These Food Tracker Apps Will Help You Meet Your Wellness Goals (2024)

With more than 200 million users, MyFitnessPal remains one of the reigning champions among food and fitness tracking apps. The app — which has one of the largest food databases, containing over 14 million foods — is easy to use: Just enter your daily intake of food, and it will calculate nutrients like protein, fat and carbs.

You can also easily copy and paste meals that you've previously logged so you don't have to waste time re-entering everything. Import recipes from other websites, and the app will calculate the calories. If you eat out often, you're in luck: The app contains menu information from many popular restaurants making it easier to keep track when you dine out.

There is a free version that provides a variety of useful functions as well as a premium membership that offers extras such as VIP support, an ad-free experience and a barcode scanner (a function that was free in the past), which pulls in food data from packaged goods. Our experts point out that while this app may be a favorite for users, there can be some inaccuracies when logging because many foods are added by individuals and not all foods are verified for accuracy.

MyNetDiary offers a large database of foods with an easy-to-navigate interface that scores big points with users. The app assigns a weekly weight goal or target date after assessing for weight, height and age. Many users claim that logging food with this app has helped them to create more balanced meals and adequate portion sizes as well as to keep sodium levels and saturated fat intake in check.

The free subscription service contains ads and pop-ups, but you can upgrade to the premium ad-free version, which offers more functions such as helpful charts like macronutrient percentages (protein, fat and carbohydrates) along with access to recipes to fit multiple dietary needs such as vegan, high protein, low-carb, and Mediterranean, among others. A free barcode scanner makes tracking food easy by pulling in data and calculating nutrition for you.

WW (formerly Weight Watchers) offers a huge database of food and makes tracking easy. Enter specific brand names and meals from popular restaurants, choose your portion size and the app will calculate the nutritional breakdown for you. You can also track your activity, water intake and sleep.

The app offers more than 4,000 recipes, multiple filter options (dietary needs, SmartPoints, prep time, etc.), barcode scanning, support from the WW community and more. By saving your most popular meal items, this app makes it easier than ever to track that iced coffee with almond milk or apple-with-peanut-butter combo you have for your snack each day. Plus, you can add your go-to recipes to the app, so when you cook up your homemade black bean burgers, you don’t have to enter each individual ingredient.

Take note that WW requires a subscription to join and can be expensive for some although they often offer discounts on their programs. Also, many companies offer corporate discounts.

Noom wants you to become more mindful of your eating decisions and how they impact your health. The app's program aims to help to modify the behaviors that might have contributed to weight gain. Get-to-know-yourself quizzes and questionnaires — along with food and activity tracking — delve further into your eating psyche. A health coach guides you toward meeting an agreed-upon goal through a customized plan and also provides advice and support.

Noom uses a modified "traffic light" food color system to assign each food a color so that all foods can fit your diet. Green means go and is assigned to foods that are less calorically dense, such as fruits and veggies. Yellow indicates foods that should be consumed in moderate portions. Orange is used for foods that should be mostly avoided or used sparingly as well as those that are mostly processed and may be higher in saturated fats.

Keep in mind the personalized attention comes at a higher cost: While the app is free to download, Noom is useable only with a fee and is more expensive than most on our list.

Founded in Germany, the YAZIO app is new to the U.S. as of this year. YAZIO claims to be one of the most successful nutrition apps in the world, and it may be the best choice for travelers because it offers a large selection of international choices in its food and recipe database. With a simple and easy-to-use interface, the app strives to improve nutrition goals with realistic and sustainable nutrition habits.

It's free to download and includes calorie-counting functions, and the paid pro version comes with features including more than 2,000 recipes that have been cooked, tested and photographed by the YAZIO team. You can easily find recipes that fit into your desired daily intake range — even no-bake mini blueberry vegan cakes — with options starting at 50 calories and going up to 700+.

The app also offers information on intermittent fasting with fasting trackers, as well as motivational success stories. YAZIO connects easily to other health and fitness trackers including Apple Health, Fitbit and Garmin. It is available in 20+ languages and in more than 150 countries.

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Cronometer stands out by offering easy tracking of calories and micro- and macronutrients, with the goal of encouraging healthier eating strategies. Users can personalize diet settings such as by tracking single nutrients (although this feature is only available on the paid version). For example, if you want to increase fiber in your diet, you can track how much you consume daily and the app can suggest foods to help you increase your intake. There is a free barcode scanner, food submissions are verified for accuracy and the app offers a community component through Facebook.

There is a pro version for healthcare providers, and if your doctor or dietitian is a subscriber, you can link to them for further feedback. The app integrates with other fitness tracking apps such as Apple Health and Fitbit. And Cronometer now integrates with WHOOP so users can get an even broader perspective on how nutrition affects recovery and sleep.

Sign-up is free and while the free version scores high points with users, you can upgrade to the Gold subscription for ad-free use, custom charts and fasting timers.

Lose It! not only tracks nutrients and calories, it also provides an intermittent fasting tracker to meet a wider variety of dietary goals. This app now offers dietitian-curated strategies to support multiple types of diets including low-carb and plant-based. According to the company, it contains a large searchable database of foods, more than 50 million — the largest database on our list. It also contains a barcode scanner for easy calorie counting and a community tab where you can find support from other users.

LoseIt! is unique thanks to its award-winning Snap It feature, which allows users to snap photos of their food so the app can use image recognition to detect food in the picture and track it. For example, take and upload a picture of your hummus and carrots, confirm your food and serving size and let the app track it. Upgrade to the premium version for the most features and to integrate with other health and fitness devices, including Apple Health and Fitbit.

If you are new to intermittent fasting (IF), this is the app for you. Simple provides a guide to IF along with different fasting periods including the most common — 16:8 (fasting for 16 hours and eating during an 8-hour period) — as well as shorter and longer times and Circadian Rhythm Fasting, which typically involves consuming meals during daylight hours.

The app also provides an easy way to track steps, meals, eating habits, hydration and sleep, although at an extra cost. It is compatible with Apple Health and Fitbit, and it provides motivational resources including videos from dietitians, educational articles, recipes and information on topics such as mindful eating. The app is free to download and offers a seven-day free trial to test it out before committing to the premium version.

MyPlate has an intuitive interface that allows for simple tracking of meals and snacks, exercise, weight and hydration — you can even see which foods you consumed that were highest in calories per day and week. The app contains a large food database and easy-to-use barcode scanner to help users track calories consumed and burned. Take note that information on daily calories burned and a complete breakdown of protein, fats and carbs are only available in the paid version of the app.

There is an active public community forum that can provide motivation and support during users' dietary journeys. If weight loss is your goal, the app offers a custom eight-week meal plan developed by a dietitian that contains meals based on a lower calorie range; it's available in four dietary preferences including omnivore, vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free. The eight-week program also provides daily 30-minute workouts and daily motivational messages.

Upgrade to the Gold version for more perks, including a breakdown of macro- and micronutrient intake, daily calories burned, a private community section and priority support among other features.

The registered dietitians in the Good Housekeeping Institute Nutrition Lab test and review all types of nutrition, wellness and health apps, including meditation apps. When researching and evaluating apps, we consider factors such as:

• ease of use
• community and social networking opportunities
• consistency of quality
• cost and features
• whether they contain up-to-date and effective information
• their ability to sync with other health-tracking devices to measure physical activity, sleep and hydration
• availability for both Android and iOS devices

  For food tracker apps specifically, our editors and experts downloaded many of the apps themselves in order to experience them firsthand. We also reached out to avid food tracker users for their feedback.

  Overall, we made sure to highlight apps that provided robust and accurate dietary databases, were user-friendly and made it easy to log meals, calories and nutrients, such as protein, carbohydrates and fat.

Determine why you want to use a food tracker app: Are you trying to lose, maintain or gain weight? Do you want to find foods that make you feel more energized? Do you want to learn more about sodium or portion sizes?

If you eat out a lot, look for apps that include menu items at popular restaurants; if you cook often, you might prefer one with a recipe conversion function. If you consume a fair number of packaged goods, opt for an app with a barcode scanner.

Consider whether an app that offers strong community support is important to you, and whether the app provides a solid platform for free or requires a fee to be the most useful. Some apps offer a free trial so we recommend testing them out to find which one is the best fit for you before committing.

As a registered dietitian, Amy Fischer has worked with thousands of patients to improve their health through whole foods and a nutritious diet. Amy believes that food is to be enjoyed whatever your diet goals may be and that ideally the focus should be on improving overall health, eating and living better.

She has written about calorie-counting apps, weight loss apps and how to calculate macros for weight loss for Good Housekeeping.