Top 10 Best ️‍Calorie Counter Apps to Lose Weight Fast | weight loss

How We Picked the Best Calorie Counter Apps

When it comes to eating better and losing weight, knowing exactly what you're eating and how much is key to understanding where to make changes that will support your wellness goals. That's why we focused on easy-to-use calorie counter apps with barcode scanners for tracking purposes and manual entry options for personal recipes or niche foods. We've also included calorie counter apps that go above and beyond by providing personal coaching and fitness logs.

Choose the calorie counter app that's right for you

which calorie counter app should you use? 

The answer is: it depends. When evaluating the apps on this list, consider your goals and lifestyle. 

Do you eat a lot of processed or packaged foods? 

Then you'll want an app with a large searchable food database, barcode scanner, and verified entries. If most of your meals are made from scratch and you like connecting with people, an app with manual input methods and a community support forum might be the best bet. Don't forget to consider subscription fees and pricing to access premium features.

Double-check food and nutrition entries

Whenever you use a calorie counter app to log your food, accuracy is key. But many of these apps rely on input from other community members, which can mean the portion sizes are incorrect or the macro breakdown isn't quite right. It's always a good idea to check entries against the nutrition information on the package of the food you're saving, or look for apps like MyFitnessPal that have checked entries against their food databases.

Our opinions on the calorie counter application

1/ MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal

Lose weight and build healthy habits that stick with MyFitnessPal, the easiest all-in-one calorie, and macro tracker.

MyFitnessPal has the largest food database available, with over 14 million foods to help you accurately record everything you eat.

And with innovative tools like Meal Scan, recording your entire meal is faster than ever. Just point your phone's camera for real-time AI-powered results - no foraging necessary!

This is the app for you if you want to feel empowered to make smarter choices…find motivation and support along your journey…and achieve all of your goals.

You'll find out why MyFitnessPal is the #1 Diet & Nutrition App in the US, a GQ Fitness Awards (Best Fitness App), and has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Today Show, and US News. & Global Report.

IT'S LIKE HAVING A DIETITIAN, TRAINER, AND COACH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

• Log meals and activities - Innovative tools make food and workout logging quick and easy.

• Set Goals - Customize your personal weight, nutrition, and fitness goals.

• Track your progress - See your progress at a glance or analyze your nutrition in detail.

• Learn from the Experts - Reach your goals faster with daily meal and workout plan coaching.

• Stay Inspired - Over 250 healthy recipes and over 150 workouts keep routines fresh and fun.

A CLOSER LOOK AT FEATURES AND BENEFITS

Gain valuable insights with food journaling - Find out which foods fuel you best.

• Largest database - Save over 14 million foods.

• NEW! Meal Scan – Our latest logging innovation! Scan and record everything on your plate with your phone's camera.

• Quick and easy logging tools - Tap to search, add from history or scan a barcode.

• Calorie Tracker - Automatically calculate calories and see daily progress.

• Macro Tracker - View the breakdown of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins by gram or %.

• Nutrition Insights - Analyze intake and set specific goals for macros and more.

Fully customize your app experience - Choose settings for your personal goals.

• Custom Goals and Personalized Dashboard - Track calories by meal or day, set macro goals, and more.

• Net Carbs Mode – Display net carbs instead of total carbs.

• Exercise calorie settings – Decide how activity affects daily calorie goals.

• Connect over 50 apps and devices - Track activity from your smartwatch and fitness apps, including the Health app.

Build new habits with expert-guided 28-day plans - Let us motivate you to eat healthily and get moving.

• Meal Plans by a Registered Dietitian - Personalized nutrition tips and recipes for your goals, plus access to our meal planning tool!

• Cook and eat for your personal goals - Over 250 healthy recipes handpicked by our dietitian.

• Goal-oriented collections - high protein, low carb, vegetarian and more.

• One-Click Journaling - Add recipes directly to your journal.

Train like a pro wherever you go - Over 150 self-guided workout routines.

• Complete Video Workouts - Countdowns from warm-up to cool down.

• Built by Certified Trainers - Demo Videos, Trainer Tips and Edits.

2/ SparkPeople Diet & Fitness Tracker 

SparkPeople Diet & Fitness Tracker 

Lose weight, get fit, and stay healthy with SparkPeople's diet and food tracker, iPhone's most comprehensive calorie and fitness tracker!

This app brings SparkPeople, the world's most popular diet, and fitness site, straight to your mobile device. The online calorie tracking and counting tools, exercise demos, and detailed reports that have helped millions of people reach their goals are now available right on your phone. Our tracker app fully integrates with our site, supporting your holistic approach to health, fitness, and healthy living wherever you go.

WHY THIS APP IS GOOD

• largest food database of any food tracking app: with over 2,000,000 foods tracked and more added every day, it's easy to track exactly what you're eating and how much.

• Quick and easy fitness tracking: It's easy to track your workouts and the calories you burn. We believe tracking your exercise shouldn't be more exhausting than the exercise itself.

• 600+ Exercise Demos: Avoid common exercise injuries and get the results you're looking for. With our short videos and animations of certified trainers performing hundreds of cardio and strength exercises, you'll learn how to train the right way, every time.

• Detailed Reports: Unlike other fitness apps that only allow reports from a computer, our tracker allows you to run reports right from the app!

• Water Tracking: A simple way to make sure you get the recommended 8 glasses of water a day.

• Quick Home Screen: View a daily log of calories consumed, calories burned, and fitness minutes without having to click through menus and submenus.

• Daily Weigh-In Page: Keep track of your day-to-day wins and losses. Just 2 clicks and you're there.

• Total integration: You can access all fitness and nutrition logs from your computer or mobile device, so you always have the information you need, when you need it. Plus, you'll always have an online backup of all your data.

• Health and Fitness Articles: Read articles from SparkPeople's nutritionists and fitness experts whenever you can and learn how to get healthier.

3/ Cronometer · Nutrition Tracker

Cronometer · Nutrition Tracker

Cronometer's nutrition and calorie tracker is here to help you reach your health or weight loss goals. Cronometer helps you build healthy habits by encouraging you to focus not just on calorie counting, but on your diet as a whole.

Cronometer is different from other diet apps and food trackers in that all foods submitted by users to our database are verified by our staff.

When you log your meals, you can track all of your macronutrients with Cronometer's macro tracker, as well as up to 82 micronutrients!

Our free app provides a full list of features to help you achieve your goals. Our premium (Gold) subscription is not only ad-free, but also unlocks several additional features such as our target planner, recipe importer, custom log groups, fasting timer, and much more!

You'll have access to more nutritional information than any other app

• Log your food and exercise with our accurate database

• Keep track of your water consumption

• Scan food labels with our barcode scanner

• Add custom foods and recipes

• Track your calories, protein, carbs, cholesterol, and more

• Track your nutrient intake

• Register your supplements

• Easily record the foods you eat at popular restaurants

You unlock the following features

• Ad-free

• Recipe importer

• Target scheduler

• Create custom diary groups like breakfast, lunch, and dinner

• Timestamps on log entries

• Fasting timer

• Create custom graphics and biometrics

• Get more nutritional information

• Get valuable insights with food suggestions

• Discover key nutrient contributors with our Nutrient Oracle

• Share custom recipes with friends and family

• Priority customer support

• Affordable plans

Customize Cronometer based on your health goals

• Get intermittent fasting assistance with our fasting timer

• Record your body mass index (BMI), basal metabolic rate (BMR), activity level, body fat percentage

• Create your own weight goal

• Create nutrient and macronutrient targets

• Keto Calculator and Keto Nutrition Scores

• Supports diets like Keto, Vegan, Paleo, and more

• Integrates with activity trackers: Fitbit, Garmin, Withings, Polar, Strava, Qardio, Oura

• Syncs with Keto-Mojo Ketone and Glucose Meter and Biosense Ketone Breath Monitor

• iOS home screen widget now available to see your Cronometer data at a glance

• Sync nutrition data and activity levels with the Apple iOS Health app

• Sync with your Apple Watch by pulling data from the Apple iOS Health app

More reasons to join Cronometer

• Connect with other people taking control of their health in our Facebook group and community forums

• The only nutrition tracker that provides accurate data

• Used and preferred by healthcare professionals

• Total privacy and data protection - we do not sell your information to third parties

• Dark Mode

• Access unparalleled customer service from a friendly team who are here to help you achieve your goals

4/ Lose It! – Calorie Counter

Lose It! – Calorie Counter

Lose it! is a calorie counting app that helps you achieve your weight loss goal. Simply download the app, set your goals, and track your weight loss foods and exercises.

featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Today Show, Men's Health, Women's Health, CNET, Buzzfeed, CNN, Shape, Good Morning America, and more.

• Over 80 million pounds of weight lost by members (and counting)

• Over 27 million searchable items in a comprehensive database of international food libraries

• Over 40 million users started their weight loss journey with Lose It!

• Over 25 macronutrient and health goals to choose from

• 3 days of follow-up is enough before a user starts to see a result in weight loss

Lose it! is the right weight loss!

HOW TO LOSE IT! WORKS

Lose it! uses the proven principles of calorie tracking to educate you and help you succeed. To get started, simply enter your profile details with your goal weight and we'll calculate the daily calorie budget that works best for you. Then easily track your food, weight, and activity, and get ready to celebrate your weight-loss victories. There is no easier way to change your habits and know your nutritional needs.

LOSE IT! CHARACTERISTICS

• Barcode scanner - quickly scan food barcodes or search our database to track the foods you've eaten.

• Snap It - save food by simply taking a picture of your food. Just tap the camera icon for food tracking as easy as taking a photo. (2016 CES Innovation Award Winner).

• Track nutrients - track more than calories, including macros, protein, water, carbs, sugars, body metrics, sleep cycles, and more.

• Fitness App Syncs - connect trackers, apps, and devices like Fitbit trackers, Misfit trackers, Fitbit scales, Garmin trackers, Withings scales, Google Fit, Healthkit, and more.

• Largest food library database - over 27 million searchable foods in our international library.

• Challenges - step up your game with fun weight loss, fruit/vegetable, and exercise challenges alone or with your friends. This is a serious motivation!

• Meal Planning & Goals - Meal Goals help you calculate suggested calories per meal based on your goal, while Meal Planning lets you customize your meal names and snacks for more accurate records.

• Patterns - discover your habits with our exclusive personal insights and patterns to identify what is hindering or helping your progress.

• Themes – Customize the look of Lose It! with themes that speak to your personality.

• Recipes - customize your weight loss journey with breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals that you create yourself.

• Workout Guides - library of workouts to guide you to success.

5/ FatSecret Calorie Counter

FatSecret Calorie Counter

FatSecret is the easiest to use calorie counter and most effective weight loss and diet app on the market. Even better, FatSecret is free.

The app is customized for American foods and brands.

Keep track of your diet, exercise, and weight, using the world's highest quality food and nutrition database and connect with a global community of people looking to make a change for the better and start losing weight and achieving your goals in a healthy way.

The app is available on Apple Watch and supports awesome complications for your watch faces.

The app is fully integrated with the Health app which allows you to share your data with other health-connected apps. In particular, you can:

• sync calories burned and steps from your Health app to FatSecret

• add all your foods and their detailed nutrition information to the Health app

• sync your weight with the Health app

FatSecret is fast, simple to use, and includes integration with external tools and services to help you achieve diet success:

• An easy-to-use food diary to plan and track what you eat.

• A wonderful community that is ready to provide support and boost your weight loss.

• Image recognition of foods, meals, and products so you can take photos with the camera and track nutrition with images.

• A barcode reader and auto-completion functions.

• Health app and Fitbit exercise tracking integration.

• An exercise log to record all the calories you burn.

• A diet calendar to see your calories consumed and burned.

• A weight tracker.

• Detailed reports and goals for all your calories and macros.

• Photo album. #Photodiet #Foodsnap #Instacalorie

• A diary to record your progress.

• Reminders for meals, weigh-ins, and logs.

• Notifications for support, comments, and subscribers.

• Fantastic recipes and meal ideas.

• Share and interact with your professional of choice.

• Sign in with Apple, Facebook, and Google IDs.

The app syncs with FatSecret Professional, the most convenient way to share your food, exercise, and weight with your favorite healthcare professional. Your healthcare professional will have free access to simple and powerful tools to monitor yolur performance and provide you with feedback, advice, and support.

You can also sync your account online to access your information anywhere, anytime.

6/ Lifesum Healthy Eating

Lifesum Healthy Eating

Personalized diets and meal plans, food and exercise tracking, calorie counter, and healthy recipes, all in one place. Get healthy and feel great with Lifesum!

Join 45 million users on the journey to better health and learn how tracking small habits can make a big difference to becoming happier and healthier.

Achieve your health and weight goals through better nutrition

• Deepen your knowledge to enable you to make more conscious nutritional choices

• Learn about healthy eating, not just calorie counting

• Better understand which foods you should put more or less of on your plate

• Get help making the right choices at the grocery store

• Find out how small changes, like simply switching brands, can have a positive effect on your health

• Find healthier alternatives to your favorite foods

What you can do as a free Lifesum user

• Follow a classic diet and track your calories and macros (carbs, proteins, and fats)

• Easy tracking with barcode reader and image recognition

• Get basic food and meal notes, so you know if you're meeting the recommended energy amounts for each meal

• Get a baseline daily assessment to see how well you're meeting your daily intake goals, as well as the quality of the foods you're tracking each day

• Track your daily habits with water, fruit and vegetable, and seafood trackers

• Track your weight and waist circumference

• Save your favorites - create and save foods, recipes, meals, and exercises (limited)

• Import and export your nutrition data, exercise data, and weight and body measurements from the Apple Health app

7/ MyNetDiary Calorie Counter

MyNetDiary Calorie Counter

Are you looking for a calorie counter, food diary, macro tracker, or a complete and effective diet plan?

Discover MyNetDiary - elegant, smart, simple. It is the most personal weight loss, diet, and nutrition assistant. Stay fit and stay healthy with MyNetDiary!

Ranked #1 by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The best healthy lifestyle app all around. The New York Times calls it (simpler...faster...also looks better) [compared to similar apps].

WHAT USERS REALLY LIKE

• Simplified design, simpler and faster to use

• Lightning-fast restore a recording

• Mega food database validated and updated daily, with restaurants, grocery stores, special diets, and ethnic foods

• Integrated barcode reader

• AR Grocery Check tool for smarter and healthier shopping

• Track up to 38 nutrients, more than any other app

• Over 400 simple and flavorful Premium recipes by Dt.P.

• Database of over 370,000 recipes

• Shopping list

• Freshwater tracker

• Customizable dashboard for what's important to you

LOW-CARB, KETO, HIGH-PROTEIN DIET

More comprehensive than ever for dieters with all the famous features at your fingertips that MyNetDiary users love

• Monitor net carbs, total carbs, and sugar alcohol

• Hundreds of easy and delicious keto and low-carb recipes. 

• Keto and low carb diet guides

• Keto and macro calculator and planner

• Ketone tracking

• Personalized comments and advice from a virtual coach

• Diet article libraries

• Special graphs and reports to analyze your food and macros

LOW-FAT, MEDITERRANEAN, VEGETARIAN, AND VEGAN DIET

• Special diet planners, guides, and reviews

• Hundreds of recipes

EXERCISES MONITORING

• Extensive exercise database

• Built-in workout tracker for running and walking

• Links with Fitbit, Withings, and Garmin

AUTOMATIC PILOT

• Autopilot prevents you from reaching a weight loss plateau

• Suggests dietary adjustments to reach your goal faster

iOS ECOSYSTEM

• Modern watch app

• Share meals and recipes with the iMessage app

• Ask Siri to log calories, meals, and water

• Apply dark mode and sign in with Apple ID

iOS HEALTH

The app can automatically import or export data from iOS Health; syncs steps, workouts, food, nutrients, weight, water, heart rate, etc.

RECALLS/FRIENDLY REPORTS

• Reminders to enter meals and weigh-ins

• Reports and charts for review and analysis; see the big picture of your feed or zoom in on the details

8/ Fitbit

Fitbit

Say hello to one of the world's leading health and fitness apps. Use the Fitbit app alone to join our community, track basic stats, and stay motivated on your journey. Or, get a Fitbit tracker or smartwatch to see how your activity, workouts, sleep, nutrition, and stress fit together. Either way, you'll find the information and inspiration you need to achieve your goals, all in one place.

• A free app that tracks your day and progress over time

• Find free workouts, nutrition programs, meditation tracks, sleep tools, and more

• Connect with friends, challenge, and join an inspiring community

• Set goals, earn achievement badges, and celebrate milestones

• Automatically sync your data with over 3,000 popular partner apps

• Access innovative smartwatch apps and new clock faces

• Works with all Fitbit trackers, smartwatches, scales, and other Fitbit products

• Get active: See how small movements add up by using your smartphone to track steps and distance. Or pair it with a Fitbit tracker or smartwatch to see all-day stats like steps, distance, calories burned, floors climbed, and active minutes.

• WORKOUT AT HOME: Access free video and audio workouts you can do at your own pace, right from your living room. You'll find workouts for HIIT, cardio, strength, yoga, and more. Plus, start a free 90-day trial of Fitbit Premium to unlock over 240 workouts from popular brands like barre3, Daily Burn, POPSUGAR, and Yoga Studio: Mind & Body.

• Sleep better: Find out how long and how you sleep, then improve your nightly routine with Fitbit's innovative sleep tools, including a nightly sleep score, sleep goal setting, bedtime reminders, and graphs that show your light, deep, and REM sleep time. 

• MANAGE STRESS: Listen to free audio tracks to reduce your stress and improve your mood. Use mindfulness to start your day better, find moments of calm and set intentions with meditation, or get help falling asleep with relaxing stories and sounds.

• EAT SMARTER: Keep your nutrition in check with easy-to-use tools to set goals, log food and water, track calories in and out, and see if you're getting enough protein, fat, and carbs. For more personalized programs to help you reach your weight and nutrition goals, try Fitbit Premium.

• Track your heart rate: Understand your overall health by using your watch or tracker to record your heart rate 24/7. In the app, find valuable data such as resting heart rate trends, time spent in heart rate zones during workouts, and a cardio fitness score.

• JOIN A COMMUNITY: Find the support and encouragement you need to inspire yourself, stay accountable, and keep things fun. The Fitbit app makes it easy to connect with friends, start activity challenges, read educational articles, get expert advice, and share your journey with an uplifting community.

9/ MyPlate Calorie Counter

MyPlate Calorie Counter

Tons of free features to help you take care of yourself. Track your diet. Get moving with home workouts. Dark mode. Sign in with Apple. Apple Watch and more!

MyPlate is the fastest and easiest way to lose weight and improve your health! Join millions of people who have lost weight with LIVESTRONG.COM's MyPlate Calorie Tracker - the easiest way to track your food and exercise on your iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. MyPlate makes it easy to track calories and get the right nutrition.

With the LIVESTRONG Calorie Tracker, you can

• Browse a comprehensive database with over 2 million foods

• Find out which foods you eat have the most calories

• Use our handy barcode scanner to easily find and track food

• Stick to healthy eating with a detailed 8-week meal plan of balanced macronutrients

• Get a personalized daily calorie goal

• Track your weight and progress over time

• Review detailed data and create custom goals for your macronutrients and micronutrients

• Keep track of your water consumption

• Track in-app workouts you can do at home, at the gym, or anywhere

• Get real-time, 24/7 support from members of our motivational community and others engaged in a similar endeavor

• Set meal reminders to keep you on track

• Integrates with Apple's Health app to sync workouts, foods, and weight tracked from other apps and devices

• Get full support for use on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch

Why Choose LIVESTRONG Calorie Tracker?

MACRONUTRIENTS SIMPLIFIED

A daily snapshot of grams and percentages of protein, carbs, and fat lets you easily monitor your intake and manage your desired ratio.

ROBUST PROGRESS SECTION

The expansive Progress section includes easy-to-read graphs that give you a quick summary of your data over time, including calories, weight, carbs, protein, fat, and more.

8 WEEK MEAL PLAN

Don't know what to eat? 

The 8-Week Meal Plan gives you suggestions for healthy snacks, meals, and recipes, all designed for balanced macronutrients. Choose from one of four food preferences: omnivorous, vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free.

Healthy Recipes

Looking for food suggestions? 

Check out our healthy recipe suggestions based on your calorie burn that day AND your food preferences (vegan, vegetarian, carnivore, or omnivore).

WORKOUTS AT HOME

Do you want to stay in shape? 

Take advantage of our list of workouts and exercise at home or anywhere. At the end of each workout, record the number of calories burned in your diary.

REAL-TIME COMMUNITY SUPPORT!

Looking for motivation or advice? 

Our active community message boards are filled with thousands of members who share similar health and fitness goals, offering each other support and advice, sharing recipes and tips, and just sharing a laugh.

10/ Calorie Counter +

Calorie Counter +

Whatever you want to track, this is your must-have app.

• Suitable for all goals - weight loss, weight gain, maintenance, intermittent fasting

• Scans barcodes for easy calorie tracking

• Also tracks carbs, protein, fat, sugar, saturated fat, sodium, and fiber

• Set your own macro goals and calorie deficit

• Huge food database: more than 300,000 products with photos, quality checked

• Pair your Fitbit or Garmin for effortless exercise tracking

WHAT'S INCLUDED?

FOOD AND EXERCISE LOG

• Barcode scanner to quickly add food

• Count calories and track carbs, sugar, fiber, fat, saturated fat, protein, and sodium

• Check your natural versus added sugar intake

• Follow 5 times a day, with water and alcohol

• Set reminders to prompt you to drink water and update your diary

• Compare your diet to healthy nutritional goals

• Personal calorie deficit goal (Nutracheck uses a BMR calculator and calorie calculator to set your allowance)

• Pair your Fitbit, Garmin, or Android motion sensor on your phone to track steps

• Search 1000+ calorie-burning exercises (or manually add your own workout, eg abs workout)

• Share and print your diary

MY MEALS

• Calorie calculator for home-cooked meals (also displays nutrient breakdown)

• Popular recipes are already saved - just add a serving to your diary

• Share recipes

PROGRESS

• Weight loss tracking

• Track over 13 different metrics

• Receive rewards for completed goals

FORUM

• Nutracheck community support

• Participate in member challenges