#1 · Best overall for weight loss
PlateLens
PlateLens is built around a simple idea: you should never have to choose between a fast way to log and accurate numbers. Behind four ways of logging (camera, barcode, keyboard and voice) is a catalogue the company describes as verified, with more than 1.2 million foods, supermarket products and restaurant dishes among them. Photograph a pasta dish and every component and portion it proposes can be corrected before it is saved.
For weight loss specifically, two features matter. On day one your profile produces a calorie goal, and from then on adaptive TDEE compares your intake with your weight curve and nudges that goal, so a stall caused by an over-generous formula fixes itself. And the weight chart shows a trend line rather than a list of weigh-ins, which keeps a salty Sunday from ruining your Monday. For the bigger picture there is a 3D Body Scan that measures your waist, hips and chest from 12 phone photos, a meal planner that writes your grocery list, alcohol tracking, a blood glucose log, and an Apple Watch app on the same account.
Free use never lapses. It covers as many scans and searches as you like, three photographed meals each day, a fasting clock and the browser version. Upgrading ($34.99 yearly or $9.99 monthly) takes away the photo limit.
#2 · Best for a nervous first try
Lose It!
Lose It! takes your target weight and preferred pace and hands back a single daily limit. Screens are cheerful and spare, and challenges plus meal plans help newcomers keep going. You can scan packets or try Snap It on a plate. Foods show fewer nutrients than in the leading apps, and much of the analysis is reserved for Premium ($39.99 a year, per the App Store).
Full review → #3 · Best for eating well on fewer calories
Cronometer
A smaller diet leaves less room for fibre, iron and calcium, and Cronometer is built to show where you are short. Its food records, which the company calls lab-analysed, cover as many as 95 nutrients and compounds. Scanning costs nothing if you accept ads, while photo and voice entry and the Crono Coach assistant need Gold ($59.99 for twelve months, $10.99 for one). Expect a more painstaking routine than with a camera-first app.
Full review → #4 · Best when habits are the real problem
Noom
Noom is a paid program rather than a tracker: daily lessons based on behaviour-change principles, a green, yellow and orange system that teaches calorie density, and coaching. There is a trial; pricing depends on plan length, so check Noom for current terms. As a pure calorie log it is less flexible than the apps above.
Full review → #5 · Best paid coach for lifters
MacroFactor
MacroFactor reads your food entries and scale readings, decides how much you really burn and resets your calorie and macro goals weekly, a good fit for a long, planned cut. You pay from day one (a year is $71.99, half a year $47.99, a month $11.99), it is phone-only, and it needs a few weeks of consistent entries before its estimates settle down.
Full review → #6 · Best for frequent restaurant meals
MyFitnessPal
When chain restaurants are a regular part of your week, MyFitnessPal's catalogue recognises more of your orders than any other. Because members write the entries, the same dish often appears with clashing numbers. Scanning, Meal Scan and voice entry come with Premium: $79.99 for a year or $19.99 for a month.
Full review → 