The short answer
Two routes are worth knowing. The Healthier You NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme is free, runs for nine months, and your GP can refer you if you are at risk of type 2. It has a digital option with an app and a coach.1 If you want something you can start today without a referral, or you have finished the programme and want the eating to stick, Bolus plans a week of meals around how you like to eat, brings in your activity, and keeps a weight goal alongside. The weekly plan is free on iPhone.
What prediabetes changes, and what it doesn't
Prediabetes means your blood glucose is higher than it should be but not yet in the type 2 range. It carries a high risk of type 2, and the useful part is that for many people steady changes to food, weight and activity make type 2 less likely, and sometimes bring glucose back into the normal range.2 There is no guarantee, and it is months of ordinary weeks rather than a three-month crash.
What it does not change is the food. The eating that is linked to a lower risk is the same balanced pattern that is good for just about everyone: plenty of vegetables, pulses, higher-fibre wholegrains, fish and eggs, less sugary drink and processed food.3 There is no prediabetes diet to buy. The job of an app is to help you actually eat that way for long enough to matter.
Start with the free NHS route
If you have been told you are at risk, ask your GP practice about Healthier You. It is a nine-month lifestyle programme, delivered either face to face in a group or digitally with an app, wearable tracker and health coach, and you choose which.1 It costs nothing, and it is the route the NHS has built for exactly this moment. The limits are the ones you would expect: you need a referral, the programme ends, and the digital version is a coached course rather than something that plans your dinner on a Tuesday.
What to look for in a prediabetes app
- It should make the week easier, not give you more to do. A food diary and a calorie target add work to every meal. The question is what happens in week nine, when the novelty has gone.
- It should be built around UK food. Recipes you can shop for at Tesco, Aldi or Sainsbury's, not American brands and cup measurements.
- It should bring food, activity and weight together. These are the three levers for prediabetes, and three separate apps is how people lose track of all of them.
- It should fit the long haul. The changes that count are held over months, not weeks, so the real question is whether you will still be using it in week twenty.
Where Bolus fits
Bolus gives food, exercise and weight support to adults in the UK with pre-diabetes, type 2 or type 1. It plans a week of breakfasts, lunches and dinners around your tastes, household and how much time each meal can take, using a nutrition framework developed by a specialist diabetes dietitian who previously worked in NHS diabetes services, and helps you buy the food at a normal UK supermarket. There is no calorie counting and no food diary: you tap to say whether you ate the planned meals. When plans change, the week adapts around what you have already bought.
Activity comes in automatically from Apple Health, measured against the NHS guidance of 150 moderate minutes a week, and Bolus starts from what you already do rather than from zero.4 If weight is something you want to work on, you set a target and follow it alongside your food and activity, and Emily, the healthy eating coach built into the app, helps turn the goal into a realistic next step and follows up. She is the app itself answering, not a person on shift, and she does not give medical advice.
The weekly food plan is free and does not expire. Bolus Premium adds Emily, the weight goal and exercise, paid monthly or yearly through Apple, with the price shown before you subscribe. Bolus is iPhone only and UK only for now.
Apps people with prediabetes use
- Second Nature delivers the Healthier You programme in parts of England as well as a self-pay version: an app, daily lessons, a human coach who is a registered nutritionist or dietitian, and a peer group. A good fit if you want a person on the other end and a structured course.
- Noom is a calorie-budget weight-loss app with psychology lessons. Not built for prediabetes, and calorie counting is the whole method.
- MyDiabetes sells calorie-based meal plans for diabetes and prediabetes with grocery lists and workouts, no coach.
- NHS Weight Loss Plan is the free NHS 12-week app for weight, not specific to prediabetes but free and sensible.
Make the next few months easier
Bolus plans a week of meals around how you like to eat, helps you buy them at your usual UK supermarket, brings in your activity, and keeps your weight goal alongside. Emily, the healthy eating coach built into the app, is there any hour to help it stick. No calorie counting, and the weekly plan is free.
On a computer? Scan with your iPhone.
Want the food first? Read how to avoid type 2 diabetes, starting with what you eat.
Frequently asked questions
The evidence
The advice here is Bolus's own, and it lines up with the credible sources we rely on. If you want to check the evidence or read further, these are a good place to start. Facts about Bolus were checked on 17 October 2026 against bolus.health and the UK App Store listing.
- NHS England. NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme (Healthier You).
- Diabetes UK. What is prediabetes?
- NHS. The Eatwell Guide.
- NHS. Physical activity guidelines for adults aged 19 to 64.
This is general healthy-eating information, not medical advice. For guidance about your own care, medication or blood glucose, speak to your diabetes care team.