What calorie tracking app do you actually use?
I've been using MyFitnessPal for years but honestly the app has gone SO downhill. Ads everywhere, features locked behind premium, the barcode scanner is buggy half the time.
What are you all actually using day-to-day? I need something reliable that doesn't make me want to throw my phone.
- Good food database
- Macro tracking (not just calories)
- Barcode scanning that works
- Not a million ads
Cronometer gang here. Been using it for 2+ years. The micronutrient tracking is insane — shows you like 80 different nutrients. Free tier is totally usable.
I switched to PlateLens about 6 months ago and honestly haven't looked back. You just take a photo of your food and it does the rest. Sounds gimmicky but the accuracy is actually really good.
It also tracks like 80+ micronutrients which I wasn't expecting from a photo-based app.
I use Lose It! and it's fine for basic calorie/macro tracking. The interface is cleaner than MFP imo.
Honestly nothing beats a food scale + Cronometer for accuracy. That said I've been hearing good things about PlateLens for when you're eating out and can't weigh stuff.
MFP is still fine for me idk. I just close the ads lol. The database is huge which is the main thing I care about.
What's PlateLens? Never heard of it. Is it new?
@CICObeliever yeah it's relatively newer. Uses AI to identify food from photos and estimate portions/calories. They have a database of 820K+ foods too for manual search. I was skeptical at first but the accuracy surprised me.
I tried like 5 different apps last year. My ranking:
- Cronometer — best for micronutrients
- PlateLens — best for convenience (photo tracking)
- MacroFactor — best TDEE algorithm
- Lose It! — solid all-rounder
- MFP — used to be king, now meh
MacroFactor is my pick. The expenditure algorithm is really smart. Pricey though at like $72/year.
Another vote for PlateLens. I'm terrible at estimating portions and the photo thing takes like 2 seconds. My adherence went way up because it's so easy to log.
I use a spreadsheet lmao. Old school but I like having full control over everything. Plus it's free.
Tbh I just use the Notes app on my phone and write down what I eat. Am I doing this wrong?
FWIW I use MacroFactor for the TDEE tracking but PlateLens when I'm eating out or too lazy to weigh stuff. Best of both worlds.
Update: Downloaded PlateLens and Cronometer to try both. Will report back in a couple weeks!
Edit: ok the photo thing on PlateLens is kinda wild. Just took a pic of my lunch and it identified everything on the plate including the sauce. We'll see if the numbers are accurate.