Best App for Tracking Food Intake and Exercise [2024]

app banner image
Do you want to lose weight quickly and easily?
Take 1-minute quiz

Introduction

Trying to lose weight or stick to a diet can be tough. We all know it’s important to watch what we eat and stay active, but keeping track of everything can be a real headache. That’s where a food intake app comes in handy. These clever little tools help you keep an eye on your calorie intake and exercise, making your weight loss journey a whole lot easier.

You might be wondering, “What’s the best app to track my calories?” Well, you’re in luck! There are plenty of great apps that track nutrition and help you stay on top of your diet. Whether you’re looking for a simple calorie intake app or a more detailed food intake app, there’s something out there for everyone. 

These apps make it easy to log your meals, snacks, and workouts, so you can see how you’re doing at a glance. No more guessing or trying to remember what you ate yesterday – it’s all right there on your phone! In the next sections, we’ll take a closer look at some of the best food intake apps and help you find the perfect one to keep track of calorie intake.

What is a Food Intake and Exercise Tracking App?

As simple as that

A food intake and exercise tracking app is like a helpful friend on your phone. It’s a tool that lets you easily record what you eat and how much you move throughout the day. Think of it as a digital food diary and exercise log all in one place.

These apps help you keep an eye on your calorie intake. This is important because to lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than your body uses.

This is called a calorie deficit (you can read more about it here: what is a calorie deficit).

The best food intake apps make it easy to see if you’re hitting this target each day.

How these apps help with weight loss and dieting

Keeping You Focused

With so many diet trends out there, it’s easy to get confused. Should you cut carbs? Go vegan? Try intermittent fasting? A good calorie tracking app brings you back to the basics. It reminds you that at its core, weight loss is about calories in versus calories out. By focusing on this simple principle, you’re less likely to get sidetracked by the latest fad diet.

Everything in One Place

Gone are the days of scribbling in food diaries or trying to remember how many minutes you spent on the treadmill. The best food intake apps put all this information at your fingertips. You can see your meals, snacks, water intake, and workouts all on one screen. It’s like having a personal assistant for your health goals!

Your Daily Companion

A food intake app becomes your trusty sidekick on your weight loss journey. It’s always there, right on your phone, ready to help you log your meals and workouts. Imagine having a friend who’s available 24/7 to cheer you on and keep you accountable. That’s what these apps do!

Forming Good Habits

Using a calorie intake app helps you build healthy habits. When you start logging your food and exercise every day, it becomes second nature. Soon, you’ll find yourself thinking about what you eat before you even open the app. It’s like training your brain to make healthier choices without even trying!

Seeing Your Progress

There’s nothing more motivating than seeing how far you’ve come. Most apps that track nutrition show your progress over time. You might see a graph of your weight going down or a chart showing how your eating habits have improved. These visual cues can be incredibly encouraging on days when you’re feeling stuck.

Learning About Your Diet

As you use your food intake app, you’ll start to learn more about the foods you eat. You might be surprised to find out that your favorite “healthy” granola bar is actually packed with sugar. Or you might discover that you can eat a bigger portion of grilled chicken than you thought for the same number of calories as a small piece of fried chicken. This knowledge is power – it helps you make smarter food choices even when you’re not using the app.

How these apps help with weight loss and dieting: Habit formation, reinforcement, daily companion, comfort of having everything in one place (helps from getting distracted), it focuses you attention on the most important core approach to weight loss and return back your attention if you ever get distracted by new trendy yet questionable weight loss tricks. It shows how you progress and lets you contemplate on periods where you might’ve done better or on the contrary let yourself loose.

What Should the Best App for Tracking Food Intake and Exercise Do for You?

Correctly Calculate Your Calorie Deficit

The best food intake app should start by helping you figure out how many calories you need to eat to lose weight. This is called your calorie deficit. It’s based on things like your age, height, weight, and how active you are. A good app will ask you these questions and then tell you how many calories to aim for each day. This takes the guesswork out of dieting. (Want to know your calorie deficit? Use our calorie deficit calculator here.)

Record Your Meals and Snacks

Keeping track of what you eat is a big part of losing weight. The best app to track calories should make this easy. You should be able to quickly add foods to your daily log. Many apps have a big database of foods, so you can just search for what you ate and add it with a tap. Some even let you scan barcodes on food packages. This makes it simple to log your breakfast, lunch, dinner, and any snacks in between.

Track Your Exercise

Moving more helps you lose weight faster. That’s why the best food intake apps also track your exercise. You should be able to log your workouts, whether it’s a walk around the block or an hour at the gym. The app should show you how many calories you burned. This is great because it means you might be able to eat a little more on days when you exercise a lot.

Show Your Progress

Seeing how far you’ve come can really keep you motivated. Good apps that track nutrition will show your progress in easy-to-understand ways. You might see a graph of your weight going down over time. Or you could see how your eating habits have changed, like eating more veggies or less junk food. Some apps even give you badges or rewards when you reach goals. This can make losing weight feel more like a fun game.

Offer Helpful Tips and Encouragement

The best app for tracking food intake and exercise should be like a knowledgeable friend. It should give you tips to help you reach your goals. For example, it might suggest healthier swaps for your favorite foods. Or it could remind you to drink more water. Some apps even send encouraging messages when you’re doing well or need a boost. This extra support can make a big difference when you’re trying to lose weight.

Ease of Use: What’s an App for Tracking Food Intake and Exercise That’s Simple To Use

Important Trait Many Calorie Tracking Apps Lack: Ease of Use

When you’re trying to lose weight, the last thing you need is a complicated app that’s hard to figure out. Sadly, many calorie tracking apps fall short here. They might have lots of fancy features, but if you can’t easily use them, what’s the point? The best food intake app should be so simple that you can use it without even thinking. It should feel as easy as sending a text message or checking your email.

Features That Make an App Easy to Use

Quick Food Entry

Nobody wants to spend ages logging every bite they eat. A good calorie intake app should let you add foods fast. Here’s what to look for:

A big food database: The app should already know the calories in most foods you eat.

Recent foods list: It should remember what you eat often, so you can add it again quickly.

Barcode scanner: Just scan the package, and the app adds the food for you.

Meal recipes: Save your favorite meals so you can add them all at once next time.

Exercise Logging Made Simple

Tracking your workouts should be just as easy as logging your food. Look for these features:

Common activities list: The app should have most exercises ready to choose from.

Integration with fitness devices: If you use a fitness watch or step counter, the app should be able to get info from it automatically.

Quick-add option: For times when you just want to put in how many calories you burned without details.

Clear Progress Reports

Seeing how you’re doing should be clear and motivating. The best app to track calories will:

Show your daily calorie goal and how close you are to it.

Have easy-to-read graphs of your weight over time.

Give you a clear picture of your eating habits, like how much protein, carbs, and fat you’re eating.

Celebrate your wins with badges or messages when you reach goals.

How Our App Fits Your Needs

Let’s talk about our app, Calibri. We made it with you in mind. It’s a food intake and exercise tracking app that’s easy to use, even if you’re not tech-savvy. We know you want to lose weight without all the fuss, so we’ve kept things simple and straightforward.

How Calibri Addresses Your Needs

Simplicity

We’ve made Calibri as easy to use as possible. You won’t find any complicated features or confusing menus here. Adding your meals is as simple as typing in what you ate or scanning a barcode. Logging your exercise is just as easy - a few taps and you’re done. Everything is laid out clearly, so you always know where to find what you need.

Motivation

Calibri keeps you motivated on your weight loss journey. Every time you open the app, you’ll see how close you are to your daily calorie goal. We also show your progress over time with easy-to-understand graphs. When you reach a milestone, like losing your first 5 pounds or logging your meals for a week straight, Calibri celebrates with you. These little boosts can make a big difference in keeping you on track.

Habit Formation

We know that lasting weight loss comes from building good habits. Calibri helps you do this by making it easy to log your food and exercise every day. Over time, using the app becomes second nature. You’ll find yourself thinking about your choices more, even when you’re not using the app. This is how real, lasting change happens.

How Calibri Compares to Other Apps

While there are many apps out there, Calibri stands out in a few key ways:

Easier to use: Some apps throw so many features at you that it gets overwhelming. We’ve focused on the essentials, making Calibri simpler to use.

More encouraging: Unlike apps that just show numbers, Calibri gives you friendly reminders and celebrates your progress.

Better for forming habits: We’ve designed Calibri to fit easily into your day, making it more likely you’ll stick with it long-term.

Clearer results: Some apps bury your progress in confusing charts. Calibri shows your results clearly, so you can see how well you’re doing at a glance.

Calibri brings together all the best features of a calorie intake app in one easy-to-use package. It’s designed for real people who want to lose weight without getting bogged down in complicated tech. With Calibri, you’ve got a simple, motivating tool to help you reach your weight loss goals.

How can I get it?

Calibri is here to help you reach your goals. It’s the simple, motivating tool you’ve been looking for to track your food intake and exercise. Why wait? Start today!

Getting Calibri on your phone is quick and easy.

It’s available for both iOS and Android. Get it using this link.

That’s it! You’re now ready to start tracking your food and exercise with Calibri. 

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Your first step is just a download away!

Sources:

  1. “The Effectiveness of Mobile Health Technology-Based Lifestyle Intervention on Weight Loss: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis” - JMIR mHealth and uHealth https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10482795/ 
  2. “Dietary Self-Monitoring and Long-Term Success with Weight Management” - Obesity https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24931055/ 
  3. “Habits in Healthy Nutrition” - Nutrients https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/15/3/731 
  4. “Self-Monitoring in Weight Loss: A Systematic Review of the Literature” - Journal of the American Dietetic Association https://www.jandonline.org/article/S0002-8223(10)01644-5/abstract 
  5. “Smartphone applications for encouraging healthy eating behaviour” - Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2054270419843826 
  6. “The Role of Self-Efficacy in Weight Loss” - Psychology Research and Behavior Management https://www.dovepress.com/body-self-perception-dietary-self-efficacy-and-body-mass-index-in-youn-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-IJGM 
  7. “Behavioral Treatment of Obesity” - Psychiatric Clinics of North America https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002916523295386 
  8. “Habit Formation and Behavior Change” - Annual Review of Psychology https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-psych-020821-011744 
  9. “The Impact of Technology on Weight Management: A Systematic Review” - Journal of Medical Internet Research https://mhealth.jmir.org/2020/3/e13461/ 
  10. “Calorie Counting and Fitness Tracking Technology: Associations with Eating Disorder Symptomatology” - Eating Behaviors https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1471015316303646 
  11. “The Use of Mobile Apps to Improve Nutrition Outcomes: A Systematic Literature Review” - Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1357633X15572203?icid=int.sj-abstract.citing-articles.43 
  12. “Habit Formation in the Real World: Evidence from a Field Experiment” - Journal of Marketing Research https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1745691621995752?icid=int.sj-abstract.citing-articles.23 
  13. “The Role of Mobile Health Technologies in Promoting Healthy Eating” - Frontiers in Psychology https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/digital-health/articles/10.3389/fdgth.2024.1282570/full 
  14. “Digital Health Interventions for Adults With Type 2 Diabetes: Qualitative Study of Patient Perspectives on Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support” - Journal of Medical Internet Research https://www.jmir.org/2018/2/e40/ 
  15. “A Review of Smartphone Applications for Promoting Physical Activity” - JMIR mHealth and uHealth https://mhealth.jmir.org/2021/7/e24308