In today’s modern lifestyle, counting calories manually and keeping a paper food diary is a time-consuming task. Calorie counting apps are another matter. They help you achieve your goals faster and form the habit of evaluating the volume and quality of the food you eat. Such programs have many useful functions, for example:
- Calculation of the daily energy value of the diet.
- Counter of daily consumption of calories and macronutrients (proteins, fats, carbs).
- Tracking the dynamics of weight and water drinking regimen.
- List of popular products with already laid down compositions.
Food diaries can be separate apps or be part of complex apps, which also include a diary and training library, pedometers, sleep analyzers, stress level analyzers, etc. What distinguishes one app from another is the different design, product base and variability of settings. These are the criteria that make the user make a choice in favor of one or another program.
FatSecret
In the free version, only nutritional control and a general community feed are available – similar to a social networking wall: you can post photos, leave comments, look for ideas in other people’s diets or be motivated by the results of others.
There are reminders about meals, and you can create your own schedule. The app also pulls in activity information from smart watches, smartphone trackers, or you can enter data manually.
The paid version adds water control, recipes and prepared meal plans.
You can enter food into the diary in several ways: by simply entering the name, which is more suitable for individual products, or by scanning the barcode.
Cronometer
This Canadian app is as user-friendly as a mobile version of National Casino or Netflix, and it’s great for the perfectionist: it’s extremely strict about the accuracy of how much you eat during the day. Up to 82 micronutrients can be tracked. You can add your own foods, recipes and exercises. This app is convenient for interval fasting. It can be synchronized with activity trackers, such as Apple Health, Google Fit, and Samsung Health.
MyPlate
The app considers your gender, age, height, and current weight to create your calorie plan. And you can select a target weight to within a tenth of a gram – although hardly anyone needs that much. You can lose or gain weight in easy, moderate, and intensive modes.
On Apple devices, MyPlate also collects data from the Health app for more accurate formation of target calorie intake. Here you can choose which data to synchronize, read, and record.
Products and meals can be entered via barcode scan, by hand – with a database search, and you can create your own items. The portion volume is counted in grams or cups (for bulk and liquid).
The MyPlate feature is that the main screen is constantly updated with a selection of recipes to suit your caloric intake. You can create different menus depending on what you want to eat (vegan or vegetarian and so on). Moreover, the app has a community: you can post photos, write posts, and be inspired by other people’s successes.
Easy Fit
The simplest app for those who don’t like unnecessary actions, registration, creation of personal accounts, etc. You just download it and write down what and how much you ate: the app will calculate everything.
You can track nutrition, physical activity, weight dynamics and water consumption. It’s possible to mix ingredients, save your meals. All functions are free, simple and clear, but there are some unobtrusive ads.
YAZIO
It’s a functional app from German developers. It works great with fitness trackers. There is a convenient and fast calorie counter, 20 variants of meal plans with daily tips and tasks, 1000 recipes adapted to personal preferences, inspiring user stories about their journey to a healthy body, and a barcode scanner.
The app has a useful paid extension. It includes:
- Low-carb, high-protein and other meal plans.
- A special food rating system.
- More nutritional data analysis and body measurements.
- Tracking of sugar, fiber, and salt.
- Tracking body fat percentage and blood pressure.
- Planning meals and workouts for days in advance.
- No advertising.
Dine4Fit
The free diet tracker app offers such useful features:
- Large database of products.
- Barcode scanner.
- Voice recording.
- Weight control.
- Calorie counter.
- Connectivity with Garmin Sports App.
The menu includes recipes for hundreds of delicious dishes and nutrition tips for every day. Statistics such as calories consumed, rate of weight gain or loss are available. There’s a water tracker and functionality that supports interval feeding.
In the paid premium version, you can disable advertising, track sugar, salt, calcium, and saturated fatty acids. Also, voice recording, diet analysis, and access to a database of recipes from real users are available.
