , I won’t renew my subscription.
Developer Response
Thank you very much for your feedback! We will forward it to the responsible team for their knowledge.I wish you could log what time you ate and the day ratings feel pretty subjective. If you could log when you ate it would help people who want to set up an eating window or are fasting in some ways or just want to space out their meals to stop impulse eating. Looking and seeing you just ate a full meal an hour ago might help people go for lighter snacks to tide them over until the next meal. Also, I feel frustrated when I had a good day and meet my macros only to hear “cut back on added sugar “. It really takes away from my accomplishments when I feel like I had a good day but I’m basically told, yeah, but did you REALLY? I had it in moderation if I wouldn’t have meet all my macros still been within my calorie intake, so stop shaming me for enjoying food I like please.
There’s a lot of useful features though and recipes/diet plan (I haven’t tried them yet) I’ve used other features though like logging your weight, adding your fitness tracker data, scanning food, making and saving your own recipes and altering nutrition data that isn’t accurate or barcode that don’t exist in the system. Overall, it’s a very helpful tool with just a few almost insignificant kinks.
Developer Response
Hi there. We are sorry that you are experiencing this! Please contact us at https://lifesum.com/deep/settings?page=support so we can help you log in to the correct account.I love this app so much. It has a beautiful design, I love how they made everything simple and minimalist, and I absolutely love the dynamically changing watercolor style gradient. Keeping the same watercolor style for some of the icons was a nice touch as well. The fonts too go great with the design of the app. In terms of functionality, It is so easy to use. Because I don’t need the premium features this is a great app because they don’t bloat it with ads and instead just ask you to buy premium for advanced features.
Comparing this app to its main competitor, Myfitnesspal, this app is a way better experience. On Myfitnesspal, the app is so slow because it is bloated with ads everywhere and it feels more clunky to use. You even have to pay to scan the barcodes (which on this app is included for free, thankfully. Please keep it free Lifesum it’s like one of my favorite features) Lifesum also has no ads, it only asks you to pay for premium. I love this approach because it doesn’t punish users who don’t want to spend any money. Myfitnesspal’s subscription is also MORE expensive than Lifesum.
Overall, this is the best app I have used for diet tracking and do not plan on switching ever.
Developer Response
Thanks a lot for leaving your feedback! We are glad to read that you are satisfied with your Lifesum experience.I’m mostly feeling let down by this app. I used the free version for about two weeks before deciding that I wanted to use the premium version to gain more insight about eating healthy. Two more weeks of using the premium version and not only is the app not tracking the food I enter in correctly (I had tacos and entered in precise measurements of each ingredient and the app totaled it up to almost three times as many calories) but the promised insights are things like “eat more vegetables.” It consistently gives me incorrect totals of calories (sometimes by thousands!) and customizing options are extremely limited.
I can’t even customize my amount of water intake, which I feel is a pretty minor feature to include. I drink from a 25oz cup during the day, but my options are 8oz or 16oz, nothing else. The app tells me I consume too much sodium and not enough fat, but gives me no clue how to include more healthy fats in my diet. I feel like I spent $50 for literally nothing.
And I did submit a complaint about not being able to track a meal due to the miscalculation of calories about 15 hours ago and I haven’t heard anything. Normally I wouldn’t write a review like this, but the paid version of this app is just not nearly worth it.
Developer Response
We sincerely apologize for the troubles you've had with the app. We'd be happy to take a look into this for you, please contact us at: https://lifesum.com/deep/settings?page=support . Thank you.I downloaded this app five years ago because it’s sleek, gamifies water/veggie/fruit tracking, and I thought i could better track my nutritional intake.
Last year I wanted to lose a little weight so i splurged and upgraded to the paid version—big mistake. Now i get condescending emojis judging my daily eating habits and irrational rating systems. I warn everyone, this app can easily become dangerous. One example out of 365: today I had a fresh carrot + lentil dish for breakfast, black tea, small salmon poke salad for lunch, HALF a nature well green smoothie as a snack, and hummus, quinoa, falafel dinner. I hiked with my dog for 3 hours in the AM. My rating??? “Off track” with a sad red face emoji subliminally shaming me. The reason? My meals were too low in protein, too high in carbs, and i had 1600 calories instead of their recommended 1395. Are they insane?! I thought this was the most balanced day of eating, with tons of fresh veggies and fruit, I’ve ever had in my life! And humans need more calories than that to sustain themselves especially with the amount of exercise I get. I didn’t sign up for a starvation diet, just ‘better eating’ with more whole foods.
Please be careful, especially to women who are already pressured to eat less than they need to sustain a nutritionally balanced diet. ❤️
Developer Response
Thank you for your review! We are so sorry you experienced it that way. Lifesum aims to support our users towards healthier living through better eating, and we want to encourage our users to eat nutritious, balanced and varied diet. The daily rating is based on how well you meet your individual daily recommendations (such as your energy and macronutrient intake), so the rating will give you feedback based on if you reach or are under/over any of the recommendations. This feature is possible to switch off, if you go Settings > Diary settings > Guidance messages, you can choose if you want it off or on.
You may also adjust so that you include your burned calories in the calculation of your daily calories - so if you i.e. have gone for a 3h long hike, the energy recommendation will be adjusted based on your movements (if you have step counter on, or if you track the exercise). This to avoid having a too large energy deficit. We do appreciate you sharing your experience and we have shared your feedback with the team. I love Lifesum! I am very very particular about calorie tracking, I’m a therapist and I am certified in intuitive eating, not calorie tracking, as it often leads to problematic habits. However, knowing I needed to lose weight that has had stuck around post-pandemic, cancer, and an ended engagement— I needed support tracking because calorie deficit is how to lost weight. This app doesn’t push false science, it’s inviting/inclusive/scientific without any negative implicit biases or body shaming, and it is stunning and effective. I live in NYC and quickly found I am severely under eating for the amount I move in addition to exercise. I would highly suggest this app if you’re goal is to try and become more mindful about your consumption. It’s the best out there. But remember- you’re beautiful just the way you are! Do this for you and only you if you have downloaded! And for health, not appearance. Thanks, Lifesum! Feeling renewed since using!
I’ve used this app on and off for a few years now. The latest update has a lovely aesthetic and I do feel it has helped me understand nutrition better and how much I need to eat to stay heathy and energized. There are a few things that I really wish were different. 1. The most frustrating part of this app is when I eat a recipe that is listed under my chosen “diet plan” and I get a feedback that this wasn't the best choose or I should “eat more”. 2. Not listing the ingredients of verified meals. It would be great if you could simply modify these meals to make entering meals more easy. It’s quite a pain to enter info if you don’t eat a Lifesum recipe. For example, tonight I ate a shrimp salad that I made up from ingredients I just had in my fridge. There was a verified “shrimp salad” in Lifesum database but no info as to what exactly is in this salad. How great if I could see ingredients and add/remove ingredients from this salad. I would also love to see meal/food suggestions if I’m behind on my daily goal. Like suggesting just adding a banana to my breakfast would get me back on track. 3. I wish serving size of recipes could be changed. 4 servings is great for shopping but if you’re preparing a meal just for yourself it’s just an annoying extra step to figure out portions. Would love if user could determine the serving size they wanted. I do like this app and I never write reviews but want to love this app so much that I felt a need to write one.
Developer Response
Thank you very much for all your feedback and suggestions! Your review has been forwarded to our product team for future consideration. This app doesn’t allow you to set your own macros or calorie target unless you pay, which almost completely undermines the point of having a food diary. I lost 80lbs with it and have used it for three years, and up until some time last year the calorie goal wasn’t locked behind a paywall.
The calorie goals it sets for you are straight and simple lies. It’ll tell you to eat a 400cal deficit to lose 1.5lbs a week, when it’s not scientifically possible to do so with a deficit of less than 750cal. The only reason they’d put a paywall on your calorie target or lie to you, telling you to eat more is to make you lose weight slower. It’s an underhanded way to eek more money out of you and force you to pay their subscription.
I’m very grateful to this app for allowing me to hit my goals, but that just makes me all the more sad to see others unable to do the same. I would’ve given it 4 stars in 2020 when more of its features were available for free and it didn’t lie to you, but now it’s useless. A diary you can’t write what you need to in would be just as handy if it didn’t exist.
About a year ago I was told that I needed to lose weight for health reasons I set a goal of 100 lb weight loss. One of the things I did immediately was download this app. I had tried others before but wanted to give this one a go after I read about it. I needed a user friendly app that would not only track calories, but could help me look at what I was actually eating. I also wanted something that would interface with my Apple Fitness because I knew I was going to have to work out and walk more. It will be a year next month and I have managed to lose 77 lbs. I use this thing every day at every meal and it tracks my activity. This is been extremely helpful for me. It is important for me to know how many calories that I’m consuming, but it’s been very helpful to know the types of foods I’m eating. I have been able change some bad behavior patterns.. I feel certain I will continue to use this as a tool after I reach my goal weight. The premium version includes specifics diets it recommends based on your preferences, along with recipes all kinds of gems for those who enjoy meal preparation. Great app for me! Thank you to the developers:)
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