Best combination food/exercise log app?

March 27, 2013 9:26 AM

iPhone user; I've experimented with exercise logging apps such as MapMyRide+, Cyclemeter and Fitocracy (most of my exercise is cycling-oriented, but I'm also looking at Kinect exercise games and, potentially, weightlifting). Is there a good combo app that logs both exercise and food intake? Or one site that could possibly accept input/imports from both?

Pluses include:

- Suggested calorie counts for relatively common prepared foods (e.g. pizza) so that I don't have to depend on stuff with nutrition labels

- iOS, although I do have an Android 7" tablet

- Either free or one-time fee; would look at subscription services if they're really good

posted by Halloween Jack to Health & Fitness (16 answers total)

MyFitnessPal does this.
posted by something something at 9:28 AM on March 27, 2013

I use LoseIt for this.
posted by ralan at 9:32 AM on March 27, 2013

I love, love, love LoseIt.
posted by julthumbscrew at 9:32 AM on March 27, 2013

As something something said, MyFitnessPal does this, if what you want is tracking calories in and out. It doesn't do GPS tracking and logging like the MapMyRide app does.

I use TrainingPeaks and Strava to track and analyze my cycling and running, using data from a GPS unit. I use MyFitnessPal to track my food intake and caloric expenditure from exercising. I don't really see an advantage to having one tool that does both. TrainingPeaks can track meals, and it has a database of USDA nutritional values as well as a wide range of packaged foods, but I find that the Flash-based interface is awkward enough that I prefer to use MyFitnessPal.
posted by brianogilvie at 9:35 AM on March 27, 2013

MyFitnessPal integrates with Endomondo, so you could use Endomondo to track your workouts with GPS and they would automatically push to MFP.
posted by payoto at 9:40 AM on March 27, 2013

MyFitnessPal is excellent and free. It syncs the data automatically between all your devices and the web site.
posted by w0mbat at 9:53 AM on March 27, 2013

Nthing myfitnesspal if it's just intake/calories burned. I've lost 30lb since January using it and it hasn't even been that painful.
posted by MuffinMan at 10:00 AM on March 27, 2013

I'm currently liking the Sparkpeople app for fitness/food logging. They also have a companion recipe app that has tons of healthy eats.
posted by poolsidemuse at 10:17 AM on March 27, 2013

I just started using MyFitnessPal after seeing it featured on CoolTools, of all things.

It's great.

One thing about cardio -- it tracks based on elapsed time rather than distance, so if you're tracking weekly mileage or the like, it's probably not the app for you.
posted by Sara C. at 11:10 AM on March 27, 2013

I also like LoseIt. It integrates with a bunch of other apps/tools for exercise so they will automatically post, but you can add other exercise in too.
posted by bedhead at 11:15 AM on March 27, 2013

Fitbit. You don't need the pedometer device to use it, though it's more robust that way, but it has all the features you want, and the iOS app is really good.

It's free. There's a paid version that gives you more reports and such, but that's really optional.
posted by pixiecrinkle at 12:26 PM on March 27, 2013

I lost over 90+lbs using MyFitnessPal. Amazing app and website also. Super easy to use, and has a bar code scanner too.
posted by AbsolutelyHonest at 1:21 PM on March 27, 2013

I really like my fitness pal over the other ones I've used because it gives a countdown of calories you have left to eat that day instead of just how many calories you've eaten. It also adjusts how many calories you have left based on your logged exercise or automatically if you have a fitbit (and I think several other similar devices). I feel like between getting the fitbit and using it everyday I've been far more consistently active and have lost weight as a result.

Also, if you are so inclined, you can add friends and allow them to see what you eat. This is totally optional but sometimes a little peer pressure accountability is a good thing.
posted by whoaali at 2:14 PM on March 27, 2013

Thanks for the suggestions, all. MyFitnessPal and LoseIt seem like the ones to take a closer look at.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:32 PM on March 27, 2013

One advantage of MyFitnessPal, for people who do most of their own cooking and seldom eat prepared food, is that you can create and save recipes, pulling ingredients from their food database, and get an accurate per-serving calorie count. Then you can just plug those into your food diary for the day the same as you would anything else.
posted by Kat Allison at 3:22 PM on March 27, 2013

Follow-up: I've been using MyFitnessPal. Some of the synchronization with the other apps is occasionally a little wonky (it sometimes seems to give me either too much exercise credit, or too little), but I'm pretty happy overall. And the barcode scanner for prepackaged foods is pretty spiffy.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:11 PM on April 26, 2013