App Review: Calorie Counter
I am perpetually on a diet and trying new methods to find calorie counts and what foods are the healthy choices when dining out.
Calorie Counter (free in the Market) is a heaven-sent calorie counting, diet saving app!
Some of its features include:
- A food quick pick to get calorie and nutrition information
- A barcode scanner for nutrition labels
- A food diary to plan and keep track of what you’re eating
- An exercise diary to record all the calories you burn
- A weight chart
- A journal to record your progress
As evidenced in the screenshot, you can get calorie counts for chain restaurants as well as popular food brands at the supermarket. My favorite feature is the estimated Weight Watchers points for each item. While you can’t keep track of points inside of the program, this is a handy feature.
Once you’ve selected an item from a chain, you can also use your phone’s GPS to find the closest restaurant location, so you can get your fix.
“My Counter” keeps track of the food you eat, exercise, diet and weight. You can even sync your account to FatSecret.com in case you need to back up your phone for a hard reset.
My only complaint is that you can only use Calorie Counter with an internet connection, but for most of the people using this app, that is not a problem.
I give Calorie Counter 5 stars out of 5 for its breadth of information and ease of use. The user interface is uncluttered and provides enough information to help you become a well-informed consumer of food, whether it is pre-prepared or you’re cooking at home.
Download “Calorie Counter” in the Market
Try it out and let us know in the comments what you think of Calorie Counter. Is it helpful for your dieting needs or do you use another app?
I have been using this app, and I think it’s really helpful in particular if you are as clueless about appropriate serving sizes as I am. My only criticism would be that it gets a little laborious if you don’t eat a lot of processed foods. I make most of our meals from scratch and so I have to enter every ingredient separately to get an accurate count. I like the fact that I can enter all of my activities and even get credit for housework/yardwork if I don’t make it to the gym that day.
That is one downside of the app. I do like how it helps you make better choices when eating out.
Ellie this write up is awesome, and sooo useful! Like you, I am on the perpetual diet (or as WW call is, the lifestyle change) and have been a little disappointed at the app offerings out there thus far.
I can’t wait to try this out, especially on the road!
Wow, this is a great app. Not sure how I missed it. Years ago, I had something similar to this for my PDA, but this is just fantastic. Thanks for the review.
You’re welcome!
Bikini season is here and I’m in a panic. Like everyone, I start a diet…then stop, start…then stop, start…then give-up. But now? Enter Calorie Counter to the rescue! I’m a fan of the app, too.
What I like best? As you point out Ellie, the app not only tracks calories but also includes an exercise diary, diet calendar and weight tracker. So at the end of the day, you get a great summary of what’s gone in (calories and nutrients) and what’s gone out (exercise, etc.). The details are amazing.
Foods are easy to find, too. Since I’m still building up my diary, I use the categories Popular Brands (i.e., to look up one of Kellogg’s cereals, for example) and Supermarket Brands (i.e., I shop lots at Shop-Rite) to look up my food. Once you find an item, all you do is enter its serving size and tah-dah!, the nutrition info (calories, total fat, total carbs, protein, etc) is calculated instantly.
While some may think the info’s too detailed, I believe this is what makes the app so great. After seeing 40 minutes on the exercise bike works off only 373 calories, do you think you’re going to feel good wiping out 260 of those with one teeny cup of Breyer’s Mud Pie ice cream? Probably not.
Glad to see another dieter give it the thumbs up!
It is a great app that makes it easier to keep track of our diets without feeling like it’s a huge chore. Calorie Counter is an awesome app!