Applications for counting calories: which one to choose?

Summer is approaching, and it’s the time for good resolutions: after the rich dishes of winter, we put fruits and vegetables back in the spotlight to better rebalance our diet. Whether it’s losing weight or simply eating healthier, here are some applications that will allow you to count calories and manage your daily meals.

The main tool for controlling your weight (whether to stabilize it, lose it or gain it), calories are not easy to calculate. However, by counting them, you can control your nutritional intake and, by extension, better manage your weight. But when you like to vary your pleasures and eat without weighing a single gram of food, counting can sometimes be complicated.

This is the reason why many mobile applications specializing in calorie counting have developed. Generally, they are based on particularly comprehensive databases, including the numerous products found in supermarkets as well as basic foods such as fruits, vegetables, eggs, bread (…). In a few seconds, you can enter the data into your diary, then quantify the calories over a meal or a day. No need to weigh everything or look at the nutritional values ​​on the product label, all information is saved in the program.

But when you consult the Google Play Store or the App Store, you quickly notice that many applications compete with each other. Which one to choose ? We present to you a list of 5 of the best-known alternatives, it is up to you to select them according to your preferences:

MyFitnessPal, an easy-to-use food diary

With its 14 million foods, the MyFitnessPal database allows you to easily record your meals, whatever their composition. Extremely simple, the interface is intuitive and each functionality remains very easy to use. To use this application, you create your own account: this gives you access to your information from anywhere, whether you are on a smartphone, a tablet or a desktop computer.

To help you fill out your diary more easily, the program memorizes the dishes you have already entered: you can then find them more quickly each day. Other features simplify usage, such as the ability to scan product barcodes to insert them into your journal. If you wish, you can also track your sports performance to maintain motivation, and even communicate with your friends using the app.

FatSecret adds illustrations to calorie counting

In terms of operation, FatSecret remains very close to MyFitnessPal. Here again, you keep a food diary in which you can easily integrate your dishes, by adjusting the weights, scanning the product barcode or even using references already recorded. To better visualize your efforts, this program also includes a slimming diet calendar, to regularly take stock of calories consumed and burned. And to familiarize yourself with the quantities, you can photograph and store your meals in the app. The website even has detailed recipes.

All these features are available for free. If you go for the paid version, you’ll get more advanced help, with an advanced meal plan making it easier to control calorie intake for each meal, but also a water meter to make sure you’re hydrating enough.

Yazio dusts off the calorie counters

Visually, Yazio differentiates itself from its competitors through a reworked interface, this time with more vibrant colors. On a purely practical level, the functionalities of this application are almost identical to those of MyFitnessPal or FatSecret: you keep your diary, you count calories, you scan barcodes to find your products more easily, etc.

Likewise, this app offers different methods to fill your diary more quickly, such as creating favorites or even adding foods to the database. It currently contains more than 2 million references: less than its competitors, but the trend could be reversed, because all daily users regularly contribute to enrich the application by adding new dishes.

The application makes it easy to set goals with a personalized program. Inside we find a digital nutrition coach, automatic monitoring if you have a sports tracker as well as recipes to lose weight.

If you choose Yazio rather than MyFitnessPal or FatSecret, you will have generally the same possibilities. But if you fear designs that are too simple and not flashy enough to motivate you, you will like this program more! In addition, if you purchase the Pro version, you will have access to more complete information, such as those regarding the fattest or sweetest foods. At the same time, you will know your nutrient intake in more depth.

The secret of weight: what if losing weight became a game?

From the first glance, the “The secret of weight” application frees itself from traditional food diaries, to offer an interface that is much closer to that of a game. The objective remains the same: every day , you add the foods you consume, knowing that photos help you better determine the quantity (to save you having to weigh all your preparations).

The character that follows you throughout your experience on the application is none other than your representation. If you exceed your daily calorie goals, you see it gain weight – and it gets thinner when you reduce your intake.

Here, the strong point is not on the side of the database, which is much less rich than that of known applications. However, you can record your own foods, and even add photos, to personalize your experience. You also have advice from “Flo”, the application’s coach… And you can have fun modifying your dashboard.

More fun than its competitors, this application will appeal to all those who want to count calories without the hassle, assimilating this practice to a real game.

Foodvisor: a photo to count calories, does it really work?

If all the apps mentioned above help you count calories without taking too much trouble, they still require you to be aware – at least approximately – of the quantity of food ingested, to transform grams into calories.

Foodvisor intends to disrupt the practice by making it possible to know the number of calories present on a plate using a simple photograph. An algorithm based on several thousand other photos identifies the foods and directly invites you to enter the dish you are going to eat in your diary.

Although the application is improving day by day, it still happens that preparations are not authenticated – or that you have to readjust the quantity yourself to have the right calorie ratio. Naturally, you can manually enter the products consumed, in particular using barcodes: even when Foodvisor shows its limits in terms of photo recognition, the app continues to help you control your intake!

Whether you are simply looking for a basic application for counting calories (MyFitnessPal, FatSecret) or you prefer to live a more satisfying experience through a colorful (Yazio), fun (The Secret of Weight) or even intelligent (Foodvisor) interface, you will inevitably find the app that suits you. It’s up to you to use it wisely to manage your diet, without it becoming a chore.

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