On the journey towards diet and fitness success, one of the most important assets any health-hunter can have is a strong support system. Support comes in many guises – from friends to partners to fellow dieters online – and now, with the explosion of smartphones, support comes in the compact, on-the-go form of mobile applications that help you keep track of your goals and the steps you’ll need to take to reach them.

Here are 5 free mobile apps designed to help you achieve fitness and nutrition success:

 MyFitnessPal: Getting started with this app is as simple as inputting information about your current status (weight, height, activity level) and your fitness goals. Then, using a large database of nutritional information, the app tracks the number of calories that should be consumed each day in order to reach your goal and the number remaining, while also logging the number of calories burnt during exercise.

Fitness Pro: A good exercise regime is an important part of any diet plan. Fitness Pro offers tips for both cardio and weight training workouts, as well as a database of exercises targeted to specific areas of the body. Users can tackle one of the preprogrammed workouts, or input their own for more customization.

Drink More Water!: Staying hydrated is a key ingredient in the recipe for weight loss. This app tracks your daily water intake, and allows users to set reminders to drink water throughout the day. A graph keeps track of your progress over the course of a week or a month.

40-30-30: Dieting is all about balance. With this app, dieters can be sure that they’re getting a balanced ratio of the 3 macro nutrient groups – carbohydrates, protein, and fat – without having to interpret confusing nutritional labels.

Lose It!: This app determines how many calories you must eat per day based on how many pounds you tell it you’d like to lose per week. To keep your motivation high, the app produces a graph of your achievements so far, and an associated website provides further tools to help you record your progress.

And that’s not all. In addition to these 5 apps, there are many more mobile fitness and nutrition tools designed to help you get healthy by doing everything from tracking the number of steps you take per day, to analyzing your heartbeat, to calculating your BMI and body fat percentage. Whatever your goals, there’s an app to help you reach them.

For more weight loss and diet ideas you can take a look at the reviews found in our Health & Beauty category.