Lose It! Weight Loss App: Is Premium Really Worth It?

5 minutes read

Everyone knows how challenging it can be to make progress when trying to lose weight. Apart from finding a plan that works for you and your lifestyle, staying on top of things and keeping track of your results and success can be incredibly challenging, especially without guidance.

Making healthy decisions on a day-to-day basis and being responsible for meal choices is much easier said than done. Add in the responsibility of a full-time job and other obligations, and many people might find the whole concept nearly impossible!

Thankfully, there have been a lot of strides both in technology and nutrition in recent years. The ability to not only track your meal intake each day, but also calculate the nutritional value of all the food you consume, has made healthy eating more realistic and doable than ever before.

While countless diet apps and nutrition trackers for smart phones have come out, some have built lasting reputations as reliable software that gives users the information and support they need to make good meal choices on a consistent basis and form healthy eating habits.

Enter Lose It!: an appropriately named weight loss app launched in 2008 that has had more than 40 million people join in search of the right answer to help them reach their personal health goals. (1)

With ratings of more than 4.5 out of 5 stars for both Android and iPhone users, it’s easy to see why the app has continued to grow and reach new members for more than 10 years.

And the best part? It’s free!

… Well, the basic version is. Like many apps, Lose It! has a Premium option that grants users with a subscription additional features meant to enhance their experience and provide them with more options on their health journeys.

But the question is: with a free version of the app available, is it really worth the money to upgrade to a Premium membership? Are all of the extra features really worth the difference in price?

Worry not.

Let’s take a look at both versions to find out how they compare.

Lose It!: Basic

Lose It!’s goal is to take a lot of the worry and stress out of dieting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. While it has a tracking function that’s essential to measuring your progress, it actually serves as a sort of digital nutritionist: each user has a customized plan created for them that’s designed to help them achieve their weight loss goals. (2)

Your plan is created based on your unique details. After installing the app, you’re asked to provide details such as your height, age, current weight, and the weight you’ve made it your goal to reach; this allows the app to create a realistic plan for you to hit your target. (2)

Once your weekly weight loss has been created, the app combines this with your attributes to create a calorie budget. This allows you to determine how much you can eat during your meals while still staying on track to hit your weight loss goal on time. (2)

When you eat your meals, entering into the app will estimate the caloric content and add it to your totals so that you can keep track of your consumption and stay on pace. (2)

Lose It! Also allows you to track the calories you lose during exercise and your typical activity level. Entering your workouts into the app and choosing from one of the preset activity levels will allow the system to count your calories lost and factor in your normal daily routine when calculating your totals. (2)

In addition to the app itself, Lose It! also offers support for its members through access to weight loss tips, health-related blog posts, and stories of user success to help keep you motivated while you’re putting in the work to be healthy and reach your target weight. (3)

Lose It!: Premium

The premium version of Lose It! costs $39.99 annually, or approximately $3.33 per month. (4) For this extra cost, the app allows you to go further in depth with your tracking, planning, and health and fitness education.

The setup for premium works the same as the basic version. However, you’re signed up, there are numerous additional features that you can take advantage of, including:

Integration for your other fitness apps and trackers, like FitBit

In-depth tracking with insights including details of your macronutrient consumption and the health benefits of the foods you eat

Custom goal setting relating to statistics such as your blood sugar, hours spent sleeping, hydration, and several others

Future meal planning to remove the need for stressing about what to eat on a given day. You can even add in snacks, and other need-to-eats, like a protein shake which is exactly what I do. I use the Lyfe Fuel Essentials Shake for anyone that wants to give it a try. Cheap, taste excellent, and is super easy on my stomach.

A group function that allows you to work closely with app users, either privately with your friends or publicly with other members of the Lose It! community (4)

Among several other features, these additions provide greater depth and support for your weight loss experience that can be of great benefit when committing yourself to the discipline that will bring you success on your fitness journey.

Lose It! Has also claimed that users who subscribe to the premium version of the app lose an average of three times as much weight as those who use the free basic version. (2) If true, this statistic makes the paid service seem like a highly valuable option.

Premium: $40 Well Spent?

Compared to the cost of other free apps which offer a paid version with additional features, Lose It! Is actually quite affordable. And when you consider the potential health benefits of the numerous additional options at your disposal when you upgrade, less than $3.50 per month sounds incredibly reasonable.

I mean, for example, if your goal is to just cut sugar from your diet, you wouldn't need an app for that, you will just stop consuming sugar. But if you want a more complex dietary restriction, this app will help you a lot.

I tried a lot of different things to lose weight by changing my diet, cutting sugar, taking 2 protein shakes per day instead of regular meals, and a lot of other things and the best thing I found that would help me to lose weight and still keep my energy during the day is just counting my calories and having a clear goal of where I want to go.

Ultimately, both versions of the app provide incredible resources and support that can be invaluable as you strive to lose weight in a healthy fashion. However, for those who are especially enthusiastic about nutrition and consider group efforts to be an asset when attempting to achieve goals, Lose It! Premium might just be too good of an offer to turn down.