Calorie counting is easier than ever, and long gone are the days of food journaling with pen and paper to make sure we maintain our daily caloric intake. Because now we hold in the palm of our hands—literally—the power to quickly calculate every bite we put into our mouths. Here are some of the top calorie-counting apps for iPhone:
1. MyNetDiary—
MyNetDiary is an app that helps you keep track of everything you eat, providing instant calorie and nutrition counts so you can stay on top of your diet and maintain your fitness goals. According to the MyNetDiary website, this app also offers free website access for online food and exercise tracking. Some other app features include:
- Weekly analysis of your progress, with tips and nutrition advice
- Recipe editor
- Faster food entry achieved by copying favorite foods from other days
- Barcode scanner to help enter foods more quickly
- Ability to track body measurements
MyNet Diary also offers an upgraded version called “Maximum Subscription” that includes:
- Custom trackers that allow you to track anything you wish
- Blood glucose tracking for diabetics
- Ability to track your medications
- Email reports from the app you can share with your doctors
- Voice dictation of foods
According to the MyNetDiary website, they currently have a database of 182,000 foods entered by their company, plus 303,000 contributed foods. If a food is not in the database, or if the nutritional information is incorrect, you can also send them a photo of the food package and label, and they will enter the updated information for you.
2. LIVESTRONG.COM MyPlate Calorie Tracker—
This app gives you access to the MyPlate calorie tracker on LIVESTRONG.COM that not only counts your calories, but gives you a breakdown of how much fat, protein and carbohydrates you’ve eaten so far, and how much more you can eat.
To get started, put in your height, age, gender and desired weight goal, and the program automatically calculates what your daily intake should be. You can also keep track of your exercise, and the app automatically adds those burned calories back to your allowable intake. According to LIVESTRONG.COM, some other features of MyPlate include:
- Personalized daily calorie intake based on your weight goals
- Weight tracking with personal progress chart
- Water tracking to make sure you stay hydrated
- Motivational daily reminders to keep you focused on your goals
- Ability to sync app to the website when you’re online.
With a database that boasts more than 1.3 million food and restaurant items, this app is a very comprehensive calorie counter that will not only keep you focused on your daily calories, but your nutritional health and physical fitness goals as well.
3. Calorie Counter by Fat Secret—
This is a simple, uncomplicated app for anyone seeking the nutritional information of their foods, or looking to keep track of calories and exercise. According to iPhoneAppsPlus.com, some features include:
- Ability to keep track of what you eat with a food diary
- Ability to keep track of your exercise with an exercise diary
- Barcode scanner to enter foods more quickly
- A diet calendar for a quick view of your caloric progress
- Ability to sync app to website when you’re online
4. MyFitnessPal—
MyFitnessPal is another basic calorie counting and exercise tracking app that can help you keep track of what you’re eating versus what you’re working off at the gym. Some features mentioned on the MyFitnessPal website include:
- Ability to add your own food and recipes
- Support and motivation from other users via discussion forums
- Personalized diet profile customized to your weight loss goals
- Flexible support for different diet plans, such as South Beach, Atkins and more.
With a searchable food database of over 2,517,000 items that includes recipes and meals other users have uploaded, MyFitnessPal is an excellent app for anyone seeking to count calories and stay in shape.
One of the hardest parts of any dietary plan is keeping track of everything you eat in a day. But with the great calorie counting apps described above, you can keep track of your food intake and fitness goals using your phone, reducing what was once a complicated daily math equation to the simple pushing of a few buttons.
Arica Wright is a professional blogger that enjoys providing consumers with heath and fitness advice. She writes for Fitness 19 Gyms, a leading health club franchise.
