Healthy living 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 foods 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 are able to 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 on the internet for the phrase calorie app you will find a lot. Here we are going to recommend some of the most effective ones.

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 daily.

It also includes a well-designed diet and exercise diary. On the main page of the app, you can see your daily calories. Plus, the home page shows how many you've burned during exercise, along with your recommended daily intake.

If you're using a step tracker, MyFitnessPal can sync with the 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. Additionally, you can find information about packaged foods using the MyFitnessPal barcode reader.

The carbohydrates, proteins and fats 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 count calories in a simple way, Lose It is another easy-to-use app that has meals 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 writing down, 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 on packaged foods thanks to the barcode reader. This app graphically shows you the weight you've lost and provides advice on how to improve based on the goals you have.

It also has some great 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 branded foods, all of which are verified by its team of experts.
• Allows you to set reminders to record your meals and snacks.

Negative aspects:

• It is difficult to record home-cooked meals or calculate their nutritional value.
• Does not track micronutrients.

FatSecret

It is a free calorie counting application 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 contents of packaged foods with a barcode reader, like many applications.

The home page contains the total calorie intake, carbs, fat, protein breakdown for each day and meals. It also provides a summary of the calories you burn 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 publications 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.
• Foods submitted by other users are highlighted so users can verify if the information is accurate.
• FatSecret may feature net carbs, which could be helpful for low-carb dieters.

Negative aspects:

• The interface is quite cluttered and confusing.

Chron-o-meter

One of the apps where you can easily count calories and a daily exercise workout is Cron-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 simple. There are graphs showing macronutrient values ​​as well as total calories consumed below them. Cron-o-meter also helps you track 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.

Negative aspects:

• 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 have 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's very easy to add recipes to the app.

There is a large community of users within the mobile application. You can follow scientific resources, recipes, health news and exercises. Many features of the application are paid.

Positive aspects:

• The website is full of resources on various topics.

Negative aspects:

• Users did not find the app very useful.

Fooducate

Give Fooducate a try, the application 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 thousand barcodes.

Interact with the Apple Health app 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 nutritional data for more than 250,000 items. So how does it work? Using your smartphone 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, carbohydrates, protein and calories in the food.

"A" represents the healthiest food for weight loss, while "D" will denote the least healthy food choices.

Positive aspects:

• Fooducate's ability as a calorie app to scan UPC codes makes it easy to track your intake.
• Sort 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 time periods.

Negative aspects:

• 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 when 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, along with the relentless fast food eaten out.

Lifesum is a suitable app for this period as it offers a calorie counter that keeps you aware of what you are eating. Additionally, it comes with diet plans and suggests innovative methods like sugar detox. It attracts attention with its elegant interface and easy use. Compatibility with Apple Watch is also very good.

Positive aspects:

• Excellent for tracking calories.
• Most edibles are registered (or you can add them yourself)
• You can save your favorite foods

Negative aspects:

• Many errors in the food database.

Additional recommendations

Smart watches are very useful technologies for diet and exercise. For example, heart rate tracking which is important during exercise. So if you have the opportunity to get one, don't hesitate to do so.

Remember that these applications will never replace the effectiveness of hiring a nutritionist to create a personalized eating plan according to your body's requirements. That's 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?

Recover your hormonal balance in a natural and healthy way with our solutions... Click here>>