A Detailed Guide on Developing a Diet and Nutrition Tracking App - Prismetric

A Detailed Guide on Developing a Diet and Nutrition Tracking App

Cost to develop a Diet & Nutrition Tracking App

Even before COVID-19, there was a growing awareness amongst people regarding their physical fitness as well as mental well-being. More people are taking their health and fitness seriously after the pandemic. Businesses and professionals in the health and fitness industry are looking to develop a fitness app with different goals to satiate the needs of various users via creating custom apps based on the targeted users. And, thus the idea to develop an app for tracking diet and nutrition came into the picture.

The growing interest of people and the market size is attracting a lot of interest from entrepreneurs willing to develop a diet and nutrition mobile app. The first question that entrepreneurs have is “how much does it cost to build a diet and nutrition app?” And along with that, there will be other questions like

  • What are the important features to include in app?
  • How’s the market for diet and nutrition apps?
  • How to earn a better profit using the app?
  • What are the different types of diet and nutrition apps and which one should I choose?

We will address all these pointers here one-by-one.
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What is the need to develop a diet and nutrition app?

Experts value the global fitness app market size to be around $4.4 billion in 2020. The expected CAGR is 21.6% from 2021 to 2028. Covid-19 has changed people’s fitness habits, and the transition from traditional gyms to virtual fitness has truly begun. Thus, developing health and nutrition apps are significant beneficiaries of this change in trend.

Here are some other interesting stats

  • The share of fitness apps in the US market is expected to be $50 billion by 2025.
  • The global mHealth market is expected to reach $236 billion by 2026.
  • Globally, there was a 51% rise in downloads from Q1 to Q2 in 2020.
  • India saw the largest increase in diet tracking app downloads with 58 million new active users.
  • India also saw a significant increase in average session duration with a 21% growth from Q1 to Q2 in 2020.
  • 60% of the Americans who use fitness and nutrition tracking apps feel more motivated to workout on their own and plan on canceling their gym membership.

Top Trends of Mobile App Development

Demand for Food and Nutrition apps

As more people realize the importance of staying fit to boost their immunity, the demand for diet & nutrition apps is growing. The World Economic Forum reports a 46% increase in app downloads related to fitness and health till September 2020. The phenomenal rise in downloads of fitness apps shows that people are warming up to the idea of fitness, and the market is big enough to accommodate more fitness apps.
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The target audience that will get benefited from the diet planning app

Knowing the target audience before starting to build the app is important to figure out the features to keep in the diet planning app. Mostly, the diet and nutrition apps target these three audiences to meet their needs.

Fitness centers

The fitness centers taking a step forward with diet planning app development to stay ahead in the game. They provide a range of equipment for the workout, but complementing the same with a proper diet plan which makes the users happy. The tracking apps for diet help in meeting the unmet needs of the users, which in turn creates a win-win situation for everyone.

Nutritionists

The improved awareness regarding the health benefits of nutrient-rich food to stay healthy and fit is creating a desire to hire nutritionists for the best results. The apps for nutrition provide customized diet plans from nutritionists as per the user’s eating habits, lifestyle, and goals. The personalized diet charts are cost-effective and users can get it from the comfort of their sofa.

Users

As people are becoming more health freaks, they are looking for diet plans and activity-tracking apps to live healthily. They search for the diet and nutrition tracking apps that fulfill the needs for meal tracking, suggestions for nutrition intake, and send alerts for weight loss or gain. This helps them to keep their body in shape and live a healthy life style. Moreover, Femtech applications centered around female well-being and care are encouraging several ways to take care for women including pregnancy care, menstruation, fertility, nutrition, fitness and much more. Startups are investing more and more in such interactive and easy-to-use Femtech applications that are on the rise as they address women-specific concerns.

What are the different types of diet and nutrition apps?

There are various types of diet and nutrition apps catering distinct needs of the target users. However, all of these apps are a little different in their core functionalities. Take a glance at the popular diet and nutrition app ideas.

Meal planning

Under meal planning, the users need to check the calorie intake of the food before its eaten by the users. The app for meal planning and tracking enables users to enter their current weight, diet, and food preferences. The app will provide a meal plan along with tips for controlling eating habits and food’s nutritional value. For instance, mealtime, paprika, yummly,, eat this much, and diet assistant, are such Meal planning apps that help users to create a diet chart for a week or month and plan for the food that they want to eat without having too much effect on their health.

Calories measurement

The calorie calculation apps aim to count calories that help users to reach their weight goals. Also, they provide useful information regarding food products and activities to do for calorie intake maintenance. The Calories counting apps take the driver’s seat in counting the calories consumed and burnt to make the users stay up-to-date with their calorie count. Healthi, Lose it!, MyFitnessPal, Apple Health, and FatSecret are some of the popular calories measurement apps that are designed to monitor diet and count calories throughout the week.

Weight loss diaries

The weight loss apps specifically help users to lose weight without any crash diet that harms their health. They facilitate users to keep track of meals and water intake by manually filling the data in the app, monitoring calorie consumption and burned, and providing a fitness program for weight loss. Some apps reward the users for achieving the weight loss goal that encourages the users to follow the weight loss plan strictly.

Healthy food recipe

The users planning to follow a particular type of diet can eat whatever they want on their own at home without losing taste and health. The app for healthy food recipe provides recipes based on users’ height, weight, age, and preferences for a healthy lifestyle such as calories, fat, protein, carbohydrate, and glucose level for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The recipes present all the calculations based on the number and quantity of ingredients used in the recipe.

All-in-one app (Super app)

Super applications provide everything under the hood from meal planning (Including suggestions for food recipes) and calorie consumption to nutrition tracking and real-time reports for the same. MyFitnessPal app is the best instance of the same.

How to decide- which diet and nutrition app category is the right fit?

Multiple nutrition and diet app ideas available in the market make it difficult to make the right choice. That’s where a vivid understanding of the app’s category is vital as it helps to decide which functionalities will be a part of the app. To make things easier for the businesses looking to shape the diet and nutrition app idea, here our business analysts have provided a list of the popular app categories that are most used by people worldwide.

  • Fitness app
  • Diet and nutrition tracking app
  • Healthy eating app
  • Diet apps
  • Weight loss apps
  • Weight maintenance apps
  • Weight gain apps

Business Models for Diet and nutrition Tracking App

Diet planning and food tracking apps are the best buddies of individual entrepreneurs to build apps in different ways to make bundles. Here are the popular business models:

Individual diet and nutrition app

This business model involves a single owner that’s selling their products and services through the app. Also, a nutrition tracking app is dedicated to nutrition tracking of a single brand’s products and services.

Aggregator marketplace for diet and nutrition tracking

It provides a platform for all diet planners, nutritionists, health experts, and fitness centers to list and sell their services. It’s a kind of networking where the service provider sells their services under one application and can meet various users straight through the platform. The market assistance from the app owner or popularity of the aggregator marketplace help seller to sell their services at scale. However, the products to sell must be uniform in quality and cost.

What is a business model for startups?

Advantages of developing a diet tracking nutrition planning app

The following are the significant benefits of a diet tracking mobile app.

  • The diet and nutrition app helps people think and consider their food choice before taking a bite.
  • Users can identify the patterns in their eating behavior and tweak their diet plan according to their diet pattern.
  • The food and fitness apps provide general awareness about the various nutrients in food.
  • The diet & nutrition tracking app is a targeted way to focus on health.
  • The diet and nutrition planning application would suggest healthy food options to the users and help them build a healthy grocery list.

What are the top diet and nutrition apps?

Leading diet and health Apps in Market

MyFitnessPal

The editor’s choice of PC magazine for fitness apps, MyFitnessPal, helps the users keep a detailed log of the food they eat and their activities.

MyFitnessPal has the following features.

  • A database of 11+ million foods
  • Calorie counter
  • Step counter
  • An extensive database of 350+ exercises for weight loss
  • Nutrient tracker according to different types of nutrients like carbs, protein, fat, fiber, vitamins, and sugar

MyFitnessPal has a large supportive community that allows users to share their accomplishments with others.

Argus

Argus is an app that creates beautiful health charts for users. The nutrition planning app has a unique display method in which various tiles like water intake, steps, and calories feed information to the users.

Features of Argus

  • Barcode scanner to know the nutrient value of packaged foods
  • Palo and Keto meal plans and a wide range of recipes
  • Advanced sleep tracker
  • Custom HD workouts
  • Step counter
  • Personalized training and weight loss plans

Lose it!

Since its launch in 2008, Lose it! has helped users in losing 80 million-plus pounds. Lose it! has a unique, customized system where the user inputs the profile details, sets weight goals, and then the app calculates the daily calorie intake to help the user achieve the goal.

The features of Lose it!

  • More than 27 million foods to search from
  • Nutrient tracker which tracks the protein, carb, sugar, and fat content in each food
  • A barcode scanner
  • Meal planner and targets to find out the ideal amount of calories per meal
  • A vast library of workouts
  • Recipes for healthy food

How much does it cost to develop a diet and nutrition app for iOS and Android?

The cost to develop a diet and nutrition tracking app depends on various factors of which the complexity of the app is an essential one. As the number of app features and third-party integrations increases in diet and nutrition app, so will the cost.

A basic food and nutrition tracking app will cost you around $20,000 to $65,000, while the price will increase as the number of features increase. App features like wearable device integration, real-time display of calories burnt, on-demand consultation with dieticians, and data analytics will take the cost of developing a diet and nutrition app to around $125,000 and beyond.

Another critical factor on which the development cost for a diet and food planning app depends is the location of the health and nutrition app development company. If you will search from Western Europe and North America most of the app development companies charges three times those located in Asian countries like India.

A complete guide on Mobile app development cost

How to generate revenue from a nutrition and diet planning app?

The revenue model for a diet and& nutrition tracking app

A diet & nutrition planning mobile app can offer plenty of monetization opportunities. Let’s have a look at some of the most prominent ones.

Subscription

By creating the best app for tracking nutrition, you can earn revenue by providing subscription services to the users. Customized diet plans, personal video meetings with dietitians, and trending information about food and nutrition are some of the services that might interest users.

E-Commerce

Developing a diet & nutrition mobile app can earn revenue by acting as an e-commerce platform. The app could sell various products and services related to diet control and weight loss like dietary supplements, diet plans, and personal one-to-one sessions with dietitians. The e-commerce platform could be an aggregator platform or a platform selling only one particular brand’s products and services.

Commissions

In the aggregator business model, businesses related to fitness and nutrition can advertise on the app platform. The app can ask for a commission on each sale happening on its platform.

In-apps advertisements

In-app advertisements can prove to be a significant source of revenue for a food and nutrition tracker app. The app can offer advertisement space to businesses related to the health and fitness industry. While selling advertisement space, the app management should take care that it does not spoil the user experience.

Below mentioned are some of the most common types of ads in a diet planning app.

  • Banner ads
  • Interstitial ads
  • Native ads
  • Affiliate ads
  • Reward ads
  • Video ads

Features to include in a diet and nutrition mobile app

We have collated a list of diet and nutrition app development features to be considered based on the complexity.

Basic features for nutrition and diet tracking app

different screen of Diet & Nutrition Tracking App with basic features

  • Profile registration
  • Calorie counter
  • Integration with 3rd party apps
  • Create custom exercise routines
  • Reminders to remind people to drink water and take other food items.
  • Push notifications
  • Feedback system
  • Create diet plans
  • Multiple payment options
  • Profile management
  • Logging food intake details
  • In-app calling with health experts or nutritionists
  • Physical activity monitoring

Advanced features for diet and nutrition tracking app

screen with a little advanced features for Diet & Nutrition Tracking App

The advanced features of a diet and nutrition tracking software application will ensure that the app stands out from the competition. We have included a few advanced features that one can consider adding.

Access to experts

Users might want to consult fitness experts to ensure that they follow the most appropriate diet plan according to their needs. Individual users might have some medical conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure. Such users will need to consult diet experts before they start following a diet plan.

A health and nutrition app can connect dieticians and nutritionists with users. A diet plan can help users in achieving their goals quickly. The fitness and nutrition experts will prepare customized diet plans for the users, enabling them to attain their fitness goals.

Advanced Nutrition API

Right from calculating the BMR and BMI while on-boarding, to tracking the calories burnt by getting the data from respective fitness tracking apps integrated, the advanced nutrition tracking feature will provide an enhanced overview of the nutritional value.

Integration with wearables

The diet planning app can integrate the app data with various wearables and trackers like Apple Watch, Android Wear, Fitbit, Jawbone, and Samsung Gear. The wearables will seamlessly transmit data like heart rate, steps taken, and quality of sleep to the app. Using data analytics, the nutrition tracking application can suggest the best course of action to the users.

Gamification

Gamification-food-app-feature

To increase user retention and engagement, one can consider including game elements in the diet and nutrition tracking mobile application. Features like points, badges, and ranks can help boost the users’ morale, compete with each other, and ultimately help the users maintain a healthy lifestyle over the long term.

Include Augmented Reality technology

VR food app feature2

All those who have ever tried to follow a strict diet plan know how difficult it can be to choose a restaurant’s proper meal. Powered by AR, an app called Suggestic helps users make healthy choices from the items on the menu. The app’s Suggestic lens feature allows the users to see a visual breakdown of the menu’s offerings based upon various diet routines like paleo, low carb, and vegan.

Using the smartphone camera, the users can scan a menu to unlock nutritional information like protein, fat, and carbs. The app even rates the best food on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the best choice. The app will make a big red X on the menu item, which the users should avoid.

Recipe suggestions

The diet tracking mobile application can help users make healthy choices by suggesting healthy recipes. The users should sort the recipes according to the ingredients, calorie count, and other categories. The recipes could even include video, pictures, and other voice instructions. The app could even allow users to rate the recipes. Going a step further, the food tracking software and nutrition app can add a shopping list feature that helps users shop for ingredients for cooking a healthy recipe.

Barcode scanner

The barcode scanner feature of the best food tracking app will help users in identifying the nutrient content of foods. By pointing the smartphone camera to a label, the user will get details like the fat content, sugar content, and calorie count. The barcode scanner is a handy feature that allows the users to make informed decisions.

User-generated content

User-generated content can help in increasing the user-engagement levels. A nutrition & diet apps can allow users to share their diet and nutrition ideas with other users. The app can have a feature that enables users to share new healthy recipes prepared by them. By sharing ideas, the users will feel more connected with the diet app.

How to Build a Successful App in 8 Easy Steps?

Technology stack to build a Diet Planning App

The best technology stack will help the company build robust Health & Fitness Apps. Hire developers with both, experience and expertise, to develop nutrition and diet planning software applications.

UI/UX: The dedicated designers can use Google Sketchup and Adobe Photoshop to craft beautiful UI/UX.

Payment Gateways: Skilled developers are able to implement services like Stripe and Braintree that can help integrate various payment gateways like Paypal, MasterCard, Visa, Netbanking services of different banks with the diet and nutrition app.

Nutrition feeds: The database of MyFitnesspal and Nutrition X can prove to be useful for getting highly accurate food feeds

Database management: The remote developers can use MySQL, MongoDB, and Firebase database management.

Wearable SDK: The APIs from Jawbone, Fitbit, Nike, Garmin, and Misfit can help in integrating the wearables of these companies with the diet and nutrition tracking app.

Coding: To develop an iOS app, iOS app developers can use Objective C and Swift. For building an Android app, Android app developers can rely on Kotlin and Java.

Push notifications: The talented developers can use various services like Twillo, Apple push notifications service, and firebase to integrate the push notifications feature in the app.

Health data: For collecting health and fitness data, one can consider using Google Fit APIs or HealthKit APIs.

A team required to develop a calorie & food tracking mobile app

app-development-team

Building an efficient diet and nutrition tracking app would require the services of the following experts:

  • Project Manager
  • Back-end developers
  • Team leaders
  • UI/UX designers
  • iOS/Android developers
  • QA Engineers

Why do you need the help of expert app developers?

The diet and nutrition mobile apps are growing in popularity, opening up a plethora of opportunities for entrepreneurs. So, if you want your health and nutrition mobile app to stand out then outsourcing your requirements to an efficient team will be the key.

Developing a diet tracking app can prove to be a tedious task as it requires

  • An experienced coding team
  • Integration with various third-party applications like wearables
  • Ability to execute the project within deadlines
  • Maintenance and post-development support

Expert mobile app developers can help to create a diet and nutrition mobile app as they will have all the traits mentioned above. For more than a decade, Prismetric has provided its clients with custom mobile application solutions that have helped them take their businesses to new heights.

Consult the experts at Prismetric to develop your diet and nutrition mobile app. We would love to hear about your app idea and requirements.

Proactive Diet and Nutrition Tracking App Development Questions & Answers

How can I create my diet app?

To create your diet app either you should hire in-house development team which will cost you a lot as you need to spend time and money in the hiring process as well as infrastructure, salaries, tools, and other expenses. Or you can hire the top mobile app development company with the experience to get the diet app developed. With their expertise, they can help you to choose the most efficient revenue model with the features that are necessary. This will help you to save on your development budget as well. Also, an apt guide of mobile app development can help you to understand the process to build an app.

What features are a must-have for my diet and nutrition app?

When you are building MVP for a diet and nutrition tracking app, it includes the set of following features:

  • Registration
  • Diet logging
  • Calorie counter
  • Custom diet and exercise plan
  • Push notifications
  • Feedback system
  • Reminders for diet intake
  • Multiple payment options

You can enhance the app with the following advanced functionalities to stay ahead of the curve.

  • Live chat with experts
  • Barcode scanner
  • Shopping list assistance
  • Healthy food recipes
  • Community interaction

I already have an app for diet and nutrition. What can I do to make it more appealing?

There is always room for more. No matter if you recently built your app for diet and nutrition or its been a long time you can always update your application by considering different factors.

  • User reviews and ratings
  • App user interface
  • Advanced features to implement
  • State-of-art technologies to integrate

What are the most popular revenue models for diet apps?

Different monetization models enable app owners to make money from diet and nutrition applications.

  • In-app Advertisement
  • Commission
  • Subscription
  • E-commerce

How much does it cost to develop a diet and nutrition app?

The diet and nutrition tracking app development cost depends on the app’s features, UI design, tech stack, and complexity. Typically costs for developing a diet and nutrition app with basic features start from $20,000 and it surges with advanced functionalities integration.

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