Free mobile applications to count the calories you consume
A healthy life begins with adequate and healthy nutrition and counting the calories you consume is a practice that can help you control excesses or deficiencies in your nutrition.
First of all, when you are on a weight loss or gain plan, knowing the calories of the food you eat is one of the most important issues to avoid consuming excessively caloric foods.
According to studies, people who track calories consume what they need and can maintain their weight in the long term. Nowadays, it is extremely easy to carry out this monitoring thanks to the technologies offered in this field.
If you search the internet for the phrase app calories you get a lot. Here we will recommend some of the most effective.
Best apps to measure calories for free 2020
MyFitnessPal
MyFitnessPal is a very successful free calorie counting app according to many experts. The app tracks the calories you consume and calculates how many you need to consume on a daily basis.
It also includes a well-designed diet and exercise journal. On the main page of the app, you can see your daily calories. In addition, the home page shows the amounts you've burned during exercise, along with the recommended daily intake.
If you're using a step tracker, MyFitnessPal can sync with your device and transfer your workout data. This app monitors your development according to your goals and makes a forum suggestion to chat with similar users.
It also suggests sites with success stories, recipes, and tips. Also, you can find information about packaged foods using the MyFitnessPal barcode reader.
The carbohydrates, proteins and fats that are consumed each day are displayed graphically in the application. And as if that were not enough, it has a database with 350 strength and cardio exercises. It's a great option for nutrition and fitness all in one place!
lose it
If you just want to keep calories simple, Lose It is another easy-to-use app that has meal and exercise programs. This app offers personalized recommendations based on your weight, height, age, and other goals.
You can see on the main screen the calories that you are scoring, according to what you have indicated that you ate and it has a large food database. It's also easy to add new foods and drinks to the app's database.
On the other hand, like MyFitnessPal, it is possible to obtain information about packaged foods thanks to the barcode reader. This app graphically shows you how much weight you have lost and gives tips on how to improve based on your goals.
It also has some terrific premium features. One of them is that it provides details about your hydration, sleep cycles, body fat, and more. It is available for Android and iOS.
Positive aspects:
- It has a complete food database with popular restaurants, supermarkets, and brand foods, all of which are verified by its team of experts.
- Allows you to set reminders to record your meals and snacks.
Negatives:
- It is difficult to record homemade meals or calculate their nutritional value.
- It does not track micronutrients.
fat secret
It is a free calorie counting app in the form of a program. It contains information such as food content, nutritional values, healthy recipes and weight chart. Allows you to view the content of packaged food with a barcode reader, like many applications.
The home page contains the total intake of calories, carbs, fat, protein breakdown for each day and meals. It also provides a summary of the calories you expend each day and your monthly average.
This way, you can easily track your progress. It is in the form of a social network, so it allows you to share posts with the rest of the community. You can share photos of what you eat, thoughts, and if you want, your overall progress.
The website is full of information and advice, as well as articles on a variety of topics.
Positive aspects:
- The food database is comprehensive and includes many foods from supermarkets and restaurants.
- Food submitted by other users is highlighted so users can check if the information is accurate.
- FatSecret may feature net carbs, which could be useful for low-carb dieters.
Negatives:
- The interface is quite messy and confusing.
cron-o-meter
One of the apps where you can easily count calories and exercise daily is Chron-o-meter. Profiles suitable for pregnant and lactating women can also be created.
You can indicate that you are following different diets, such as the paleo diet, the carbohydrate diet or the low-fat vegetarian diet. The app can create different macronutrient recommendations suitable for these diets.
The food diary is very easy to use and straightforward. There are graphs showing the macronutrient values as well as the total calories consumed below them. Cron-o-meter also helps you keep track of micronutrients. Additional features are available for a reduced fee.
Positive aspects:
- You can sync data from health devices to the app and also have your weight, body fat percentage and sleep data.
- You can also look at micronutrients.
Negatives:
- You cannot calculate meal by meal. It allows you to add recipes not in the app but on the website.
SparkPeople
It is a calorie counter that tracks nutrition and all other activities. Food diary is simpler than other apps. You don't need to enter the same thing over and over again, you can make these entries several days at a time.
Allows you to see the total calories and macronutrients in each day's entry. Also, the data in pie charts. It is very easy to add recipes to the application.
There is a large community of users within the mobile application. You can follow scientific resources, recipes, health news and exercises. Many functions of the application are paid.
Positive aspects:
- The website is full of resources on various topics.
Negatives:
- Users did not find the application very useful.
Fooducate
Give Fooducate a try, the app that teaches you and helps you lose weight. Although it is not valid for some products, the application counts what is in packaged products with a database of 250,000 barcodes.
Interact with the Apple Health application and offer healthy recipes according to your taste; it also offers special options such as gluten intolerance and allergies. It is compatible with Apple Watch.
This weight loss app is quite accurate in providing nutrition facts for over 250,000 articles. So how does it work? Using your smartphone's camera, scan the barcode on the food.
Then, on a scale from A to D, Fooducate assigns a grade to that food. The grade is determined by the amount of fat, carbohydrate, protein and calories in the food.
"A" represents the healthiest food for weight loss, while "D" will denote less healthy food choices.
Positive aspects:
- Fooducate's ability as a calorie app to scan UPC codes makes it easy to track your intake.
- Rank foods based on their nutritional facts and ingredients, and decide how it fits with your own dietary goals.
- Calculate your net calories and track your progress over set periods of time.
Negatives:
- Adding additional nutrient (fat, carbs, protein, etc.) and health (cholesterol, blood pressure) tracking features requires a monthly or lifetime premium subscription.
Lifesum
The months have arrived in which you started counting calories, one by one, because you have decided to show off a better body. These are also those days when you struggle with cravings and anxiety, alongside the relentless fast food eating out.
Lifesum is a suitable app for this period as it offers a calorie counter that keeps you aware of what you are eating. Plus, it comes with diet plans and suggests innovative methods like sugar detox. It draws attention with its elegant interface and easy use. Apple Watch compatibility is also very good.
Positive aspects:
- Great for tracking calories.
- Most groceries are registered (or you can add them yourself)
- You can save your favorite foods
Negatives:
- Many errors in the food database.
additional recommendations
Smart watches are very useful technologies for diet and exercise. For example, heart rate monitoring which is important during exercise. So if you have the opportunity to get one, do not hesitate to do so.
Remember that these applications will never replace the effectiveness of hiring a nutritionist who makes a personalized eating plan according to the requirements of your body. That is why before you go for an app to count the calories you eat, see a nutritionist.
If you want to open a new page in your life and get rid of excess weight or tone your body, you can browse through our blog where we give recommendations that can help you on this path.
Which free calorie counting app have you used?