In the Spring Issue of Food & Nutrition Magazine, there was a review of the 10 most popular, free weight-management apps. Since more and more people are using smart phone, I frequently get questions about which apps are good to track intakes/calories. So, I thought I would share the results of the review, which are as follows:
| App | Rating | Key points of what the review said |
| Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker by MyFitness Pal | 4.5 | You can adjust goals, track progress, enter food intakes and exercise. This app tracks many nutrients and you can build your eating plan based on your nutrient needs. Has helpful tutorials for first time users. |
| Calorie Counter: Diets & Activites by Arawella | 4 | This app has a visually appealing layout and tracks calories, water and fitness including the time each nutrient is consumed. You can create and monitor your own diet and exercise plan. |
| Calorie Counter and Diet Tracker by CalorieCount.com | 4 | User friendly app that keeps track of all major nutrients in a visually appealing way. It also has articles, recipes and a great “help” section. |
| Calorie Tracker by Livestrong.com | 4 | This app is a companion for livestrong.com and has a large food database. It tracks calories, carbs, fat, cholesterol, protein, sodium, fiber, sugar. |
| Sparkpeople Diet and Fitness Tracker | 4 | Can create custom goals and meal plans are customized based on goals. However, it only tracks calories, carbs and fat. Overall, good app. |
| Calorie Counter by MyNetDairy | 3 | Easy to navigate and tracks many nutrients including: calories, carbs, total fat, trans and saturated fat, protein, sodium, fiber, sugar and calcium. Tracks weight and give charts. |
| Lose it! By FitNow, Inc. | 3 | Great basic food log to aid in weight loss. |
| Fooducate | 2.5 | The information on this app is based on opinions and not expert advise. |
| Weight Watchers Mobile | 2 | Has a lot of features, making it slow to load and it may crash. Without paying fee, have access to only recipes, articles, success stories and a few “cheat sheets”. |
| Daily Burn | 2 | Time Consuming and confusing to enter food. Needs improvement. |
No matter what app you choose, there is always a learning curve in the beginning. I often think it’s good to play around with it for a week to see if it starts to get easier. If you still find it to be a challenge, you can try another app to see if it’s any easier for you. Usually, after 2-3 days of entering foods, you start to get the knack of it and it gets quicker. The nice thing about these apps is that they are free, so there is nothing to lose.