‘I lost 43lbs in eight months using weight loss technique from an app’

I put Simple, the AI weight loss app, through its paces in a review – but does it stack up to using a personal trainer?

Losing weight feels impossible sometimes because, well, treats are so good. Without the education or energy to commit, it’s easy to see why people crash out of diets when you can get five delicious cookies for £1.50 rather than slaving at a stove for some sautéed vegetables.

But what if I told you there was a way to load up your brain on knowledge and your belly full of nutritious food with a few clicks of an app? That’s what Simple promised me, the weight loss app currently offering 60 per cent off with code REACH60.

Using the exact same techniques touted by Simple, I managed to lose three stone and one pound – or 19.7kg, or 43lbs, depending on your flavour – in eight months. Last year saw me evicted from my crumbling London flat, moving back into my parents’ home, starting a new job and buying my own place all within a few months.

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Coupled with this was the existential dread of hitting the big 3-0, which fuelled my comfort eating spree. By the time August rolled around, I found myself 10kg (or 22lbs in old money) heavier.

At 6ft 1, tipping the scales at 115kg is overweight, even if you’ve got some gym-honed muscles trying to hold their ground. My T-shirts strained at the belly, my jeans felt so snug I feared they might burst every time I sat down, and my cat had to put in Herculean effort to put his two little paws on my stomach in bed. It was clear things needed to change, so I finally enlisted the help of a personal trainer at my gym and embarked on a diet plan (including intermittent fasting) and workout regimen.

Turns out, getting professional assistance does the trick as I managed to get in the best shape of my life – the last time I weighed this much, I was at university. With a 20-year-old’s metabolism firing at all cylinders. This gives me a unique perspective to evaluate Simple fairly, having experienced its human equivalent and fully putting intermittent fasting through its paces.

Simple, usually priced at £29.99 but currently discounted to £17.99, is an AI coaching app that utilises their artificial intelligence Avo to guide you through a diet and fitness plan. True to its name, the app is straightforward – take a quick 10-minute quiz after downloading and it will suggest lifestyle changes.

It also functions as a food diary and offers daily workouts if needed. But does it deliver? I put the app to the test to see if it can match up to the motivation provided by a human.

Intermittent fasting

Fasting isn’t for everyone – if you have an eating disorder or underlying health conditions, please seek medical advice instead of using this. However, in my view, for those who need a bit of help, it genuinely is the magic bullet for weight loss.

Our bodies weren’t built for non-stop feasting for hours on end and there are benefits beyond weight loss. Following the guidance of my personal trainer, I fast for 16 hours and eat within an eight-hour window. My fast breaks at 10.30am and resumes at 6.30pm.

This routine fits well with my work schedule (as writing on an empty stomach is a no-go for me) and I always hit the gym before starting work. While it might sound daunting, fasting actually provides a significant energy boost in the morning, which I find lasts until at least mid-afternoon when I have my substantial lunch.

The initial quiz on the Simple journey takes into account your lifestyle – your activity level, your goals, and your timeline to achieve them. Once you’re using the app, it asks for your preferred fasting duration: fast for 14 hours, eat for 10; fast for 12 hours, eat for 12; or follow the 16:8 schedule recommended by my PT.

This immediately instilled confidence in the AI coach, as it suggested the 16:8 as the optimal choice, while offering other options for those who prefer a more gradual approach. Discipline is a skill anyone can acquire, but to avoid burnout, you might want to take things a bit slower.

It’s like entering a cold swimming pool: you can either ease yourself in one toe at a time, or dive right in. Fasting is conveniently placed as one of your daily tasks on the homepage, making it hard to forget, and the app sends reminders of when to start and stop. Plus, a wealth of articles on the effects of intermittent fasting and handy tips for managing it can be found under the Explore tab.

Once you get into the rhythm of things – which, if my experience is anything to go by, won’t take long – you’ll barely notice it. However, the experience could be enhanced if they referenced their sources – after all, science has the loudest voice.

Given that this is the primary focus of the app, I believe it executes its purpose almost flawlessly. It guides you on what to do, offers advice, and supports you throughout the process. But the best part of the app is still to come….

Food Tracking and Avo

I often find myself sceptical of certain AI ‘enhancements,’ particularly as many seem to complicate rather than simplify. However, Avo truly shines in this app.

Food tracking can be a chore – I used MyFitnessPal and the relentless logging starts to feel like a tedious task after a few weeks. This feeling is amplified by my struggle to focus on any task I find even slightly dull.

However, Simple has streamlined the process by allowing you to snap a photo of your meal to log it automatically. For breakfast, I tucked into a bowl of strawberries (80g) and a pot of Fage 5% Greek yoghurt (160g). The app correctly identified the strawberries but mistook the yoghurt for cream.

However, making corrections was a breeze on the next screen, and it even provided a nutrition score to help improve future meals (I scored ‘Good’, just one level below ‘Optimal’).

The app nailed my protein shake and the correct amount of liquid, which I found quite impressive. But Avo has more tricks up its sleeve, including a ‘meal enhancement’ feature.

For lunch, I laid out duck breast, kale, halloumi, cucumber, and courgette and asked Avo to ‘enhance’ the meal. After a brief 30-second ponder, the app whipped up a seven-step recipe using the ingredients I’d set out.

It used the full sizes rather than my actual portions, so for more accuracy, I’d suggest following the instructions without the size measurements it includes. Still, its ability to recognise everything was remarkable and could be a real game-changer for those who find meal planning challenging.

If you’re not happy with your meal’s nutritional value, the app can recommend groceries for your next shop and explain each item’s health benefits. With a bit of time and effort, you could create your own meal plan using this tool.

This is similar to how using an online personal trainer feels. Personal trainers can swiftly adapt to changes in mood and schedules, but most importantly possess the sense of taste, which Avo does not. However, for those whose nutritional knowledge doesn’t extend beyond ‘five a day’, the app serves as an excellent starting point.

For a food fan like myself, Avo’s standout feature is its ability to analyse a restaurant menu and suggest the best options. I tested it at Dirty Bones in London’s Soho, a place where finding a weight-loss friendly meal is like searching for copper in a goldmine – it’s simply not what the restaurant is for.

With one photo of the menu, the app filters the choices to present options most likely to align with your fitness goals, breaking it down by each section of the menu. For instance, in the small plates section, it filtered out Mac N Cheese and suggested alternatives like Chicken Tenders and Popcorn Frickles.

Of course, some common sense is required – it did suggest the Mac Daddy Burger, which comes with the saturated fat-laden Mac N Cheese, among healthier burger options. Nonetheless, it’s a handy tool for those overwhelmed by choice.

So, is Simple worth it?

In a word, yes. The range of features offered by Simple are reminiscent of what you’d get with an online personal trainer: accountability, meal plans and recipes, advice, and encouragement.

There are certain limitations to it, given that the app is essentially a robot, making it more suitable for beginners or those unsure of where to begin. If you require more advanced assistance or your weight loss progress has hit a plateau, that’s when reaching out to a personal trainer could be beneficial.

However, its food logging and recipe features alone make it worth the investment. I will definitely keep using Simple to add some variety into my daily routines. I highly recommend this app.

If you’re on the hunt for something a bit different, I tried Noom a few years back and found it extremely user-friendly, albeit without some of the extra features offered by Simple.