College keeps you busy, though. Between classes, activities, and your social life, you might find it a challenge to keep up good eating habits. Below are a handful of apps to help busy college students maintain a healthy diet.

1. Budget Bytes

Busy college life makes it so easy to reach for a readymade meal or order takeout instead of looking for healthier options. Besides being unhealthy, eating like this is expensive. The good news is that eating a healthy diet on a budget is effortless with the free Budget Bytes app.

The app allows you to plan your weekly meals using the meal planner or save your favorite recipes into personalized cookbooks. Use the search option to find recipes based on ingredients in your fridge or filter recipes by category. The best bit? Each recipe gives you the cost and nutritional information per serving.

Download: Budget Bytes for iOS | Android (Free)

2. Budget Recipes

Whether you’re an expert in the kitchen or a total beginner, the Budget Recipes app can help you find thrifty and healthy recipes. To begin, select your cooking level and goals, and the app recommends recipes that you might fancy. Once you’ve found a recipe you like, add it to your meal plan, favorites, or shopping list.

Grocery shopping is super easy, too. Just use the shopping list to gather ingredients and cross them off as you pick them up. What’s more, you can use the app to find recipes for specific diet plans, which is useful if you’re following the keto diet or the DASH diet.

Download: Budget Recipes for Android (Free, subscription available)

3. Microwave Recipes

As a student living in a dorm room, you may only have access to a few basic kitchen appliances, such as a microwave. But cooking meals in a microwave doesn’t necessarily mean they have to be unappealing and unhealthy.

The Microwave Recipes app features many unique microwave dishes, from eggs in a cup to beef and butternut squash. When you tap Favorites on a dish, it is added to your list of favorite recipes, or you can tick off ingredients to add them to your custom shopping list. On top of that, can share recipes directly with friends or on social media.

Download: Microwave Recipes for iOS | Android (Free)

4. Plant Nanny

Staying hydrated is an important part of staying healthy. Fortunately, water is totally free! Plant Nanny is one of the best water tracker and reminder apps that turns drinking water into a game. The aim of the app is simple–the more water you drink, the more water your plants get, which helps them to grow and thrive.

Your daily water intake is set depending on your weight and lifestyle, but you have the option to adjust your cup volume and goal. Furthermore, using the app you can customize your plants, track your stats, discover creatures, and accomplish quests to earn various badges.

Download: Plant Nanny for iOS | Android (Free, subscription available)

5. Listonic

It’s easy to stay within your budget and stick to a healthy diet when you have a grocery list at your fingertips. To make sure your grocery list is available at all times, use the Listonic app. Making a grocery list is as effortless as tapping Create, naming your list, and then selecting what you need to buy.

You can create multiple lists depending on what you’re shopping for or where you’re shopping. For example, if you need to buy items from a specific bakery for a birthday party, create a list for that occasion. Additionally, you can even sync and share your shopping list with your partner, roommates, friends, and so on.

Download: Listonic for iOS | Android (Free, subscription available)

6. FatSecret

There are pros and cons to calorie counting apps, but mostly they can help you manage your weight and eat healthier. To help prevent the dreaded “Freshman 15,” download the FatSecret app. FatSecret has a few fantastic features, including an excellent food diary where you can track your daily meals, snacks, and drinks. Each food you log includes a detailed breakdown of the calories, macros, and other nutritional information.

Using the app, you can also choose a meal plan for a specific diet such as keto, intermittent fasting, or the Mediterranean diet. Another wonderful feature of FatSecret is the friendly community. Here, you can follow and support other like-minded people and comment on their posts.

Download: FatSecret for iOS | Android (Free, subscription available)

7. Health & Nutrition

Before you kickstart a new diet or begin a healthy eating journey, you need to know the ins and outs of what you’re putting in your body. The Health & Nutrition app is the ultimate food guide filled with information, tips, recipes, and a range of fitness and health calculators. BMI, BMR, and body fat are just a few of the calculators available.

Consider making your diet more colorful by eating all the colors of the rainbow. For that challenge, the Health & Nutrition app includes a massive library of vibrant, colorful fruits and vegetables that you should consider adding to your plate. Every food item is accompanied by a breakdown of its nutritional information, vitamins, minerals, and the benefits of adding it to your diet.

Download: Health and Nutrition Guide for Android (Free, in-app purchases available)

8. SuperCook

Instead of standing in front of the pantry not knowing what to do and then opting to get takeout instead of cooking, use the SuperCook app to find recipes that match the ingredients you already have. All you have to do is tap on all the items you have at hand, whether that’s a selection of meats, herbs, sauces, and spreads, and the app takes care of the rest.

From there, the SuperCook app generates potentially thousands of recipes that include those ingredients. In addition, you can narrow the recipes down by meal type, diet, cuisines, and rating. A good idea is to use the app to start a kind of dinner club with your roommates or friends. Join together to bring the ingredients each of you have and combine them to create something tasty.

Download: SuperCook for iOS | Android (Free)

It’s Possible to Navigate College and Make Good Food Choices

College may be the first time you’re in full control of what you eat, and that can be a positive or a negative thing. On the one hand, it’s so easy to stuff yourself with sweets and takeout. On the other hand, you have the opportunity to can lay the foundations of important healthy eating habits. These awesome apps can help you prioritize your diet and create worthwhile healthy cooking and eating skills that will benefit you throughout your life.