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Best food logging app for weight loss, by situation

Which app fits how you actually log. · 9 min read · Updated October 24, 2026

How we made this guide: we built it from the sources below and checked every number against them: MyFitnessPal Premium page; Cronometer Gold page; MacroFactor App Store listing; Lose It! App Store listing; Burke et al., self-monitoring review (2011); Harvey et al., logging frequency (2019); CDC, steps for losing weight; Subar et al., the OPEN study (2003).

This guide is for people who want to lose weight and are choosing a food logging app. Instead of ranking apps in one list, we sorted them by situation: what you need most, such as a free barcode scanner, a faster way to log, targets that adjust, or support while you train.

We make one of these apps, My Track Record. So we kept to facts each company publishes about its own app, checked on October 24, 2026, and we say where ours is the weaker pick. For a price-by-price look at three of these apps, see Calorie tracking apps compared.

Does the app you pick matter for weight loss?

Less than the habit does. A review of 22 studies found a consistent link between tracking what you eat and losing weight, although its authors call the evidence weak: the studies relied on self-report and drew on similar groups of people (Burke et al., 2011).

A later study followed 142 adults in a 24-week online weight program. People who lost at least 10% of their starting weight opened their food journal more often each day, 2.7 times versus 1.7. Among those still logging at month six, time spent did not differ between the groups. Participants averaged 23 minutes a day in month one and about 15 minutes in month six (Harvey et al., 2019). That group was 91% women with an average BMI near 36, so it may not describe you.

Neither study tested a particular app. What they suggest is that how often you log matters more than how long you spend logging. Our own view, not a finding from either study, is that the less effort each entry takes, the easier it is to log often. That is how we sorted the situations below. For pace, the CDC says people who lose weight gradually, about 1 to 2 pounds a week, are more likely to keep it off (CDC).

The apps side by side

Prices and features as listed by each company on October 24, 2026. They change; check before you buy. MyFitnessPal, Cronometer, MacroFactor and Lose It! are trademarks of their owners; we aren’t affiliated with them.

Which app fits if you want a free barcode scanner?

Cronometer includes its barcode scanner in the free plan, along with tracking for up to 84 nutrients (Cronometer). Ours is free too. MyFitnessPal lists barcode scan as a Premium feature (MyFitnessPal), and Lose It! lists its barcode scanner among its Premium features (App Store listing). MacroFactor has no free tier after its 7-day trial (App Store listing).

A scanner is only as good as the database behind it. Ours looks products up in Open Food Facts, a database kept by volunteers (Open Food Facts), so a product can be missing or have thin nutrition info. When that happens we tell you, and you can log the food by voice or by typing. If packaged food is most of what you eat, scan five things you buy every week in each app before you decide.

What if you log on the go or hate typing?

Voice logging is where these apps differ most. MyFitnessPal lists Voice Log as a Premium feature, Cronometer lists voice and photo logging under Gold, and Lose It! lists AI voice and photo meal logging under Premium (MyFitnessPal, Cronometer, Lose It!).

In My Track Record, voice is the free way to log. You say what you ate in one sentence, like “two eggs, toast and a banana,” and we log it. Siri and lock-screen capture work without opening the app, and you get five photo or label scans a day. A weigh-in goes in the same way.

The trade-off is that we estimate a meal from what you say, so the numbers are estimates. For a packaged food, scan it or check the label.

Which app fits if you want targets that adjust?

If you want the app to change your calorie target as your weight moves, MacroFactor is built around that. Its App Store listing describes an algorithm that adapts to changes in your metabolism and makes weekly changes to your macro plan. It costs $11.99 a month or $71.99 a year after a 7-day trial (App Store listing).

We offer this too, and it sits in the Fast Track, not the free plan. Here is how the line falls in our app:

• Free: you set a goal weight and a date, and we calculate a daily calorie and macro target with a cap on how fast the pace can be. It stays where you set it.
• Fast Track: about once a week, we nudge your calorie target in small steps toward your goal weight, based on your logged food and weigh-ins. We hold the target when we don’t have what we need, such as a recent weigh-in.

Two limits. Our adjustment changes calories, not macros. And if you follow a plan built in the app, the plan’s calories apply instead.

Which app fits if you’re training while you lose weight?

This is the situation we built My Track Record for. A calorie deficit and hard sessions pull in opposite directions, and eating too little for your training can happen without you noticing. We can’t promise how your body will respond.

In the Fast Track, a fueling check compares what you ate with how hard you trained. The planner, also in the Fast Track, has a Lose Weight program: you give it a goal weight, and we build a training week of lifting and cardio and plan your eating beside it, at a gradual pace. If you only want to count calories, you don’t need any of it.

If what you want most is nutrient detail while you eat less, Cronometer is the stronger pick. Its free plan tracks up to 84 nutrients, and Gold tracks up to 95 (Cronometer).

Which app fits if you want the lowest paid price?

If you expect to pay, compare the yearly prices, because the monthly plans cost more over a year. As listed on October 24, 2026, Cronometer Gold is $59.99 a year, MacroFactor is $71.99, MyFitnessPal Premium is $79.99, and the Fast Track in My Track Record is $119.99. Ours is the highest of the four. What you get for it is different: adaptive targets, the fueling check and the training planner, not a bigger food database.

Lose It!’s App Store listing shows several Premium prices, so check the price your own phone shows. And if the free plan covers your day, you may not need to pay at all. Cronometer, MyFitnessPal, Lose It! and ours all let you log food for free, with different limits on what is free.

Where we’re the weaker pick

• Platforms: My Track Record is an iPhone app. MyFitnessPal, Cronometer and MacroFactor each link to an Android app on their own sites, and Cronometer lists a web version too (MyFitnessPal, Cronometer, MacroFactor).
• Calories with no training goal: our app is built around training toward something, like a race or a lift. If you only want a daily calorie count, My Track Record is more than you need.
• Nutrient depth: if you want dozens of vitamins and minerals per meal, Cronometer is built for that.
• Exact numbers: we estimate from what you say, and our scanner depends on a volunteer-built database.

How accurate does your log need to be?

No app makes it exact. In the OPEN study, adults’ 24-hour food recalls came in 12–14% (men) and 16–20% (women) below the energy they actually used, measured with doubly labeled water (Subar et al., 2003). So treat your totals as a trend and judge your progress over weeks, not days. For habits that make your estimates better, see Calorie tracking apps compared.

How do you test an app before you commit?

Time yourself logging a real dinner. Not a demo meal: tonight’s. Start the clock when you open the app, and stop it when the entry is saved with numbers you’d accept. Do this in every app on your shortlist, using each one’s free plan or trial, so you compare the same meal.

We suggest this because the research above points to how often you log, and an app that takes minutes per meal can be hard to keep up. Our rule of thumb: if it feels like a chore at dinner on day one, it may feel worse on day twenty.

Then run three more checks:

• Fix yesterday’s entry without hunting for it.
• Do your normal day on the free plan, so you know what you’d be paying for.
• After 30 days, count the days you logged. That number tells you more than any feature list.

Try ours

We built My Track Record so logging a meal, a workout or a weigh-in is one spoken sentence, free. When you want to know whether your eating and training are working, the Fast Track adds targets we adjust and a check on whether you’re eating enough for how hard you train. It starts with a 14-day free trial.

By Andrew, founder of My Track Record. Andrew has been active all of his life across a variety of sports and continues to stay active through climbing, swimming, weight training, golfing, snowboarding, and more. He built My Track Record so logging food and training takes one spoken sentence and can support any activity. He puts these guides together from published sports science research cited on each page. About Andrew

Sources

• MyFitnessPal. Premium: features and pricing (official page, checked October 24, 2026). Source
• MyFitnessPal. Home page: app store links and free versus Premium (checked October 24, 2026). Source
• Cronometer. Gold: features and pricing (official page, checked October 24, 2026). Source
• Cronometer. Home page: platforms and free barcode scanner (checked October 24, 2026). Source
• MacroFactor. App Store listing: trial, subscriptions and weekly changes (checked October 24, 2026). Source
• MacroFactor. Press kit: store links and pricing (checked October 24, 2026). Source
• Lose It! App Store listing: free and Premium features, prices, platforms (checked October 24, 2026). Source
• Open Food Facts. About the project (checked October 24, 2026). Source
• Burke LE, Wang J, Sevick MA. Self-monitoring in weight loss: a systematic review of the literature. J Am Diet Assoc. 2011;111(1):92–102. Source
• Harvey J, Krukowski R, Priest J, West D. Log often, lose more: electronic dietary self-monitoring for weight loss. Obesity. 2019;27(3):380–384. Source
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Steps for losing weight (checked October 24, 2026). Source
• Subar AF, et al. Using intake biomarkers to evaluate the extent of dietary misreporting in a large sample of adults: the OPEN study. Am J Epidemiol. 2003;158(1):1–13. Source

General information for healthy adults, not medical advice. Results vary, and we can’t promise weight loss. If you have a medical condition, are pregnant, or have a history of disordered eating, talk to a doctor or registered dietitian before changing how you eat. Counting calories isn’t right for everyone.

Related

• Calorie tracking apps compared
• How to tell if your training is working
• How to stay consistent when motivation fades