15 Best Meal Tracking Apps for Weight Loss
Meal tracking apps to help you reach weight loss goals
Keeping track of your nutrition doesn’t have to mean hours of journaling and manually calculating macros and calories. There are many apps out there that make tracking your meals and nutritional goals easy and fun. Below, we will review 15 meal tracking apps, their features, highlights,and cost.
MyFitnessPal
Key features: This app can track calories, as well as calculate macronutrients, and micronutrients pretty accurately. It also offers a huge food database and barcode scanner that allows you to easily log packaged food. This app also has a recipe importing tool and can even track your exercise, steps and water intake.
Highlights: If you are looking for an app with a comprehensive database of foods and a label scanner, and also want community support and personalized recipe recommendations, then this app might be for you.
Lose It!
Key features: This app does more than just calorie tracking. With Lose It! You can set customized goals and also do custom meal planning. The app gives you deeper insights into your eating habits and macronutrient intake.
Highlights: Great for someone who is looking for a user-friendly interface with simple tracking and the ability to take photos to log meals.
Cost: Free with a paid premium version that includes meal planning and deeper nutritional analysis.
Cronometer
Key features: This app is unique in that it breaks down your food into detailed tracking of 82 different micronutrients in addition to your macronutrients, so it’s a great option for someone who is interested in tracking their nutrition in more detail.
Highlights: This app is a good choice for people who are focused on whole foods and more detailed micronutrient tracking.
Cost: This app has a free version, as well as a premium version that includes biomarker tracking.
Yazio
Key features: Yazio offers meal planning, great recipes, and detailed nutrition tracking that works with a variety of different diet plans (low-carb, keto, high-protein, etc). It also provides meal reminders, personalized meal plans, and different intermittent fasting options.
Highlights: This app is best for someone who wants a guided approach for a specific diet plan, with meal plans and recipes.
Cost: Free option, with paid premium for more personalized meal plans and recipes.
Macros
Key features: The macros app focuses on tracking macronutrients (carbs, proteins, and fats). It helps you to set custom goals based on your dietary preferences (keto, low-carb, high-protein). With a simple interface, it also supports meal logging with a barcode scanner and large food database.
Highlights: Great app for those of you focused on specific macronutrient goals rather than just calorie tracking.
Cost: Free with a paid premium version for advanced features and detailed nutrient breakdowns
Carb Manager
Key features: Carb manager was designed for low-carb and ketogenic diets and is great for tracking net carbs, total carbs, and other macros. It also offers food tracking, fasting tips, and exercise tracking.
Highlights: This is a good app for someone wanting to try a low-carb or keto diet.
Cost: Carb manager basic is free with a paid premium upgrade that includes more insights and meal plans.
Fitbit
Key features: While fitbit devices are known for fitness and step tracking, the Fitbit app actually offers meal tracking with calorie and nutrient breakdowns. The app connects with Fitbit devices for activity tracking.
Highlights: This app is great for people who already own a Fitbit device.
Cost: Free, with a premium paid option that offers extra features like workout plans.
Healthi
Key features: Healthi uses a points-based system for food intake, making it easy to track food and stay within set points limits. The app also offers different weight loss plans tailored to your goals and has a supportive community.
Highlights: Great for people who like using a simple points-based approach to food tracking instead of traditional calorie counting.
Cost: The app is free for the basic version, with a paid premium option that includes additional plans, meal recommendations, and recipe ideas.
Ate
Key features: This app is great for visual food tracking like a journal that encourages mindful eating by logging meals with photos instead of calorie counting. The app will prompt you to reflect on why they’re eating and what their mood is.
Highlights: This app is perfect for people interested in mindful eating.
Cost: Free app, with paid premium for additional insights and reminders.
Simple
Key features: This app focuses on fasting and combines intermittent fasting with meal tracking, helping people create a structured eating schedule. Simple also sends reminders and tracks things like mood, hydration, and sleep.
Highlights: Great app for someone interested in intermittent fasting with a simple approach to meal tracking.
Cost: Simple is free, with a paid premium that has options for fasting plans and coaching.
Fooducate
Key features: This app specializes in analyzing food quality and clean eating. It will give each food item a health grade based on how clean the item of food is. Fooducate aims to teach users to understand the quality of their food choices and offers healthier alternatives when applicable.
Highlights: Fooducate is for people interested in eating more clean foods, not just calorie counting.
Cost: The app is free, with upgrades and premium options that offer additional tracking for macros and specific health issues.
Lifesum
Key features: Lifesum is a customizable app that sets goals for different diets (keto, high-protein, low carb, etc) and also has meal tracking. Like some of the other apps, it has a built-in barcode scanner, as well as a meal planner with recipes, and exercise tracking.
Highlights: This app is good for someone looking for an all-in-one health app specific to their diet.
Cost: Free with a paid premium version for personalized meal plans and recipes.
Calory
Key features: An app with a simple and minimalist design that is easy to use. Has a basic interface for logging calories and tracking macronutrients.
Highlights: Great for users who just want a straightforward, uncluttered app focused on quick calorie tracking.
Cost: Free, with paid premium features for advanced metrics and custom goals.
Noom
Key features: Noom combines meal tracking with integrated behavioral coaching, focusing on the psychology of eating. The app guides you through food tracking in a detailed way, and offers color-coded food groups to simplify things.
Highlights: Noom is best for people seeking meal tracking along with behavioral coaching.
Cost: Noom is subscription based.
Weight Watchers
Key features: Weight watchers uses a “SmartPoints” system to assign different values to foods based on calories, sugar, saturated fat, and protein. Also includes access to a supportive community and wellness resources like mindfulness and exercise tips.
Highlights: If you are used to counting points for food tracking, this app makes it easy.
Cost: The app is subscription based.
It’s time to take back your health and wellness!
Choosing the best app for meal tracking really depends on your specific needs and goals. So, whether it’s detailed nutrient tracking, mindful eating, exercise tracking, community support,something more specific like keto diet tracking,or all of the above, there is an app that can help you on your journey.
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