Are you looking for the best walking apps to try this year?
If so, you have landed on the right page! Here, we share the nine best walking apps to help you track your steps, manage your weight, and record your walks. Walking apps are hugely beneficial if you want to get serious about your walking activities.
But before we proceed to our list, let’s first have a brief discussion of the benefits of walking.
Benefits of Walking
Walking burns calories and strengthens the heart.
One of the best ways to burn unwanted calories is through physical cardio activities like walking (and running). Depending on how many calories you have burned, you can lose or maintain weight.
Likewise, cardio exercises reduce the risk of heart disease and other undesirable illnesses. A study shows that walking 30 minutes a day can lessen the chances of having coronary heart disease by 19%.
Walking helps in regulating blood sugar and blood pressure levels.
Research from the American Diabetes Association suggests that walking for 15 minutes three times a day can actually lower blood sugar levels. Moderate exercise allows your muscles to use more glucose while regulating your blood sugar.
Moreover, health professionals and experts agree that taking short, 10-minute walks three to four times a day can significantly reduce your blood pressure levels. This is because when you walk, your heart circulates more blood, which delivers oxygen to your muscles.
Walking boosts energy and immunity levels.
Studies show that a 30-minute walk can substantially bolster your immune system, improving how your body reacts to viruses and bacteria. If you can’t find time to exercise regularly, walking can still do the trick.
In the same manner, when you feel tired and exhausted, walking is a good way to relieve stress and boost your energy. Experts say that walking helps increase the hormones you need to stay active and alert.
Walking improves mood and enhances the cognitive system.
According to research, walking is one way to reduce anxiety levels and get rid of depression and other negative thoughts and feelings. It promotes the release of endorphins, a hormone that relieves the body of stress and pain.
Additionally, walking has been linked to enhanced brain function. Health professionals say that slightly moderate to moderate walking can diminish the risk of having cognitive impairment, especially at a very young age.
Walking develops muscle strength and physical stamina.
Walking is one of the best practices for preparing your body for strenuous exercises. It builds endurance and makes you more comfortable whenever you start training or practicing. Hence, it can be a good pre-workout exercise.
If you don’t have much time to exercise, consider walking every day or several times a week as an alternative to stay fit and healthy.
Now you know the benefits of walking. If you want more information about the good things it can do for your body, click here and check a comprehensive list of walking benefits.
Now let’s get to our list!
9 Best Walking Apps
1. Fitbit
The Fitbit app is one of the world’s leading apps for health and fitness. It has many features that help monitor your daily exercise routine and nutrition intake and also has services that diligently record your progress and achievements.
Fitbit primarily tracks your steps and the distance you cover daily. It also shows how many calories you burned for the day and how many hours you were active. You can spot trends over time so you can create new plans to maximize your exercise time.
Furthermore, this walking app helps improve and maintain your other health indicators, such as sleep, food, and workouts. You can set sleep goals, create bedtime reminders and wake targets, and even review your sleep trends. You can log your food, hydration, and workouts in the app, see your stats, and review their impact on your health.
The Fitbit app is available on both desktop and mobile versions. This means that you can see your progress wherever and whenever you want. If you are looking for an all-around health app, this one is a must-try.
2. MapMyWalk
MapMyWalk is a descendant of MapMyFitness, one of the world’s leading mobile health tracker apps. It is powered and developed by Under Armour, Inc., one of the leading brands in sports apparel, shoes, and accessories.
MapMyWalk has many excellent features that help you monitor your steps and track the calories you burn. It even offers advanced running metrics such as foot strike angle, stride length, and ground contact time.
Similar to Fitbit, this app can track and record your workouts. These include cycling, running, cross-training, gym workouts, and even yoga. Moreover, it offers real-time audio coaching to help you maintain your pace, duration, and distance whenever you run or walk.
In addition to mapping your walk, this app provides deals for games and challenges. You can compete with other MapMyWalk users and work to reach a common target goal. Prizes are usually Under Armour products.
3. Argus: Calorie Counter and Step
Argus: Calorie Counter and Step claims to be the “only free all-in-one health and fitness app.” Indeed, it is 100% free, and all you have to do is sign up and get started with your weight goals instantly. The Argus app primarily features a calorie counter with a barcode scanner and a huge food database.
Aside from the step tracker, the app boasts a heart rate measuring feature and calorie-burning, video-guided workouts. It also has a sleep monitoring system called Sleep Time that provides techniques for sleeping better. Most importantly, it offers personalized weight-loss plans that you can use to determine what kind of food you should consume and how many calories you should burn.
One of the most exciting features of this app is its low battery usage. It is designed to save your phone’s battery for other important activities. The app also has a global social network to share your goals, achievements, and stories.
4. StepsApp Pedometer
The StepsApp Pedometer app solely focuses on counting your steps and tracking your walking habits. It has over 10 million users, and is available in six colors. Additionally, the app has voiceover features available in more than 20 languages, making it useful for people worldwide.
In addition to counting your steps and measuring your burned calories, the app also features weekly, monthly, and yearly charts. These charts help you set your step goals, as you can see your improvements over time. It also saves your weekly report to quickly access your step history and trends.
If you are looking for the easiest way to track your steps without many other features getting in the way, this could be an excellent option. With its simple design and interface, there is no way you won’t be able to understand and enjoy it.
5. GoogleFit
GoogleFit is a health project from Google in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Heart Association (AHA). It mainly features a system called “Heart Points,” in which you are recommended a set of goals or physical activities to keep your heart strong and body healthy.
As evidenced by the system’s name, GoogleFit aims to help people reduce the risk of developing heart disease by encouraging physical activity. It believes that the key to being generally fit and well is how we structure our daily routines. Based on your activity goals, it makes recommendations that can have a positive effect on your health.
The app features customized coaching and provides actionable tips for your health activities. It also has a journal feature where you can manually record your goals and achievements. GoogleFit records not only your steps but also other activities like swimming and running.
6. Apple Health
Apple Health is Apple’s version of a health app that consolidates data from your iPhone, Apple Watch, and all other third-party apps you use to track your health progress. It is like a journal that serves as your go-to resource whenever you want to see a summary of what you have been up to regarding health goals and physical well-being.
Apple Health has four unique features that make it different from the rest of the health apps: highlights, charts, an organizer, and a sync system. The highlights feature determines your favorite metrics and “highlights” them for you. This means you don’t have to search the app before you can find what you are looking for.
The charts feature allows you to see your trends over time. You can review your progress in a given day, week, month, or year. Meanwhile, the organization feature sorts all your data and stores it in the right categories. This way, it is easy to select the category of the record you want to see. Lastly, the sync system allows your device to sync your data with all your other health apps, which are also up to date. There is a catch, of course—this app is available only to Apple users.
7. Walkmeter Walking & Hiking GPS
Walkmeter Walking & Hiking GPS is recommended for walkers and runners. It offers several features, including maps, graphs, intervals, laps, zones, splits, training plans, and more. It also allows users to record unlimited workouts in any form.
Like any other walking app, Walkmeter allows you to keep track of your activities on a calendar or by routes and activities. Bar and pie charts are also available for those who find them easier to use. You may also record your heart rate, speed, and cadence and configure your distance, time, and elevation.
Walkmeter is a pretty straightforward app that offers basic, core features to users for free. However, if you want to get the best out of the app, you might want to pay for the Elite subscription. You will have to pay through iTunes, as most of the app’s services are connected to it.
8. Pacer
The Pacer Pedometer & Step Tracker app is simple, powerful, and fun. It is simple and easy to understand, so you don’t have to be a tech genius to navigate it. But it is also powerful and fun, so you get what you are looking for from the experience.
The designers designed the app’s interface straightforwardly so you can successfully track your runs, walks, and rides. They created four categories to easily access the information you need to reach your activity goals.
The app offers personalized fitness plans, which include guided audio and video workouts. These workouts help you lose weight, get toned, and stay active throughout your healthy living journey. Moreover, they are developed by pro trainers in the sports and health industry, ensuring their effectiveness.
Pacer can be linked to FitBit and MyFitnessPal. Since it is only a step counter, you might want to pair it with other health apps that cover more health activities. If you connect your Pacer app to these other partner apps, you do not need to buy a separate step tracker.
9. Charity Miles
Charity Miles has rather unique features than other walking and step tracker apps. Instead of counting your steps for your health, the app’s mission is to record your physical activities to contribute to charity. It has a dual purpose—to keep you fit and healthy while raising funds for a good cause.
The app is connected to your phone’s internal pedometer and GPS, and tracks your distance whenever you use any fitness tracking device installed on your phone. If you are using FitBit, your Charity Miles app works whenever your Fitbit tracker starts counting steps, or any other physical activity.
You can also choose which charity you would like to contribute to. You can raise money alone or with a group.
For every mile you finish, a corresponding monetary donation will be given to the charity of your choice. Is there a better way to help you stay motivated to count your steps and burn those calories?
A Final Word on Walking Apps
A walking program is a great way to improve your health and lifestyle. Click here for a comprehensive guide on how to start such a program. Then, choose a walking app from this article and get started!
If you are already a walker and are looking for a walking app that helps you count your steps and track your physical activities, we hope the apps we shared above were helpful. You might try a few of them and see which one works best for you.
Have you already tried one of these apps?
We’d like to know which one, and would love to hear about your experience. Comment in the field below and share your story with us.
See some related posts from Endurancely:
- Is Walking Good for Neuropathy?
- 5 Best Fitbit Options for Your Kids
- 5 Best Rucking Apps for iOS & Android
- Is Walking Cardio? How to Build a Good Cardio Walking Workout
