If you’re trying to lose weight, you probably know that tracking your calories is a big part of the equation.
But how do you track them? Can’t we just use our phones?
Well, sure—but there are some great apps out there that can help you do it more efficiently. Here are four of them:
Best Apps For Tracking Calories Burned
A quick look at the best calorie counter apps
Best overall: MyFitnessPal
Best free features: Lose It!
Best fully free: FatSecret
Best for specific diets: Cronometer
Best for weight loss: Noom
For some people, keeping track of food and calorie intake can be helpful for promoting weight loss.
Research shows that people who log calories lose more weight and are more likely to keep the weight off in the long run (1,Trusted Source 2Trusted Source).
These days, counting calories is very easy. There are many useful websites and apps that help you log your meals and track your intake.
This article reviews the five best calorie counters available today.
All of them are accessible online, and signing up takes less than a minute. They all have apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android.
Last but not least, most of them are free.
Keep in mind
Even though logging calories can be a helpful weight loss tool for some, it’s important to note that tracking food and calories can lead to unhealthy behaviors like food obsession and disordered eating tendencies in both men and women.
Plus, tracking foods and logging calories are not always necessary to promote healthy weight loss. If you’re trying to lose weight, it’s important to find methods that are effective and don’t have a negative impact on your physical or mental health (3Trusted Source, 4Trusted Source, 5Trusted Source).
Best overall
MyFitnessPal
MyFitnessPal is one of the most popular calorie counters right now.
It tracks your weight and calculates a recommended daily calorie intake. It also has a well-designed food diary and an exercise log.
The homepage provides a clear picture of how many calories you’ve consumed during the day. In addition, it shows your remaining recommended intake and the number of calories you’ve burned by exercising.
If you’re using a fitness tracking device, MyFitnessPal can likely sync with it to include its data in the exercise log.
The app tracks your progress toward your goals and offers chat forums with fellow users. The forums include conversations, recipes, tips, and personal success stories.
MyFitnessPal’s nutrition database is very extensive, containing over 5 million foods. You can also download recipes from the internet or create custom foods and dishes.
The app even saves your favorite meals for convenient logging.
Additionally, MyFitnessPal’s barcode scanner allows you to instantly enter the nutrition information of some packaged foods.
Each day is presented as a pie chart, showing your breakdown of carbs, protein, and fat. You can also write a note for each day, recording how things went or how you were feeling.
MyFitnessPal does offer a free version. However, some of its features, such as meal preps and recipes, macronutrient counters, and guided fitness can only be accessed in the premium version, which is $49.99 per year.
Pros:
MyFitnessPal has the largest database available in a diet tracker and includes many restaurant foods.
It can download recipes from the internet and calculate the calorie content of each serving.
You can “quick add” calories if you don’t have the time to add details about a certain meal.
Cons:
Since most foods are uploaded by other users, the calorie count may not be entirely accurate. Multiple entries may exist for the same product.
Serving sizes in the database may be hard to edit, creating difficulties if your serving was smaller or larger than the one listed.
Studies have linked MyFitnessPal usage to eating disorders (6Trusted Source, 7Trusted Source, 8Trusted Source).
More: Website | iPhone app | Android app | Instructional video
Best free features
Lose It! App
Lose It! is another health tracker that includes an easy-to-use food diary and an exercise log. You can also connect a pedometer or other fitness device.
Based on your weight, height, age, and goals, Lose It! provides a personalized recommendation for calorie intake. It then tracks your calories on the homepage.
It features a comprehensive food database and an icon representing each food entry. The food diary is simple and user-friendly. Adding new foods is not complicated.
Additionally, the Lose It! app has a barcode scanner for packaged foods, and common foods are saved for quick entry later on.
Lose It! presents weight changes on a graph, provides access to an active chat community, and keeps a daily and weekly total.
Its tab called “challenges” allows you to participate in dietary challenges or make your own.
With a premium membership, which is $39.99 a year, you can set more goals, log additional information, and get some extra features.
Pros:
Lose It! has a food database complete with popular restaurants, grocery stores, and brand-name foods, all of which are verified by their team of experts.
The app lets you set reminders to log your meals and snacks.
Cons:
It’s hard to log home-cooked meals or calculate their nutritional value.
The app can be tricky to navigate.
Lose It! doesn’t track micronutrients.
More: Website | iPhone app | Android app | Instructional video
Best fully free
FatSecret
FatSecret is a free calorie counter. It includes a food diary, nutrition database, healthy recipes, exercise log, weight chart, and journal.
A barcode scanner helps track packaged foods.
The homepage shows total calorie intake, as well as the breakdown of carbs, protein, and fat — displayed both for the day and for each meal.
FatSecret offers a monthly summary view, which gives total calories consumed each day and total averages for each month. This feature may be convenient to track your overall progress.
This calorie counter is very user-friendly. It also includes a chat community where users can swap success stories and get tips, recipes, and more.
FatSecret offers a feature called “challenges,” wherein users can create or participate in dietary challenges in a closed group of people.
Their website is full of information and tips, as well as articles on a variety of topics.
Pros:
The food database is comprehensive, including many supermarket and restaurant foods.
Foods submitted by other users are highlighted so that users can verify if the information is accurate.
FatSecret can present net carbs, which may come in handy for low carb dieters.
Cons:
The interface is rather cluttered and confusing.
More: Website | iPhone app | Android app
Best for specific diets
Cronometer
Cronometer lets you easily keep track of your diet, exercises, and body weight.
It offers exact serving sizes and a useful exercise database. If you are pregnant or lactating, you can select a customized profile based on higher calorie needs.
You can also tell Cronometer if you’re following a specific diet, such as the paleo diet, low carb diet, or a low fat vegetarian diet. This changes the macronutrient recommendations.
The food diary is very simple and user-friendly. Below it, you’ll find a bar chart showing the breakdown of carbs, fat, and protein for that day alongside the total calories consumed.
Cronometer is particularly useful for tracking micronutrients like vitamins and minerals.
It offers a Gold upgrade for under $3 per month that eliminates ads, offers advanced analysis, and gives some extra features.
Pros:
Easy to use.
You can sync data from health devices to the app and import weight, body fat percentage, sleep data, and activities.
It tracks all micronutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, and trace elements.
Cons:
Cronometer does not divide the food diary into meals.
You can only add a home-cooked recipe on the website, not the app. However, the meal will be available in the app after that.
It does not have a social community of users.
Although the website is free, the app costs $2.99.
More: Website | iPhone app | Android app | Instructional video
Best for weight loss
Noom
Noom is not only a calorie counter, but it’s also an app designed to help you lose weight and sustain weight loss.
Noom asks you for specific information, like your age, height, weight, gender, and lifestyle, and uses that information to create a calorie budget — an estimate of the number of calories you should consume each day — and uses your calorie budget to help you reach a calorie deficit.
Noom encourages you to track the number of calories you consume each day, as well as take your weight at least once a day.
Noom also helps create diet plans without limiting or restricting certain food items. Instead, the app focuses on calories and nutrients as a way to promote weight loss.
Noom costs $44.99 to use but does offer a free trial.
Pros:
No food or food type is off-limits.
Promotes lifestyle changes instead of temporary changes.
Cons:
There is no free version.
More: Website | iPhone app | Android app
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The bottom line
Calorie counters and nutrient trackers are incredibly useful if you are trying to lose, maintain, or even gain weight.
They can also help you make specific changes to your diet, such as eating more protein or fewer carbs.
However, there is no need to track your intake constantly
free food tracker app
Lose weight and build healthy habits that stick with MyFitnessPal, the easiest all-in-one calorie and macro tracker.
MyFitnessPal has the biggest food database available, with over 14 million foods to help you accurately log everything you eat.
And with innovative tools like Meal Scan, logging your entire meal is faster than ever. Just point your phone’s camera for real-time, AI-powered results—no food search necessary!
Join our engaged online community of 200 million members for endless inspiration and advice as you strive to lose weight, get fit, or keep your nutrition & calories on track.
This is the app for you if you want to feel empowered to make smarter choices … find motivation & support throughout your journey … and conquer all your goals.
Download and start your free 30-day Premium trial to gain access to exclusive food and fitness logging tools and expert guidance.
You’ll discover why MyFitnessPal is the #1 Diet and Nutrition App in the U.S., a GQ 2020 Fitness Awards “Best Fitness App”, and has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Today Show, and U.S. News & World Report.
IT’S LIKE HAVING A DIETITIAN, TRAINER & COACH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
• Log Meals & Activity – Innovative tools make food and workout logging quick & easy.
• Set Goals – Customize your personal weight, nutrition & fitness goals.
• Track Progress – See progress at a glance, or analyze your nutrition in detail.
• Learn From Experts – Hit your goals faster with daily coaching from Meal & Workout Plans.
• Stay Inspired – 250+ healthy recipes and 150+ workouts keep routines fresh & fun.
• Connect With Community – Find friends, motivation, and support in our active forums.
A CLOSER LOOK AT FEATURES & BENEFITS
Gain Valuable Insights Through Food Logging — Discover which foods fuel you best.
• Biggest Database – Log over 14 million foods.
• NEW! Meal Scan – Our latest logging innovation! Scan & log everything on your plate with your phone’s camera.
• Fast & Easy Logging Tools – Type to search, add from history, or scan a barcode.
• Calorie Tracker – Automatically calculate calories and see daily progress.
• Macro Tracker – View carbs, fat, and protein breakdown by gram or %.
• Nutrition Insights – Analyze intake and set specific goals for macros & more.
Fully Customize Your App Experience — Choose settings for your personal goals.
• Custom Goals and Personalized Dashboard – Track calories by meal or day, set up macro goals & more.
• Net Carbs Mode – View net carbs instead of total carbs.
• Exercise Calorie Settings – Decide how activity affects daily calorie goals.
• Connect 50+ Apps & Devices – Track activity from your smartwatch & fitness apps, including the Health app.
Build New Habits With 28-Day Expert-Guided Plans — Let us motivate you to eat healthy and get moving.
• Meal Plans by a Registered Dietitian – Nutrition tips & recipes customized for your goals, plus access to our Meal Planner tool!
Cook & Eat for Your Personal Goals — 250+ healthy recipes handpicked by our registered dietitian.
• Goal-Focused Collections – High Protein, Low Carb, Vegetarian & more.
• One-Tap Logging – Add recipes directly to your diary.
Train Like a Pro Wherever You Go — 150+ Self-Guided Workout Routines.
• Full-Length Video Workouts – Countdown timers from warmup to cooldown.
• Built by Certified Trainers – Demo videos, trainer tips & modifications.
SUBSCRIPTION PRICING & TERMS
MyFitnessPal is free to download and use. If you upgrade to MyFitnessPal Premium, we offer monthly & annual auto-renewing subscriptions.
Payment is charged to your credit card through your iTunes account at confirmation of purchase. Subscription renews automatically unless you turn off auto-renewal in iTunes Account Settings after purchase, or cancel your subscription at least 24 hours prior to the end of the subscription period.
View our full terms & conditions and privacy policy: https://www.myfitnesspal.com/privacy-and-terms
What’s New
Version History
May 18, 2022 Version 22.10.0
Whether you want to log your lowest weight in years, your first run in weeks, or your heart healthy afternoon snack, we know you count on MyFitnessPal to be working smoothly.
That’s why this release is full of bug fixes, performance updates, and improved reliability so we can be there to support you during every moment of your health journey.
We hope you enjoy and happy tracking!
Conclusion
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