Fitness and nutrition apps are becoming more and more popular as more and more people look for ways to improve their overall health and well-being. These apps can help users track their fitness goals, monitor their nutrition, create personalized workout and meal plans, connect with other like-minded people, and even access virtual personal trainers.
A wave of mobile fitness solutions has emerged as a result of the increased use of smartphones and the advent of new technologies. The global fitness app market is expected to reach around $14.6 billion by 2027, according to research by Reports and Data. The requirement for a bespoke fitness and nutrition app has been expressed. It’s big business, and if you’ve been thinking about developing an app like Myfitnesspal for your startup, this blog is for you.
As a leading fitness app development company, in this blog, we will provide some helpful fitness app development tips as well as discuss the must-have features and costs of developing a mobile fitness app like MyFitnessPal.
So, let’s start this discussion.
MyFitnessPal: A Quick Glimpse
There are many applications in the fitness industry. However, it’s critical to understand that not all apps have the same features as MyFitnessPal. History records the launch of the first fitness tracking app in 2005, but not before. These kinds of fitness apps are experiencing explosive growth and have millions of users.
It is not surprising that Myfitnesspal expands its reach and services rapidly to more than 100 nations. It also mainly focuses on the diet aspect and currently has over 14 million foods in its database. This number is constantly growing. All thanks to its dynamic user engagement.
The app still worked, but the value was more focused on workouts. Francisco Partners, a private equity firm, bought back the platform in October 2020 for $345 million.
This platform is the result of the good development of applications for health care. It was evident in the platform’s revenue generation, which hit $150 million last year. Over 200 million people use this diet-tracking platform at the moment.
Many unique features are available, including food intake tracking and customization according to your fitness goals. As a result, it has become a leading health and fitness app.
The Fitness Industry – Some Interesting Numbers
- As per reports, the US stands top in healthcare spending with $10,224 per capita.
- Almost 1.2 billion U.S. dollars in funding were directed to the development of mHealth apps, making it one of the most promising sectors in digital health.
- 26% of fitness app users use their apps 10+ times/week
- According to Runrepeat, Millennials are the most active users of fitness apps.
- Fitness apps were downloaded more than 400 million times in 2022-2023.
- As per Statista report, the global revenue from fitness apps is expected to reach $15.2 Billion by 2028.
- The global fitness app market has the potential to grow by USD 3.5 billion during 2021-2025.
Therefore, it is quite evident that thinking of fitness app development is a great idea as it has good scope, especially after the pandemic.
But the fitness tracking apps are of different types that perform different functions. Let us learn what all are they so that you get better clarity.
Types of Fitness Apps to Get Users Motivated
The types of fitness apps vary from each other based on specialization and specifications. Different fitness apps have different functionalities that provide insight into a particular aspect of health. However, today a single application shares a lot of information and features. In general, there are five types of fitness apps such as-
Nutritional Apps
Some apps guide what you should eat and what kinds of foods you should avoid. It is basically a diet app that shows users how to follow a healthy diet so they can live a healthy lifestyle. In order to get a diet plan suitable for your body type and health, you need to provide information such as age, body mass, etc.
These fitness apps are highly recommended as they help maintain a good balance between the quality and quantity of food. It is perfect for those who want to change their eating habits or focus on healing a specific problem area through good food intake.
Workout Apps
This type of app mainly shares information and training sessions for workouts with its users. To create such a fitness app, you need to optimize exercises for various parts of the body or for the fitness instructor in general. Training exercises are shared with users with the help of infographics or videos to ensure better understanding.
The exercise app may have different sections related to specific training programs, such as abs exercises or arm slimming. Additionally, some of the latest advanced training apps can also specify the time frame for the exercise.
Calories Counter Apps
It’s almost similar to their nutrition apps, just with a slight difference in that it’s a self-guided version of healthy eating. Like the working models of other fitness apps, this app also asks you to fill in personal information to guide you accordingly. It teaches users what is the optimal caloric intake to take in order to achieve their particular health goals.
The calories you eat in your food and the physical activities you do must be monitored with the application guide. To calculate calories for food, you can manually enter the name of the food or upload an image to find it. However, all methods of evaluating calories in food depend on the level of the development progress of the fitness application.
Personal Training Apps
This type of fitness app will make you feel like you are in the gym. The user of this fitness app is assigned a personal trainer. It can be a real human or AI-based assistant trainer to guide users through their fitness journey.
Just like a regular trainer, it keeps track of your health details like what you eat, training exercises you do, and other related activities that should be included in a healthy lifestyle.
Hybrid Apps
As the name suggests, these fitness apps are a mix of all the apps mentioned above. In this app, you are assigned a personal trainer who guides you on what foods to eat, what workout exercises to do, and other activities to achieve your desired health goals.
Must-have Features For A Fitness App Like MyFitnessPal
Now that we’ve learned about the various types of fitness apps, we hope it’s helped you decide which category to look into for fitness app development. But have you ever thought about what features you should include in a fitness app? Here are some key functionality features to consider.
| Customer Fitness App Feature | Features For Admin |
| Registration/ Login | Login |
| User Profile | Manage Dashboard |
| Link Wearable | Manage Users |
| Track Activity/Diet/Sleep | Manage Payments |
| View Diet Plans | Manage Plans |
| View/Manage Health records | Manage Notifications |
| Payment Gateways | Manage Promo and offers |
| View Daily Progress Report | Manage Media -Video and Images |
| View/Track your steps | Manage Rewards |
| View Health Tips/Suggestions | Manage Subscriptions(if any) |
| Push Notification | — |
01- Simple Registration and Profile Creation
Accounts are very important because they allow app users to save and maintain their information even if they switch devices. Have first-time users create their accounts through social media accounts. Users do not like a long and complex registration process.
You can make the entire registration process short and simple. For example, a basic user profile might include name, weight, height, email id, mobile phone number, and a profile photo. Registration can be completed when the application sends a verification code to the provided mobile phone number or email.
02- Social Media Integration
Integration with social networks goes beyond registering. For example, authorizing a registration via Facebook allows the application to combine functions of social networks. The integration has other uses as well, such as sharing fitness-related activities online.
Users can post their fitness results on any social media news feed and enjoy networking with like-minded users. These can include screenshots of the routes they completed or simply post photos taken while training.
03- Fitness App Gamification
For the purposes of entertainment, motivation, and inspiration for the users of the fitness app, gamification should be included. The reason is that all the exercises are usually hard and require a lot of effort. If a user can trade game points for something realistic as a form of gratification, he tends to try harder.
Games become more interesting if users can compete and compare their achievements or rewards with other users. Users can even post the results on social media. Interesting tasks can be added to be completed by users for failing the game objective. It could be penalties like five push-ups, sit-ups, or some other form of training.
04- Goal Setting
If you’re wondering how to make a fitness app more personalized for users, a goal-setting feature could be the answer. Since most of us are motivated to exercise to achieve our personal goals, it’s important that your app provides this opportunity.
A fitness app that allows a user to choose a task, view the progress, and complete it in a certain amount of time is unlikely to be abandoned. This capability can be utilized for nutrition management as well as sports activities.
05- Sleep Monitoring
Another feature that must surely be incorporated into your fitness app development project is sleep monitoring. Sleep is as much a part of our lives as exercise, and without adequate rest, the effectiveness of daily workouts can suffer.
Therefore, tracking statistics such as total sleep duration, time spent in light, deep or REM sleep, movement or snoring can provide users with essential data to improve their quality of life. The time to fall asleep or wake up can also be measured and displayed to give app users more information.
Additionally, there is a smart alarm clock that you might want to incorporate while developing a fitness app. Helps set the right time to wake up according to circadian rhythms and be energized for the next morning’s training session.
06- Recipe and Nutrition Database
The nutrition and recipe database feature includes healthy diet recipes for various easy-to-cook meals. There are a variety of foods in HD photos, an ingredient list, detailed preparation instructions, and nutritional information.
Users can easily get a hint of what to eat, plan a balanced diet, train effectively, and get the desired body shape faster. Recipes can be sorted to create diet plans that meet a user’s goal.
A user can customize a diet plan because there is a database that provides very detailed information on diet types, food classes, and nutrients. It also has the advantage of saving time deciding what to eat and time spent preparing food.
07- Food Intake Tracking
This feature is vital because a diet plan to gain or lose weight will be inaccurate without it. With this feature, food intake can be easily recorded and tracked. This helps the app users to track their calorie consumption in real-time and follow a successful diet plan.
To simplify recording diet information, this feature should be attached to a barcode. Both of these features make the app effective for recording data. Plus, it helps organize grocery shopping lists and even suggests recipes for healthy foods.
08- Water Intake Tracking
Tracking water is important because we know we can’t survive without it. Our body needs a healthy volume of water. With this feature, the daily quota of 2-3 liters of water needed in one day can be met.
The app contributes to the user’s fitness process and helps them achieve their goals by allowing regular water intake. The app sends reminders via push notifications to drink water and stay hydrated at different times of the day.
09- Geolocation Facility
Users who walk, run, or bike to stay fit should always be able to track where they are and where they’ve been. That is why it is important to include this feature in your fitness app development project. It allows users to know their exact location.
With the geolocation function, users can track the routes and directions of the roads when they walk, cycle, or jog.
Using maps from Apple, Google, and others, the app user can plan routes, report workouts, and keep track of their current location. Users can also share screenshots of fitness maps or routes on social media.
10- Activity Log
There’s no use in a fitness app if it can’t record your activities. This feature helps users plan and follow more promising and productive training activities. Users do not have to monotonously repeat physical activities at random and without order.
An effective program with a well-planned series of training facilitates efficiency. The activity logging feature for fitness apps includes smaller sub-functions that are highly relevant to the training process.
- Progress Analysis: A progress report is made available in the form of graphs, charts, and information based on an increase or decrease in weight, the frequency of workouts, etc.
- Calendar with training record: The calendar is used to record training days by sending reminders to users about their training. All successful training days are logged for records and analysis. Daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly goals can be tracked from the logs. With these, users will be able to set and diligently track their goals.
11- Barcode Scanner
A barcode scanner is another special and useful feature that allows for a simple and instant process of logging food into a fitness app. The barcode is scanned with the help of a smartphone and provides all the related data such as calories and ingredients.
12- In-app Purchase Options and Secure Payment
Fitness equipment, vitamin supplements, protein, and healthy drinks can be sold to app users with ease through an in-app purchase feature. It is a payment gateway-integrated in-app online store.
The advantages of saving time, convenience, variety of fitness products, and secure payment options make it a kind of all-in-one. It includes an online store for fitness needs without having to log into another app or website.
Bonus Visit: P2P Payment App Development
13- Video Tutorials
Training video tutorials for people who want to keep fit on their own without trainers, but don’t know how to do it. The tutorials show you every trick in the book modeling the best way to do a specific exercise. The videos easily provide vital fitness tips and impact various parts of the body.
This helps users to do everything by themselves. The various video workouts should be divided into beginner, intermediate, and advanced categories. Video tutorials can make a fitness app unique by providing numerous videos of a wide range of fitness, including regular workouts and well-explained yoga poses.
14- Push Notifications
Push notifications represent the motivation that users need to achieve their goals. Fitness is all about consistency, so time and frequency are the main variables to consider.
Some missed workouts or skipped meals on a diet plan can cause a user to miss a fitness goal. Ups and downs, tight schedules, bad weather, and bad mood, among other things, can be excuses to miss training sessions or deviate from a diet plan.
Fitness apps need notifications because they can encourage users to burn calories or eat a predetermined meal at a predetermined time. Users can set reminders for training or diet, and push notifications will notify them in time. Through push notifications, users can also be prompted to exercise frequently with motivational quotes.
15- Integration With Portable and Non-portable Devices
Speaking of features, syncing with wearable devices is a must for fitness-tracking apps. It is vital for the development of fitness apps and involves integration with different external devices, both wearable and non-wearable, such as smart watches, TVs, smart home devices like Amazon Echo, Alexa, or Google Home, and gym equipment as mentioned above.
The connection with portable devices allows users to track their activities and physical routines. It makes the app easier to use. With wearable devices, users can also control their exercise program. Pulse, blood pressure, and other physiological parameters can be easily detected and tracked by smart devices.
Plus, they can compare their progress report data by week, month, and year. Trainers can also gain a lot of information about each user they train and can use that information to help people train more effectively.
According to importance but in no particular order. Here is a list of the most popular wearable device types that are good for integration with fitness apps:
- Medical Monitoring Devices: These can be used to monitor sleep stages, and pulse rate, and even perform EKGs.
- Stress Trackers: To track stress levels. They signal users to take a break and relax when their stress levels become alarming.
- Activity Trackers: These are widely used wearable devices. They can track various activities, from walking to swimming to biking. They indicate which muscles are exercised and the intensity of the exercise on the muscle.
- Smartwatches: they have some characteristics of all the other devices that are talked about. Furthermore, they are one of the most widely available to end users and therefore should be.
16- Online Consultations
Without a professional trainer, a fitness program may fail. A user could be training with an incorrect posture or using gym equipment inappropriately. To avoid such situations, an online consultation feature via video or text chat can come in handy.
Training partners and friends can also share their fitness experiences, tips, and activity progress through the said feature. This feature is interesting and worthwhile, especially if you have considered a paid integration. A user will be able to pay a trainer quickly and easily.
Innovative Features for a Fitness App Like MyFitnessPal
Before proceeding with the development procedure, we need to prepare a list of innovative features for a fitness app like MyFitnessPal. Check our suggestions:
#1- AI-powered Personalized Chatbots:
With an AI-powered conversational chatbot, you can use the information available in the app in a more interactive and engaging format. Hire AI solutions providers who are experts in creating AI-powered chatbots that can be the icing on the cake for your Fitness app like MyFitnessPal.
#2- Blockchain-backed Payments:
Finally, by putting our rich and deep experience in blockchain, we will help you add another layer of security to the payment system in your application.
#3- Deep Analysis Dashboard:
The data is generated by user behavior and general browsing patterns within the application. These dashboards help you gain a better understanding of your data through custom metrics and analytics reports.
How to Develop a Fitness App Like MyFitnessPal?
Finally, it’s time to uncover the step-by-step process for fitness app development. Here, we are going to mention the detailed steps you should follow to develop your fitness app like MyFitnessPal. Take a quick look:
Step 1: Conduct Market and Competitor Research
Given the sheer number of mobile fitness apps on the market, you need to find something unique to differentiate your offering. Examine your competitors’ product offerings, platforms, design quirks, and customer reviews.
Both positive and negative customer reviews can be found on Google Play and the App Store. This can help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, as well as ways to distinguish yourself from them.
Step 2: Create the UI/UX of your Fitness App
App design is the soul and substance of your app because it draws people in and motivates them to use it. To create a great app design, the UX/UI designer analyzes your app requirements and develops a general design, wireframe, and prototype of your fitness app.
A qualified and experienced team at your side can make you stand out from the competition Having an in-house team, while a good idea, takes time and is an expensive investment. You can take advantage of technological expertise by outsourcing the project to companies like Quytech, as we have a strong and innovative development team that can understand your idea and turn it into reality.
Step 3: Choose the Optimal Fitness App Development Team
In addition to features and competitor analysis, you should focus on this point. It is essential to work with the best fitness app development company. Find a company that has the experience, knowledge, and vision to build a great app that stands apart from the rest.
With a dedicated team at Quytech, you can start your project from scratch, with an unclear requirement and a scope of work that will transform to bring your vision to life.
Step 4: Choose a Monetization Model For Your Fitness App
The profit can be obtained in several ways. For your future business, you have the following monetization models:
In-App Purchases
You can incentivize users to purchase something within your app if you want to feature a free fitness app but still make it profitable. You can offer a variety of in-app purchases, ranging from premium features to healthier diet recipes.
Paid Apps
Users must purchase your app before using it. The cost of the app will vary depending on the type of app, the smartphone platform, and the content it provides.
Ads
You can work with other fitness-related businesses to run advertising campaigns within your own fitness app. You have the option of charging a cost-per-mile or cost-per-click fee.
Freemium
The basic features of your app are free, but the premium feature set requires payment. A premium subscription model is another name for this type of business model. It means basic features are free, but advanced fitness and nutrition plans or personal training are not.
Sponsored Content
Partnerships with fitness experts and gyms are part of this model. Your partners can provide quality and valuable content to app users and add experience to your app.
Step 5: Fitness App Development
Once the design is complete, the next step is to start the development process. This includes writing the code for the application, integrating the necessary features and functionality, and testing the application to ensure that it works correctly. The development process can take several months, depending on the complexity of the application and the number of features included.
Step 6: Fitness App Testing
Before launching your app, it’s important to thoroughly test it for any bugs or issues. This includes testing the app on different devices and platforms to ensure that it works correctly and that the user experience is consistent across all devices.
Step 7: Deployment
Once the app is tested and any issues are resolved, the next step is to deploy the app to the app stores. This includes submitting the app to the Google Play Store or iOS App Store and promoting the app to attract users.
How Much Does it Cost to Develop a Fitness App Like MyFitnessPal?
How much does the development of a fitness and nutrition application cost? Several factors will affect the cost of developing fitness apps like MyFitnessPal. However, you can get an approximate cost by adding up the cost of key components.
The amount of effort required to develop the application is influenced by its complexity, such as the number of features you want to include in your Minimum Sustainable Product (MVP). Submit an overview of your project to a development company so they can provide you with a detailed estimate of development costs.
To create a superior fitness app, you may need a mobile app development company and a group of people who strategize, design, develop, and test. Therefore, it is very important to choose the right potential candidates and evaluate them from time to time. Here are the key personnel, the ones you should hire for sure.
- Project Manager
- Developers
- Designers
- Test engineers
The cost of developing fitness and nutrition apps like MyFitnessPal largely depends on three factors: the complexity and size of the app, the number of platforms you want to run your app on, and the country of the development center. In fact, hourly rates vary from country to country.
Well, there is no exact amount to know MyFitnessPal as the Fitness app development cost. The cost of developing a MyFitnessPal clone app script depends on four main factors: first and foremost is the Fitness mobile app development company, the complexity of the app, the availability of basic and advanced features of the app, and the duration and functionality of the platform. To jumpstart your entrepreneurial journey, book a meeting for a free consultation.
Ready to Start Your Own Fitness App Development?
Fitness is a goal for millions of people around the world, and health and fitness apps are helping people take the first step toward a healthy life. Developing a fitness app like MyFitnessPal is a profitable business idea right now.
Quytech can be your partner in success. We are a certified custom mobile app development company that can help your Fitness app ideas with expert Android, iOS, and cross-platform app development services.
We are a team of experienced software and application developers, UI/UX designers, product managers, and business analysts who can help you achieve the heights you aspire to take your business to. We have extensive experience in developing applications for clients based on their specific demands, reports, and needs.
With the help of various digital fitness solutions, we help you identify opportunities and challenges and generate valuable insights from day one. What are you waiting for? Get in touch with us to develop empowering fitness apps.
