Best Calorie Counter Apps: MyFitnessPal 

(Ad) Even in today’s saturated market of health, weight loss, and fitness apps, MyFitnessPal stands out from the competition. Find out what makes MyFitnessPal one of the best calorie counter apps out there. 

For many people who have specific dietary, nutritional, or fitness goals, keeping track of your caloric intake may be helpful. Studies show that people who self-monitor by tracking their food are more likely to lose weight. Whatever your goal, a calorie counter can be an excellent partner providing you with both education of what you’re eating as well as making you accountable to your own success. As one of the best calorie counting apps on the market, MyFitnessPal does much more than count calories. MyFitnessPal’s helpful and practical features have made it one of the most easy to use, accurate, and highly-rated apps in the industry.

Best Calorie Counter App: What is MyFitnessPal?

Established in 2005, MyFitnessPal is a global success, a popular and trusted calorie counting app with a community of over 250 million users. MyFitnessPal stands out from many of its competitors because they aim to help users build better habits when it comes to making choices about nutrition, exercise, and general wellness. Along with counting calories, MyFitnessPal tracks macronutrients, micronutrients, water intake, and daily exercise. Calories are really just the beginning: the more information about your dietary and exercise habits that you keep track of, the more empowered you’ll become to make healthy choices.

With MyFitnessPal, your personal profile generates your caloric goals each day. You can also track the nutrients of your food, link to other apps and devices you may already be using on your fitness journey, get support from MyFitnessPal’s community, access recipes, and more. It’s almost like a personal trainer, nutritionist, and dietitian– right at your fingertips. 

What customers love

Customers clearly love MyFitnessPal: the app has 3.7 Million 5-star ratings, and across the internet, consumer ratings place MyFitnessPal at or near the top when compared side-by-side against other calorie counter apps. At the Google Play Store, MyFitnessPal was rated so highly that it was featured in the Editor’s Choice corner. The Apple Store shows similar positive reviews, with over 1.8 million users rating the app at an average of 4.7 out of 5 stars. 

There’s a lot to love about MyFitnessPal, a calorie counting app. Among the many features customers can enjoy are: 

• MyFitnessPal is one of the world’s most comprehensive nutrition and food tracking platforms. With its simple to use interface, you can easily access your dashboard to log foods and have instant access to the nutritional and caloric information of over 19 million foods, thanks to MyFitnessPal’s extensive food database. 

• The MyFitnessPal personal diary gives access not only to your daily calorie count, but also the macronutrients and micronutrients in your food, and accounts for the caloric output of your daily exercise. 

• MyFitnessPal features vibrant blog content, relevant and timely articles, recipes and more. You also have access to a community of users which offers motivation and support.

• There is both a free and a Premium version of the app. You can use the free version as long as you like, and you can upgrade to Premium easily for enhanced features. 

• With the Premium version, customers can use the barcode scanner to log food instantly.

• Premium membership also includes in-app plans, workouts, and more.

• MyFitnessPal’s integration technology easily connects to over 40 apps and products like FitBit, Map My Run, Apple Watch (and many others) for seamless tracking of weight, fitness, wellness, and overall progress.  

How Does MyFitnessPal Work?

MyFitnessPal offers a simple yet detailed and informative platform for tracking calories, nutrients, and exercise, placing a picture of your health right on your dashboard. You can track your numbers in real time with every meal and snack you log, and can check your numbers at the end of each day or even each week.   

Here’s how it works:

1. Start by answering a few questions about yourself and your goals. From there, MyFitnessPal will generate a daily target, giving you the specific number for calories as well as the ideal breakdown of macronutrients that will help you achieve those goals. 

2. Log your food and exercise throughout the day. As you do, MyFitnessPal will continually track the number of calories you've consumed as well as those you’ve burned from exercise. You always know how many calories (as well as which nutrients) you need at any given point in your day.

3. Logging food gets easier the more you do it: MyFitnessPal will begin to remember your favorite foods and exercise routines, meaning you can log this information in just a few minutes. 

4. Before long, you’ll gain knowledge about the nutritional value of the foods you eat, empowering you to make better decisions about your food choices and the habits that will best serve you in achieving your goals. 

Key Features

Personal Food, Water, and Exercise diary

A food diary can be integral in a successful weight loss journey. MyFitnessPal is customized to you. Your personal profile is based on your BMI (body mass index) and estimated BMR (basal metabolic rate), numbers that vary depending on factors such as sex, age, and weight. But MyFitnessPal will also account for your personal goals: do you want to lose, gain, or maintain weight? Your answers help MyFitnessPal generate daily targets, and as you work to meet those targets, you’re also working toward your personal goals.

You can track calories and nutrition

MyFitnessPal will give you a daily goal for counting calories, and will track your calories throughout the day. But you also have access to information on how those calories break down into the essential macronutrients (fat, protein, and carbohydrates) your body needs. You can also track vital micronutrients you’ve taken in, and the number of calories you’ve burned through exercise. With this helpful picture of how your choices affect your goals, you’re empowered to make wise choices about food and activity.  

Inspiring, delicious, and healthy recipes

The recipes MyFitnessPal offers users include options for a wide variety of diets. Low-carb? MyFitnessPal has you covered. The same goes for gluten free, high protein, low sugar, and more. Check the recipe’s nutritional information to verify that it works with your eating plan, and it’s easy to log the recipe into your diary using the MyFitnessPal “Log-It” button.

In-App plans

MyFitnessPal offers a variety of In-App Plans that include enhanced support, everything from education and tips on healthy eating and fitness to specific support for customers looking to lose weight or meet personal exercise goals. The “MyFitnessPal 101” plan is free with the free version of MyFitnessPal; the Premium version offers plans such as “Building Healthy Habits,” “Reaching Your Calorie Goal,” just to name a few.  

Who is the MyFitnessPal Calorie Counter App Good For?

MyFitnessPal is one of the best options not only for counting calories, but for a comprehensive view of your daily eating and exercise habits. Whatever your weight, diet, or fitness goal, MyFitnessPal is an excellent partner, because this app helps you understand how the food you eat affects how quickly you reach your goals, as well as how good you feel as you work towards reaching them. 

If you are self motivated and disciplined about logging your food, but also want connection to a community that shares your goals, which studies show this kind of support is extremely beneficial,  and you don’t mind dealing with ads, the free version of MyFitnessPal might be enough for you. But for the added convenience of things like unlimited barcode scanning, customizable features, focused content, more detailed analysis of your nutrition and fitness, MyFitnessPal Premium is an excellent choice. 

Pros of MyFitnessPal, The Calorie Counter App

Pros

• The app is easy to use: between the 19 million plus food database to the Premium barcode feature, it’s easy to log and analyze your calorie intake. And that analysis goes way beyond simple calories: your diary also displays your daily macro and micronutrient goals, so you know not only how many calories you still need; you can also choose the optimal foods to reach your goals for the day. 

• The MyFitnessPal app is fully functional in both Apple or Android platforms. 

• There are both free and Premium versions of the app, both allowing for food and exercise tracking, with additional features included in the Premium version.

• MyFitnessPal lets you connect with supported Apps like FitBit, Digifit, Map My Ride, and many more. 

• Based on your personal profile, MyFitnessPal can estimate the number of calories you burn during your workouts. 

• Studies show community support can help you succeed with your weight loss goals. The MyFitnessPal community offers expert and user generated discussion boards, recipes, a regularly updated blog that touches on multiple food, fitness, and wellness topics, success stories, and more. All of these features help you stay engaged, connected, and motivated.

MyFitnessPal Free vs MyFitnessPal Premium

MyFitnessPal offers a free version of its Calorie Counter app, and you can download and use that free version to enjoy the basic features of the app. The Premium version offers many useful additional features, so it’s worth examining the two versions side-by-side.

• Features of MyFitnessPal, Free
• Food and exercise Logging as well as macronutrient tallies by, meal, day, and week. You can also customize these tallies as you progress with your goals, and share your Diary with friends
• Creating Your Own Foods, Meals, Recipes and workouts
• Sync data from Partner Apps
• Enjoy In-App Plans
• Track progress by logging weight and measurements, as well as printing a report
• Features of MyFitnessPal, Premium 

When you upgrade to Premium membership, you still have access to everything you had in the free app, but can also enjoy: 

• An ad-free experience
• Deeper and more detailed food Analysis
• Customizable goal setting by day  and calorie goals by meal and exercise calorie settings
• More options and more specialization in the In-App Plans
• Recipe Discovery and a huge selection of fun and effective workout routines 
• Unlimited Barcode Scanning and meal scanning
• Support for intermittent fasting

Is MyFitnessPal Worth It?

Absolutely. If you’re using the free app, the only thing that MyFitnessPal asks of you is your time logging food to eat and the exercise you do each day. You can use the free app as long as you wish. Upgrading to a Premium Plan is a consideration for most of us, since whether we opt for $19.99 a month or $79.99 per year, we’re spending money as well as time with MyFitnessPal. 

Ultimately, this is money well spent. However, consider that the Premium plan gives you a system for keeping track of your calories, macros, exercise and more, as well as connects you with an incredibly versatile support system– not to mention access to educational content that empowers you to make better decisions about what you’re eating. If you’re serious about losing weight and keeping it off, MyFitnessPal is worth every penny.

FAQs: 

Do I need to count calories?

This is not necessarily a yes or no question. Certainly, if you eat fewer calories than you need for your basic body maintenance, or burn those extra calories through physical activity, science shows that you’ll lose weight. But science also shows that for some of us, keeping track of food and calorie intake can be helpful in promoting weight loss. This is where MyFitnessPal comes in. By starting with a program that keeps you accountable in terms of logging the food you eat, you’re making a commitment to reaching your personal goals.

In the long run, you may no longer need to count calories once you become more educated about your own food choices. You may eventually wish to track calories as well as macros, or you may end up focusing on macro and micronutrients. The highly customizable nature of the MyFitnessPal app means you can always adjust your goals to focus on different aspects of your diet, nutrition, and fitness. 

Will I need to use MyFitnessPal forever?

It depends. MyFitnessPal has been around since 2005, and some users who signed up then are still using the app now. Does that mean you have to do the same? It’s totally up to you. Some users enjoy the benefits, convenience, and community the app offers too much to let it go. You may enjoy the knowledge and insight you get by logging your daily meals enough to keep logging them indefinitely. But MyFitnessPal is designed to put you in the driver’s seat, which means that once you recognize your patterns and understand how food and exercise affect you, you may no longer need the app at all. 

Which apps can MFP connect to?

MyFitnessPal’s seamless integration with health and exercise apps and devices is among the most impressive in the industry, and allows users to connect with over 40 third-party partners. Your personal data from Fitbit, Wahoo, FitStar, Apple Health and Google Fit will appear along with the information already in your personal diary, making it easy to keep track of your progress. For a complete list of supported apps, check out this list. 

How accurate is MyFitnessPal?

Studies show that MyFitnessPal is one of the more accurate platforms for counting calories, as well as tracking micronutrients, as compared to other platforms. 

One of the best calorie counter apps: MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal is one of your best options if you’re looking for more than just a calorie counter. Even with just the free version of the MyFitnessPal app, you have access to a comprehensive system for tracking and managing weight, fitness, and personal health goals. The interface is highly-rated among users for its convenience and for the benefits of its 19 million plus global food database, MyFitnessPal pairs seamlessly with your favorite health and fitness apps and devices. And with a barcode scanner, workouts, recipes, community, and more, MyFitnessPal Premium offers support for your personal goals– for less than you’d pay for an hour with a dietician or nutritionist.  Plus, the customizable quality of the app is the perfect partner for today’s goals- and once you achieve those, for your future goals, as well.