The 7 Best Macro Calculator Apps (Free & Paid)

For decades, diet marketing has demonized calculating calories and macronutrient intakes.

Using opening hooks such as “Are you sick of counting calories?”, only to ironically prescribe you a fad diet (which didn’t work), with the phrase, “no more boring nutrition tracking!”

Admittedly, calculating macronutrients in the past would have been challenging, requiring just enough math for many to give up before they even begin.

Fortunately, technology has advanced, birthing thousands of nutrition apps with macronutrient calculating capabilities.

This not only made it more accessible to everyone, but it also gave midlife users the ability to maintain muscle, balance hormones, and maintain overall health through quality nutrition.

In this article, we share the best macronutrient calculator apps. Including why you should use them, the benefits, what to look for, pitfalls to avoid, and more.

Why Use a Macro Calculator App?

Macronutrient tracking is an effective practice that helps you track your nutrition and the composition of your food. However, calculating your macronutrient intake and tracking every food can be time-consuming, leading many to abandon the practice even before they begin.

The macro calculators streamline the process, not only helping you calculate your macronutrients, but also helping you track them.

Benefits Over Basic Calorie Counting

Tracking your calorie intake is undoubtedly a major component of an effective nutrition plan. However, while it does allow you to dictate and manipulate energy intake, it doesn’t dictate calorie composition.

Calculating and counting macronutrient intake ensures you’re meeting your daily carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fats. This helps to preserve muscle mass, provide lasting energy, support digestion, and hormone balance.

Unique Needs After 40

After 40, women experience major changes to their health. As the reproductive hormone estrogen declines, which research shows can bring on symptoms including:

• Hot flashes
• Night sweats
• Poor sleep
• Fatigue
• Mood changes
• Impaired cognitive function
• Decreased bone mass
• Decreased muscle mass
• Impaired digestive health
• Change of fat distribution
• Increased visceral fat
• Increase risk of chronic illness

Fortunately, nutrition can help alleviate the severity of these symptoms, helping to sustain energy levels, maintain a healthy weight, support digestive health, and preserve bone and muscle.

Key Features to Look For

There are thousands of nutrition apps on the market with macronutrient calculating capabilities on the market. However, as you’d suspect, not all are created equal. Below, we discuss the key feature to look for in effective macros tracking.

Accurate Food Database & Barcode Scanning

Beyond nutrition tracking, two major things that separate a good nutrition tracking app from a great nutrition tracking app are a great food database and barcode scanning.

Food databases on great apps can contain thousands, if not millions, of different foods, which makes logging foods, calories, and macronutrients effortless.

Meanwhile, barcode scanners come in handy for occasions when food isn’t listed, uploading nutritional information in an instant.

These functions directly remove a pain point of having to read your nutrition label, making tracking more sustainable.

Personalized Macro Calculators

While many offer the function of macronutrient tracking, not all are personalized. The best nutrition apps on the market are the ones that account for your height, weight, age, gender, and goals.

Whether it is for weight loss, weight gain, building muscle, or balancing hormones, calculating with the factors in mind provides an accurate calorie and macronutrient breakdown to achieve these goals. This provides you with greater control of your nutrition, allowing you to make major and minor adjustments to continue moving toward your goals.

Data Sync & Insights Over Time

When it comes to tracking training and nutrition, more data is better. Now, this doesn’t mean we want to overcomplicate things with dense numerical interfaces. But rather a selection of key metrics which you can reliably look back on to track your progress.

Great macro and calorie-tracking apps take your goals and provide recommendations and possible milestones for your training.

These functions have also become more advanced with functions such as smart devices, such as phones and watches, recording training data, and providing insights over time.

When it comes time to check in and review your progress, great apps will present this information, providing you with real data that represents your effort, hard work, and progress.

User-Friendly

All these functions we have listed are incredible; however, if they aren’t wrapped up in a concise and user-friendly package, they can be frustrating to use, which can make you want to opt out of using them.

As mentioned, having data is amazing for tracking progress; however, it must be clearly displayed. Great macro tracking apps understand this. They not only display the necessary information, but they also make it easy to find.

Here are some things to look for when browsing an app.

• Clearly Labelled Tab — Tabs such as profile, meals, tracking, and progress are accessible. When these are easily accessible, it allows you to jump on, log food, and check progress in just seconds, meaning less time on the app.

• Visible Profile or Progress — Visible profile and progress tabs keep your goals and progress front of mind. This keeps you mentally locked in with your goals.

• Accessibility — All major information is one or two clicks away. Poorly optimized apps can often have key components hidden behind multiple tabs, making them tiresome to use. When developers place key functions on a plain site or a single click away, it streamlines the process.

Top 7 Macro Calculator Apps in 2025

Here is a list of the 7 best macro calculating apps in 2025. Below, compare each app, listing their pros, cons, as well as highlighting key functions, and sharing user findings to help give you all the information you need to make an educated choice.

Reverse.Health – Best Free with Micronutrient Tracking

Price:

• No free version
• $15.19 per month
• $52.99 per year ($4.41)

Reverse Health is the best over-40s women's health app on the market. Combining both nutrition and exercise, this platform is dedicated to addressing the physiological challenges, including declining estrogen levels, perimenopause, menopause, and older adulthood.

Reverse Health believes so much in their product that they even offer a variety of macronutrient calculators online to help you achieve your goals. This, combined with a closed community group of over 86,000 members, makes it one of the best macro calculating apps.

MacroFactor – Best for Flexible Goals

Price

• No free version
• 7-day free trial
• $11.99 per month
• $71.99 per year ($5.99 per month)

Description

MacroFactor uses nutritional and behavioural science to help you reach your diet goals. Unlike other macro tracking apps, it uses a unique energy expenditure detector, which adjusts your intake based on your fluctuating metabolism.

The Good

The energy expenditure detector is unique, adding an extra layer to nutrition tracking. Meanwhile, staple functions including a verified food database, barcode scanner, detailed nutritional breakdowns, and a habit and period tracker provide the necessary components for a great nutrition tracking app.

These functions have considerable depth. Here, foods display micronutrients and even amino acids, which is great for users who want to know everything that's going on with their nutrition.

The Bad

User reviews note that it can be less user-friendly compared to other apps. Meanwhile, other apps note that it is slightly more expensive compared to apps with similar functions.

MyFitnessPal – All‑rounder with Vast Database

Price

• 30-day free trial for its premium subscription
• Free version
• $19.99 per month
• $79.99 per year ($6.66 per month)

Description

Regarded as one of the most downloaded nutrition apps on the market, MyFitnessPal provides a complete nutrition tracking experience.

The Good

MyFitnessPal contains a massive food database, recipes, meal plans, customizable goals, and easy-to-use calorie and macronutrient tracking, making it an excellent all-rounder

Meanwhile, its polish and functionality make it great for individuals who want to use it sparingly or those looking for an in-depth experience.

The Bad

Users report bugs related to personal preference and setting resetting, or not saving. Meanwhile, users are experiencing slower loading times and are having difficulty reading content due to large ads taking up space on the free version.

Foods within the database can also be inaccurate, as user entries are not verified. This can be troublesome for anyone who doesn’t understand basic nutrition, which can lead to incorrect tracking.

Lastly, they recently locked their barcode scanner behind a paywall, which had previously been available to free version users.

Lose It! – Social & Visual Logging

Price

• Free version
• 7-day free trial for premium subscription
• $39.99 per year ($3.33 per month)
• $149.99 lifetime membership

Description

Lose It! is one of the top nutrition tracking apps with millions of downloads across Android and iOS. Sporting the staples of a great service, such as customizable goals, nutrition calculation, tracking, recipes, and barcode scanning, it is praised by its users as excellent for weight loss.

Pro

Positive user ratings express their enjoyment and success with the platform, owing to its user-friendly layout and interface. While others highlight the excellent barcode scanner, large database, and user-friendly layout.

To top this off, several reviews praise customer service and support, fixing technical issues, which is promising for an app so large.

Cons

Lose it! Offers a great service; however, like all apps, its users experience a variety of issues. For some, pop-up ads on the free version slow the app's performance and can make it difficult to read and navigate. While recent updates seem to lead to a slowing of performance.

Like MyFitnessPal, users are frustrated about the number of functions normally available in the free version being moved behind a paywall.

Cronometer

Price

• Free version (Basic)
• 30-day free trial of Gold Membership
• $9.99 per month
• $54.99 per year ($4.58 per month)

Description

Cronometer is a dedicated nutrition tracker that ****helps determine and monitor calorie, macro, and micronutrient intake. Coming with standard nutrition tracking capabilities such as a large food database, customizable goals, and a barcode scanner, it provides all the tools to help you achieve your goals.

Pros

Contains staples of a great nutrition tracking app, all displayed in a polished and user-friendly app. While also offering water and sleep tracking to help target those other crucial aspects, which have a significant impact on weight management and overall health.

Cons

Cronometer has a positive reception, with users highlighting minor cons. Cronometer is solely a nutrition tracking app, offering no recipes or meal plans, although adding and saving custom recipes is possible.

Several users found that ads within the free version can be frustrating. However, the devs have begun to address this. Meanwhile, previously logged food isn’t saved in the search history, meaning it must be found again, drawing out the logging process.

MacrosFirst – Simple, Voice‑Enabled Entry

Price

• Free version
• 30-day free trial for premium subscription
• $11.99 per month
• $79.99 per year ($6.66 per month)

Description

MacrosFirst is a simple yet comprehensive calorie and macronutrient tracking app. Offering vital functions such as nutrition tracking, goal setting, barcode scanning, and an expansive database, it provides all the necessary functions for an effective nutrition tracking platform.

However, what stands out is its use of AI search, a voice activation feature which allows you to search and log foods.

Pros

Users praise MacrosFirst for its simplicity, with positive reviews speaking highly of its user-friendly interface, colour-coded system, and clear and informative summaries.

Like all great tracking apps, it offers a simple yet deep user experience. This makes it great for those wanting to log in, set and forget, or users who want to dig into the details.

Cons

MacrosFirst offers many of the same functions as other top apps. However, many raise concerns about inaccurate barcode scanning. This is made worse by the inability to change incorrect information.

Additionally, some users experienced bugs related to opening the app, logging in, and crashes. These complaints vary, which suggests they are irregular occurrences.

Food Noms – Fun & Personalized

Price

• Free version
• 7-day free trial
• $5.99 per month
• $39.99 per year ($3.33 per month)

Description

Foodnoms is an iOS-exclusive nutrition tracking which offers a simple yet effective means of calculating and tracking your macronutrients. While some apps can struggle to display all their information, Foodnoms takes the minimalist approach, offering fast and accurate logging.

Pros

Foodnoms' simplified nutrition tracking experience displays only the necessary nutrition information. Using an easy-to-follow colour coding system, it offers functions including barcode scanning, smart suggestions, and helpful widgets that streamline the process and keep nutrition at the front of mind without unnecessarily burdening users without overloading users with pages of information.

Cons

While some praise Foodnoms' minimalist approach, others may find it too simple. Depending on the user can provide an enjoyable or frustrating experience. It is also only available for iOS.

Cal AI - Calorie Tracker

Pricing

• 3-day Free trial
• $9.99 per month
• $29.99 per year ($2.50 per month)

Description

Cal AI - Calorie Tracker is a simple calorie and macronutrient tracking app that uses AI. Like many apps on the market, it allows you to customize your goals, track nutrition, and draw from its food database for easy logging.

Cal AI's biggest selling point is its ability to take photos of your meals and determine the calorie and macronutrient content.

The Good

Positive reviews boast about Cal AI being user-friendly, simple, convenient food scanning, and a helpful food database.

The Bad

User reviews point to inaccurate AI functionality, photos scanning displaying incorrect calorie amounts, and buggy app performance. This is largely due to the AI not being able to know the portion size of meals and only being able to track the foods visible in the image.

This presents a major issue for anyone trying to lose weight, providing them with false information which can be the difference between losing and gaining weight.

One user identified that they purchased a new phone, and despite having it on the app store as a yearly subscription, they needed to re-purchase it for their new phone.

How to Choose the Right App

There are thousands of nutrition apps on the market, and even with the best ones highly recommended, it can still be challenging to choose the right one. Below, we list how to choose the correct app based on your needs.

Based on Your Goals (Weight Loss, Maintenance, Muscle)

Identifying your goals is vital during the decision-making process. Whether it is for weight loss, maintenance, or building muscle, it can guide you towards apps with certain features that suit your needs.

Now, we know what you’re thinking — doesn’t every app have similar features? Yes, but certain calorie and macronutrient calculating apps have a bias.

For example, Reverse Health is a nutrition app that caters to women over 40, with resources dedicated to maintaining hormone balance. Furthermore, they offer exercise, helping to strengthen muscles and bones while reducing stress and improving mental health.

Meanwhile, apps such as Cronometer and MyFitnessPal offer several features that cater to a wide range of diets and goals, making them more suitable for a broader audience.

Ease of Use vs. In‑Depth Features

Choosing your app based on your preference for ease of use and in-depth features is essential. While having several options, fine details, and in-depth interfaces is exciting for some, it can be overwhelming for others.

If you are new to nutrition tracking or only have limited time for logging your meals, then the streamline approach is likely for you.

However, if you are looking for a greater control of your nutrition and tracking of micronutrients and don’t mind sinking in time to optimizing your health then in-depth macro calculators are for you.

Free vs. Premium Tiers

Your budget and whether you want a premium experience can be a major factor when choosing your macro calculating app. Several apps offer free versions and free trials which have some noticeable differences.

Free versions offer basic functions with no added cost. However, they often have in-app ads, and have limited features.

Meanwhile, free trials offer a trial period of the premium service, providing you with the complete experience.

Like the previous category, free versions can offer ease of use, providing just enough function to simplify nutrition and get you results. Premium tiers offer in-depth features for those looking for a deeper experience.

Getting Started: Set Up Your First Macro Goal

Starting up and setting your first macro goal can be confusing as there are several things to consider and functions to navigate. Below, we discuss macro goal setting and how to adjust it to stay on track.

Inputting Your Data

Starting, all good nutrition apps will take you through an onboarding process, in the form of a questionnaire and a brief rundown of key functions. Apps will typically ask you for your age, gender, weight, height to set up your profile.

From here, it will ask you about your goals, and help you formulate a timeline. For example, if you want to gain weight, it will recommend a calorie surplus and show you a graph of your weight loss milestones.

Similarly, if you want to lose weight, it will recommend a calorie deficit, and using the graph, it will highlight healthy weight loss milestones.

Tracking Meals & Adjusting

Tracking meals has never been easier using the top apps on the market. Using features such as large food databases, barcode scanners, and commonly eaten foods, apps do everything they can to streamline the tracking process.

Well-curated food databases will have verified foods, meaning that all their nutritional information is accurate. This creates the foundation of accurate tracking, allowing you to confidently log your meals, which in turn improves the tracking process.

When it comes to tracking, it is important to know that weight-related goals are dynamic. For example, during a weight loss your calorie deficit at the beginning will not be the same after you have lost 5-10kg. Here the calorie allowance will decrease, meaning that calories will need to be lowered to continue losing weight.

Fortunately, apps such as MacroFactor address this using their energy expenditure detector. However, if you are using other apps, we recommend regular check-ins to adjust weight to identify your current daily energy expenditure. This will ensure you are continuing to work toward your goals.

Monitoring Progress & Staying Consistent

Pursuing nutrition goals takes time, and there will be good and bad days. During this time, monitoring your progress and staying consistent are essential.

Monitoring progress can seem like a chore; however, it is evidence of your hard work and achievements. This is invaluable during those tough times, motivating you to continue pursuing your goals.

This, combined with consistent healthy nutrition habits, will help you achieve your goals.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls

Macro calculators and nutrition apps are an incredible tool. However, there are pitfalls that you should avoid. Below, we list things to look out for to help you safely achieve your goals.

Obsessive Logging vs. Practical Use

When using your nutrition tracking app, it is important not to become obsessive with the process. Like checking your scale weight multiple times a day, logging and obsessing over your progress can become unhealthy, potentially affecting your mental state.

The healthy alternative is to log each meal as you go, or at the end of each day, and then not look at it between entries. This still allows you to record and check your progress while removing those obsessive habits.

Trusting the Data, Not Just the Numbers

During tracking, it can be easy to become fixated on numbers. However, again, like scale weight it does not always provide a full picture of hard work.

To avoid this, we recommend taking a step back and viewing the data. This often shows a very different picture. While it may show your highs and lows, it will show the overall trend and trajectory, highlighting your progress.

Conclusion & Next Steps

There are thousands of nutrition tracking apps on the market, all competing for a spot on your smart device. For users, this is incredible news as apps aim to provide the best functions and service for their users.

Best App Recap

Several apps from this list could claim the top spot for best app. Each brings features that make them amazing tools to help you achieve your nutrition goals. However, they all bring something different to the table, making some more suitable than others.

For women over 40 who are dealing with perimenopause, menopause, and hormone imbalances, you can’t go past Reverse Health. A dedicated wellness app for women that not only offers tailored hormone support through its meal plan, but also all exercise, to keep the body strong and the mind sharp.

However, if you are looking for a low-cost, easy-to-use app that simplifies the tracking experience, look no further than Food Noms.

Lastly, if you are looking for those all-rounders that not only give you polish and depth, then apps such as MyFitnessPal, MacroFactor, and my Cronometer are the go.

How to Transition to Maintenance or Recomposition Tools

Throughout your nutrition journey, maintenance or recomposition. Fortunately, several apps can help with this, providing functions and information to help you transition as you please.

For explanation, maintenance requires calorie intake to match energy expenditure, which stabilizes weight. Meanwhile, body composition requires a calorie deficit (consuming fewer calories than your daily allowance) to burn fat while eating sufficient protein to build muscle.

Fortunately, while it may take some adjusting, these outcomes are achievable by altering calorie and macronutrient intake in almost every app.

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