What's the current best-in-class calorie-tracking website?

February 3, 2011 6:05 AM

What's the current best-in-class calorie-tracking website?

I've been using DailyPlate (now owned by Livestrong/Demand Media) for a couple of years, and I'm looking to jump ship. I'm looking for great UI, a huge database of foods (especially stuff from Trader Joe's, where I tend to shop most frequently), and the ability to create meals/recipes/combinations or similar. Ability to track exercise and weight would be nice, too, and an iPhone app would be delicious, but calorie-free, gravy on top. I really don't care about any social features.

I've looked at past AskMeFi questions, but none were too current. From those recommendations, though, I checked out Lose It!, but its food database wasn't so hot, and Daily Burn, which had way too much beyond the core calorie-tracking function. I don't want or need training plans, I just want numbers. Unfortunately, it sounds like I want DailyPlate but with better UI and not owned by Demand Media. Does such a thing exist out there?

posted by The Michael The to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (16 answers total)

I like SparkPeople pretty well. It's sort of obnoxious taken at face value, because there's a lot of emphasis on joining groups and exercise plans and meal plans and all that over-involved stuff. I'm not interested in any of that, though, so I just use it for the calorie tracking. It tracks calories, protein, carbs, and fat. Their own internal database is so-so, but there's a huuuuuge community-submitted database, from which I've yet to be able to find anything missing.
posted by Rallon at 6:30 AM on February 3, 2011 [2 favorites]

Another SparkPeople user here. I've found it pretty easy to ignore the "join this!" stuff, and have found both their internal and user-submitted databases pretty complete (and accurate). It's also really easy to add something yourself if you don't find it. And their iOS app is damn nice.
posted by rtha at 6:42 AM on February 3, 2011

Best answer: SparkPeople is all right, but lately I've really been into My Fitness Pal. Huge database of foods, not obnoxious, doesn't send me email 89273498379 times a week, and I can be as social or antisocial as I want.
posted by scarykarrey at 6:56 AM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Seconding Myfitnesspal. It's got an android app that syncs and every time I've searched a Trader Joe's food, it's in there. Also, the android app has a bar code reader. Very handy. Love it.
posted by Sophie1 at 7:00 AM on February 3, 2011

I haven't checked out My Fitness Pal (and will now), but I've been using FatSecret for a few months now. Very good database, good interface, can set up meals, iPhone app. You can use your phone's camera to scan bar codes, which is pretty cool too.

On preview, I see MFP has the bar code reader too. Sounds like they're pretty similar.
posted by The Dutchman at 7:32 AM on February 3, 2011

I don't know about the creating meals part, but I've been happy with MyNetDiary for a while now. It does have an iphone app and iirc all the Trader Joe's foods I've looked for have been in there.

Every once in a while it goes a little wonky and won't accept input; this seems to right itself after a few minutes.
posted by lakeroon at 7:40 AM on February 3, 2011

fit-day.com. It's simple and free.Lets you add customized foods you often eat and has graphs representing nutritional breakdown, so if your doing low fat or low carb, it's easy to track.
posted by venbear3 at 7:46 AM on February 3, 2011

My FitnessPal and Sparkpeople seem to be the two big ones. Almost everyone I talk to who does calorie tracking has settled on one or the other site.
posted by BZArcher at 8:24 AM on February 3, 2011

Best answer: Another vote for myfitnesspal here. Warning: can be addictive
posted by jclovebrew at 8:42 AM on February 3, 2011

Thanks for asking this, I was planning on asking almost the same question, and thanks for the folks recommending Myfitnesspal. Just signed up and installed the app on my Droid and I'm pretty impressed. I had been using FatSecret but the app kind of sucks for logging food that it doesn't already know about. I like that you can just add an arbitrary food with a number of calories without a lot of overhead.
posted by octothorpe at 8:55 AM on February 3, 2011

I've had great luck with SparkPeople, particularly its iphone app.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 9:00 AM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

Loseit. I absolutely love it. Web app is easy to use, iphone app is easy to use and it doesn't feel pushy like sparkpeople.
posted by yfatah at 9:28 AM on February 3, 2011

I've been using FatSecret for about 6 months with no problems. Things I like about it: Good mobile app, can set nutrient tracker to show Net Carbs instead of Total Carbs; has a iGoogle widget so I can make quick updates from my home page; large database of foods; easy to use.

What I wish it could do: Better reporting. Would love to be able to view full nutritional data so I could track vitamin and other nutrient intake, instead of just Cal/ Fat/ Prot/ Carb.
posted by platinum at 12:20 PM on February 3, 2011

This is antiquated, but I actually like LifeForm which is a calorie counting Windows application. I find it easier to type in information than with a web app, and it gives much more detailed stats and graphs.
posted by earlsofsandwich at 1:31 PM on February 3, 2011

Response by poster: I've been using MyFitnessPal for the past three weeks and it's very much what I wanted. Thanks, everyone!
posted by The Michael The at 1:50 PM on February 27, 2011

I'm chiming in, ages later, with a cautionary datapoint about FatSecret - they aren't so secret with your data. I made the mistake (or not, as it turns out) of signing up with my public persona screen name. I also run a google alert on my name, to see if anyone has mentioned me or my services online. Well... I received an alert that FatSecret had published my food log! So, it's really FatNotSoSecret. Great database of foods (especially of Trader Joe's foods) but having them leak/disclose my DIET info was NOT what I expected, especially for a site that says "secret" right there in the name. So, use at your own risk.
posted by jcdill at 12:35 AM on December 6, 2011