Last Updated on May 25, 2024 by Jhonni Jets
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle and reaching your fitness goals often comes down to managing your daily calorie intake. Tracking calories is one of the most effective ways to ensure you’re fueling your body properly without overeating. Luckily, there are plenty of excellent calorie tracking apps available for iPhone and iPad to make the process quick, easy, and accurate.
In this article, we’ll cover the 6 best calorie counting apps for iOS and provide details on the features and benefits of each. By the end, you’ll have a good idea of which app is the best fit for your specific needs and diet goals. So whether you want to lose weight, gain muscle, or just eat healthier in general, one of these apps can help you stay on track.
Table of Content
MyFitnessPal
MyFitnessPal is arguably the most popular calorie counting app, with over 100 million users. It has an enormous database of over 6 million foods that you can search through or scan barcodes to add to your daily logs. The database is consistently updated so you’ll always find the most accurate nutrition information. Beyond food, you can also log weight, water intake, exercise, and vitamins/supplements.
MyFitnessPal connects with various fitness devices and apps like Fitbit, Garmin, and Apple Health to automatically sync your activity data. This saves you time entering workouts manually. It also allows you to set specific calorie and macro goals to hit each day. Overall menus are clean and intuitive to navigate on both iPhone and Android. The free version is very fully-featured, though a premium subscription unlocks additional perks.
With such a massive user base, MyFitnessPal has become a true lifestyle platform. You can follow other people, join groups, and participate in challenges for additional motivation. Customer support is also excellent if you ever have any issues. While not the flashiest app, MyFitnessPal remains the gold standard because of its comprehensive tracking options and massive community.
Lose It!
Lose It! gives MyFitnessPal stiff competition, with similar tracking capabilities in a sleeker interface. Like MFP, Lose It! has an enormous food database that you can search or scan barcodes to log meals. Nutrition data remains very accurate. Beyond food, the app lets you log water, exercise, weight, habits, and menstrual cycles (if relevant).
What sets Lose It! apart is its beautiful design and customization options. You can tweak the Today widget, home screen layout, font size, and more to suit your preferences. Color-coded calorie circles make it easy to see how close you are to your daily goal at a glance. Free features are excellent, though a premium subscription unlocks meal planning tools and additional challenges.
Lose It! also has robust community features like groups, challenges, and a message board for connecting with others. Overall it’s a very slick, easy to use calorie counter that packs everything most users need into a beautifully designed package. With excellent free tools and paid upgrades, Lose It! is a top contender worth checking out.
Cronometer
For those looking to take their nutrition tracking to the next level, Cronometer is the most advanced calorie counter available. In addition to calories, Cronometer allows you to track 33 nutrients including vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and fatty acids. This level of detail is perfect for people following specialized diets like keto, paleo, vegetarian, or vegan.
Cronometer’s food database, while smaller than MFP and Lose It, is laser-focused on accuracy. All entries include complete nutrition profiles. You can even create custom foods and recipes to perfectly log homemade items. The app analyzes your logs to see if you’re missing or exceeding your daily requirements for various nutrients.
While technically powerful, Cronometer’s interface takes some getting used to. Organization of settings and features isn’t as intuitive as simpler apps. That said, for those who want the most comprehensive nutrition tracking, Cronometer is unparalleled. A premium subscription unlocks additional customization and analysis tools ideal for long-term diet optimization.
In summary, Cronometer offers the gold standard for in-depth micronutrient monitoring at the cost of a slightly steeper learning curve. It’s ideal for people with specialized nutrition needs or goals around body composition changes.
FatSecret
FatSecret takes a similar approach to calorie tracking as MFP and Lose It with its large food database and easy to use interface. Where it stands out most is aggressive gamification of weight loss achievements through badges and leaderboards.
As you log foods, workouts and milestones, you earn colorful virtual badges. Compete against other FatSecret users in weekly or monthly challenges by racking up the most points for meeting micro-goals. This social layer injects a competitive thrill that some find motivating.
In addition to calories, FatSecret allows logging of water, activity, mood, weight and body measurements. Food database quality is high, though smaller than competitors. Premium subscription unlocks personalized meal plans that generate shopping lists. Overall it’s a capable app elevated by motivational game mechanics for calorie counting with flair.
Lifesum
Lifesum markets itself as a calorie tracker and “nutrition coach” tailored for long-term healthy lifestyle changes. Beyond tracking, it focuses on education through articles, meal ideas, and personalized meal plans.
Usability is excellent across iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Android. Colorful tiles provide a visual snapshot of your daily stats. Personalized meal plans generate weekly shopping lists for convenient grocery trips. Recipe search helps you find healthy versions of favorites.
Community features like challenges and groups keep users engaged and motivated. The premium subscription unlocks even more robust meal planning tools, advanced stats, and on-demand nutrition consultations for long-term customized guidance. While the free version lacks some core metrics, Lifesum gives a polished approach.
For those seeking an intuitive tracker that gently eases into healthy eating habits long-term, Lifesum hits the sweet spot between functionality and lifestyle coaching.
Calory
Calory takes a minimalist approach to calorie counting. Its interface is cleanly distilled down to the core functions without unnecessary frills.
Quickly scan or search foods from a large database and your daily stats populate in large clear typeface. Set calorie budgets tailored to your weight goals without overcomplicating the process. Focus remains squarely on easy intuitive tracking without the gamified extras.
sync with Apple Health, Fitbit and other devices to pull in activity data. Premium upgrades aren’t necessary thanks to well-rounded free tools. For those who want simple no-nonsense nutrient logging, Calory excels.
Conclusion
In summary, calorie tracking apps provide a simple yet highly effective way to manage your diet and support your health objectives. Whether losing weight or fine-tuning your macros, making calories a daily logged metric keeps you consciously fueling your body properly. This article covered the 10 top calorie counting apps available for iOS to suit a variety of lifestyle and diet preferences.
MyFitnessPal, Lose It!, Cronometer, and FatSecret represent the most comprehensive options trusted by millions worldwide. Meanwhile, Lifesum, Calory and others bring subtle differentiations. The right app simply comes down to evaluating your individual needs and testing different free versions to identify the best overall fit.
With diligent use of one of these intuitive calorie counters, achieving your weight and wellness goals becomes significantly more realistic and sustainable. Getting started is as simple as downloading a quality app, plugging in your stats, and maintaining consistent logging each day. Wishing you all the best in your healthy lifestyle journey ahead!