Have you ever daydreamed about having a dietitian on call to help you navigate the confounding labyrinth of nutritional tenets like: “healthy eating,” “dieting,” “weight loss,” and “meal tracking”? What’s more, have you ever fantasized that this illustrious nutrition guru would offer you their expertise for free?
For most, having an esteemed dietitian at their beck and call is just that—a daydream. However, what isn’t a daydream, is the convenient and economical alternative of having a preferred digital dietary resource available to you 24 hours a day. Whether you enjoy snapping photos of your food or logging your calorie consumption the old-fashioned way with pen and paper, food journaling apps are an efficient modern method of tracking your food intake throughout the day.
- Personalize & build your 1st meal plan. You can easily make changes later. 1 Pick your menu.
- The Keto Diet Meal Plan app is available for free through iTunes. Perhaps dieting, exercise, and better nutrition are not the only concerns you have about keeping close tabs on how much you eat. Body image is also a fundamental concern of those seeking to improve their health. Rise Up is an app designed with eating disorder sufferers.
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This recipe app, from the makers of the film Forks Over Knives, can help you get started. With this app, you can discover 400 meals from more than 50 celebrated chefs, with new recipes added each. MealTime Apply Online is a secure and convenient way to apply for free and reduced meals benefits from the privacy of your home. You'll know your application was submitted completely and accurately, and your school will be able to make a determination of eligibility without delay.
With so many food journaling apps to choose from, it may be difficult to narrow down the app that suits your lifestyle, personality, and nutritional goals. While modes of dieting often vary, the aims are virtually unchangeable: feel better, look better, and lose weight. Whatever your personal nutritional goals are, rest assured that there is an app to help make those goals achievable.
Here is the skinny on the best food journaling apps for your individual weight loss or overall nutritional improvement goals:
MyFitnessPal
This app is one of the most sought-after apps in the food diary game. The MyFitnessPal app boasts a food database comprising over two million items. Indicate your current weight, what your target weight is, height, age, activity level, exercise regimen, and how many pounds you would like to shed per week, and the MyFitnessPal app will assist you with staying on track toward your target weight loss goal. In addition to logging what you eat and what you’ve had to drink throughout the day, this app tracks your fitness regimen and provides support and motivation from fellow users. The MyFitnessPal app is available for free through iTunes and Google Play.
Fitocracy Macros
Macros is shorthand for macronutrients—specifically the nutrients that your body needs in copious amounts (hence the term “macro”). Carbohydrates, fat, and protein are the holy trinity of the macro diet. So, whether your journaling focus is on carbs, fat, or protein this app will tell you how much of each nutrient you need. The Macro Coach feature will also scan barcodes on food packages to find the nutrition facts of your favorite foods for you. The Fitocracy Macros app is available for free through iTunes.
Keto Diet Meal Plan
Weight loss is not the only reason the high-fat, low carb ketogenic diet is touted as a diet actually worth its weight in results (no pun intended)—research also suggests that the ketogenic diet may be an effective regulation tool for improving your mental health by decreasing symptoms of depression, anxiety, and ADHD. The Keto Diet Meal Plan app provides you with meal plans within your carb limits. An expedient and convenient feature of this app takes care of the tedious carb-counting work of traditional dieting for you. The Keto Diet Meal Plan app is available for free through iTunes.
Rise Up
Perhaps dieting, exercise, and better nutrition are not the only concerns you have about keeping close tabs on how much you eat. Body image is also a fundamental concern of those seeking to improve their health. Rise Up is an app designed with eating disorder sufferers in mind. Its basic principles of self-monitoring are derived from tenets of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). In addition to logging your meals, you can add distinct details like: the location of where you ate, whom you were with, and your mood at the time you ate. The Rise Up app is available for free through iTunes and Google Play.
Yazio
Whether your desire is to lose weight, acquire more muscle, or to just feel healthier, this app caters to the versatility of the average individual’s weight loss goals. Utilize this app to track your daily activities and manage your food diary. A built-in bar code scanner enables you to efficiently search for the food you want to include in your log. The Yazio app is available for free through iTunes and Google Play.
See How You Eat
The rise of social media colossuses like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook has taught us two basic truths: (a) selfies are an indelible feature of the modern digital landscape and (b) as a runner-up to taking pictures of themselves, people love snapping and sharing photos of food. The See How You Eat app was designed with visual learners in mind. Using this app, you can see at a glance all of the food you have consumed that day. Visual reminders of what you’ve had to eat on a given day create a compelling argument for making healthier choices. This app promotes healthy eating at regular intervals to boost energy and abate impulsive food choices that can wreak havoc on your longterm nutritional goals. The See How You Eat app is available for free through iTunes and Google Play.
MyPlate
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In addition to an online food diary, this app promotes a comprehensive database of 625,000 foods and 1,500 fitnessrelated items that enable users to monitor their daily calorie consumption as well as how many calories they burn. Calories can be tracked over a specified period and delineations of how those calories were acquired or burned are also provided. The MyPlate app is available for free through iTunes.
YouAte
This app takes the tedium, guilt, and ambiguity out of classic food journaling. YouAte encourages users to steer their focus away from traditional carb counting and calorie emphasis by simply taking a closer look at the food choices they are making.
Maintaining a food journal on this app is as convenient as snapping a photo of everything you munch on throughout the day. Reviewing snapshots of the food they eat motivates users to consistently evaluate whether the choices they’re making are really helping them to achieve their goals. The YouAte app is available for free through iTunes.
Pukapal
The Pukapal app is an imaginative and interactive spin on the traditional food diary app. Users of this app “feed their puka” by documenting and sharing their meals and by liking their favorite dishes. Pukapal allows users to upload photos of their food to their timeline, add captions, and earn rewards by sharing and inviting friends to join. This collaborative app also offers weekly timeline suggestions to motivate and inspire users to continue tracking their culinary adventures. The Pukapal app is available for free through iTunes.
My Food Diary
This app takes a holistic approach to helping you achieve your weight loss goal. My Food Diary features seven different methods for logging meals and a vast database of 80,000 expertly complied food items. If you wish to share your account with a spouse, friend, or significant other you can also log recipes that you and your companion commonly make. My Food Diary provides color-coded nutrition reports daily and you can even assemble your own graphs using personally selected data. The My Food Diary is available for free to members of the MyFoodDiary website.
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So, whether you are a snap-and-post food journal enthusiast or more of the meticulous and traditional recordkeeper variety—maintaining a log of what you eat just got easier, more convenient, more modern, and more fun with the creation of these vastly popular food tracking apps. Nutritional goals may vary from person to person, but rates of achieving long-term success can grow exponentially when you have resources and collaborative feedback at your fingertips.
Many people wing it when it comes to planning out a week’s worth of meals, hoping that a grocery haul full of healthy products will be enough to get by. But if you’ve ever found yourself throwing out expired produce or meats (and then promptly ordering takeout for dinner), it’s time to relook at those grocery shopping habits. Eating only from your well-intentioned shop is harder than it may seem.
All it really takes, though, is a bit of thoughtful meal planning. By merely outlining your meal strategy, healthy choices — and thus, healthy weeks — become no-brainers. Bonus? Knowing what and when you’re going to eat will streamline your grocery shopping and save you money. (Cha-ching!)
RELATED:How to Eat Healthy for Less Than $4 a Day
To get started on your clean-eating adventure, try one of these five apps, which make meal planning a total cinch. Whether you need help actually creating a well-rounded grocery list or are looking to expand your recipe repertoire, read on for the best meal planning apps around. Success is officially in sight — after a few taps and swipes on your smartphone, of course.
5 Meal Planning Apps to Save You Time and Money
1. MealPlan Meal and Grocery Planner
Best for: First-time planners
Thanks to an easy-to-navigate interface where you drag and drop recipes (or keywords like “burgers” and “salad”) into a home screen organized by meal, this app is great for disorganized dieters who need a simple way to map out their weekly diet, sans all the crazy bells and whistles. Once completed, you can email or print out the generated grocery list (sorted by aisle — so helpful). ($4; iOS)
Best for: First-time planners
Thanks to an easy-to-navigate interface where you drag and drop recipes (or keywords like “burgers” and “salad”) into a home screen organized by meal, this app is great for disorganized dieters who need a simple way to map out their weekly diet, sans all the crazy bells and whistles. Once completed, you can email or print out the generated grocery list (sorted by aisle — so helpful). ($4; iOS)
2. Yummly
Best for: Recipe finders
With over one million drool-worthy recipes in its database, Yummly is the ultimate resource for casual chefs looking to whip up some fresh ideas. Filter app searches by prep time, nutrition or type of cuisine, then save favorites to your “Yums,” a virtual recipe box. After you choose the meals you’ll be making, the app curates all the ingredients to a grocery list, which can be exported to Instacart, a smartphone-based, grocery-delivery service. (Free, iOS, Android)
Best for: Recipe finders
With over one million drool-worthy recipes in its database, Yummly is the ultimate resource for casual chefs looking to whip up some fresh ideas. Filter app searches by prep time, nutrition or type of cuisine, then save favorites to your “Yums,” a virtual recipe box. After you choose the meals you’ll be making, the app curates all the ingredients to a grocery list, which can be exported to Instacart, a smartphone-based, grocery-delivery service. (Free, iOS, Android)
RELATED: The 7 Best Cookbooks to Get You Cooking This Fall
3. AnyList
Best for: Busy families
Need to pull the groceries together, but don’t have the time — or everyone in the same place at the same time to figure out wants and needs? Meet AnyList, which allows multiple users to add items to a singular shopping list, either manually or with the help of our girl Siri. (After all, your wish is her command.) Any changes made will sync to everyone’s devices, so the entire brood is on the same page when it comes to how many zucchinis you’ll need to make zoodles. Splurge for a premium account and you’ll be able to assign shopping list items to different stores, plus create location-based reminders so you’ll never forget to pick up more chia seeds next time you pass by Trader Joe’s. (Free or $8 for Premium; iOS)
Best for: Busy families
Need to pull the groceries together, but don’t have the time — or everyone in the same place at the same time to figure out wants and needs? Meet AnyList, which allows multiple users to add items to a singular shopping list, either manually or with the help of our girl Siri. (After all, your wish is her command.) Any changes made will sync to everyone’s devices, so the entire brood is on the same page when it comes to how many zucchinis you’ll need to make zoodles. Splurge for a premium account and you’ll be able to assign shopping list items to different stores, plus create location-based reminders so you’ll never forget to pick up more chia seeds next time you pass by Trader Joe’s. (Free or $8 for Premium; iOS)
4. Pepper Plate
Best for: Multi-course masters
Hosts with the most, this one’s for you. This course-minded app has a built-in timer on iPad, which can help you make multiple dishes at once. (So you won’t have to slave in the kitchen for the entirety of an afternoon!) Input recipes you’ve curated from the web or manually enter your own creations and Pepper Plate will generate a grocery list to make shopping a breeze, too. (Free; iOS, Android)
Best for: Multi-course masters
Hosts with the most, this one’s for you. This course-minded app has a built-in timer on iPad, which can help you make multiple dishes at once. (So you won’t have to slave in the kitchen for the entirety of an afternoon!) Input recipes you’ve curated from the web or manually enter your own creations and Pepper Plate will generate a grocery list to make shopping a breeze, too. (Free; iOS, Android)
RELATED: 5 Tips for Setting a Totally Doable Weight Loss Goal
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5. Mealboard
Best for: Budget-Minded Foodies
Want to spend less money every month on your grocery bill? We feel that — and now know that it is possible to eat clean on a small budget. With Mealboard, you can whip your diet and your finances into shape together. (And what’s better than a bit of multi-tasking?) Tap to add recipes from your favorite blogs and sites (Life by DailyBurn, anyone?) into the weekly calendar and then literally drag and drop specific recipes to the days that you’ll be eating ‘em. The app will aggregate a grocery list that also shows you the price of ingredients if you shop at one of the stores utilized in the app. ($4; iOS)
Best for: Budget-Minded Foodies
Want to spend less money every month on your grocery bill? We feel that — and now know that it is possible to eat clean on a small budget. With Mealboard, you can whip your diet and your finances into shape together. (And what’s better than a bit of multi-tasking?) Tap to add recipes from your favorite blogs and sites (Life by DailyBurn, anyone?) into the weekly calendar and then literally drag and drop specific recipes to the days that you’ll be eating ‘em. The app will aggregate a grocery list that also shows you the price of ingredients if you shop at one of the stores utilized in the app. ($4; iOS)
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Originally posted September 2015. Updated April 2016.