MyFitnessPal vs Lose It!: Which Calorie Counter Is Worth Your Month?
Published: 24 August 2026 · Furkan Mert Fındıklı · 7 min read
Short answer: MyFitnessPal wins on database size and restaurant coverage, which matters most if you eat out often or buy a lot of branded products. Lose It! wins on the free tier: barcode scanning is free where MyFitnessPal moved it behind Premium, the interface is simpler, and Premium costs less. If you can find your food in Lose It!, it is the better daily experience; if you keep failing to find your food, MyFitnessPal's database is the reason to put up with its paywalls.
Both of these are mature, competent calorie counters that have been around for well over a decade, and either one will work if you actually use it. The choice between them comes down to a single trade.
MyFitnessPal spent those years accumulating the largest food database in the category — millions of entries, deep restaurant and branded coverage. Lose It! spent them keeping the app simple and the free tier honest.
The friction point that decides it for most people is barcode scanning. MyFitnessPal moved it behind Premium; in Lose It! it is free. Whether that matters depends on how much of your food comes out of a packet.
MyFitnessPal vs Lose It!
| Feature | MyFitnessPal | Lose It! |
|---|---|---|
| Food database size | ✓ Largest in the category | Large, smaller than MFP |
| Restaurant and branded coverage | ✓ Broadest | Good, strongest in the US |
| Data quality | Crowd-sourced, duplicates common | Crowd-sourced, more curated |
| Barcode scanning on the free tier | ✗ Moved to Premium | ✓ Free |
| Photo food logging | Premium | ✓ Snap It |
| Ads on the free tier | Yes | Yes, lighter |
| Macro tracking on the free tier | ✓ Percentages | ✓ |
| Custom macro targets in grams | Premium | Premium |
| Recipe importer | ✓ | ✓ |
| Micronutrient depth | Moderate | Moderate |
| Interface complexity | Dense, many features | Simpler, faster to learn |
| Third-party integrations | ✓ Widest ecosystem | Good |
| Apple Health / Health Connect | ✓ | ✓ |
| Premium price | Higher | Lower |
| Water tracking | Plain counter | Plain counter |
Database size only matters until your food is in it
MyFitnessPal's database advantage is real and large, but it is not linear in value. The benefit is entirely about the tail: the specific supermarket own-brand item, the regional chain, the packaged thing you buy every week. Once your regular foods are saved, both apps feel identical, because you are picking from your own recent list rather than searching.
So the honest test is your first two weeks. If you spend them fighting the search box in Lose It!, MyFitnessPal is worth it. If your foods are all there, the extra millions of entries buy you nothing and you are paying for them in interface density and a worse free tier.
The flip side of a huge crowd-sourced database is duplicate and wrong entries. MyFitnessPal has more of both, simply because it has more of everything. Neither app is a good choice if verified nutritional data is your priority.
What each paywall actually blocks
This is where the two apps diverge most, and it is worth being precise because both companies have moved the line over the years.
- MyFitnessPal — barcode scanning is the notable one: a feature that was free for years and is now a Premium hook. Custom macro targets in grams, meal-level macro breakdowns and food analysis also sit behind the paywall, and the free tier carries ads.
- Lose It! — barcode scanning and the Snap It photo logger stay on the free tier. Premium adds custom macro goals, extra tracking categories, meal planning and ad removal. The free tier is closer to a complete product.
- Both — gram-level macro targets are Premium in each app. If macro precision is your goal, budget for a subscription either way.
Rule of thumb: if most of your food has a barcode, Lose It!'s free tier will save you a subscription. If most of your food comes from restaurants, MyFitnessPal's database will save you time you would otherwise spend estimating.
Neither app solves the target going stale
Both apps set your calorie target from a formula at signup — height, weight, age, activity level, goal rate — and then leave it alone. That estimate is a population average applied to one person, and it drifts as you lose weight and as your activity changes.
The usual result is the same in both apps: the number works for a few weeks, then progress stalls, and you have no way to tell whether you are eating more than you logged or your expenditure has fallen. Neither app closes that loop.
Fixing it means either recalculating manually every few weeks, or using an app that infers expenditure from your weight trend rather than a formula. That is a real category difference and worth knowing about before you commit a year to either subscription.
Verdict
Choose MyFitnessPal if you eat out frequently, buy varied branded products, or have been frustrated by a smaller database before. Budget for Premium, because barcode scanning is behind it and you will want it.
Choose Lose It! if you cook most of your food or eat the same packaged items regularly. Free barcode scanning and photo logging make its free tier the more complete of the two, and Premium costs less if you upgrade later.
If you are undecided, start with Lose It!. It costs nothing to find out whether your food is in its database, and switching later is cheap — you lose history, not habit.
Neither is the right pick if you need verified micronutrient data, an adaptive calorie target, or hydration tracking with any depth. Those are different apps.
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Frequently asked questions
Is MyFitnessPal or Lose It! better?
MyFitnessPal is better if database coverage is your bottleneck — it has the largest food and restaurant database in the category. Lose It! is better if you want a usable free tier, because barcode scanning and photo logging stay free where MyFitnessPal moved barcode scanning behind Premium. For most home cooks, Lose It! is the better daily experience; for frequent restaurant eaters, MyFitnessPal.
Is barcode scanning still free in MyFitnessPal?
No. Barcode scanning was moved from the free tier to Premium, which is the single most common reason people look for an alternative. Lose It! still offers barcode scanning on its free tier.
What is the best free MyFitnessPal alternative?
Lose It! is the closest like-for-like alternative with a friendlier free tier, including free barcode scanning. If you want verified micronutrient data instead, Cronometer's free tier is strong. If the problem is how long logging takes, apps with photo or voice entry solve a different part of the friction.
Which app has more accurate nutrition data?
Neither is built on verified data — both rely heavily on user-contributed entries, so duplicates and errors exist in each. MyFitnessPal has more of both simply because it has more entries overall. If data accuracy is the priority rather than coverage, an app using curated sources is a better fit than either of these.
Do MyFitnessPal or Lose It! track water properly?
Both include a water counter, and in both it is a plain tally of glasses with no hydration modelling — no distinction between water, coffee or juice, and no adjustment for exercise or diet. If hydration is a real goal rather than an afterthought, neither app covers it in any depth.
References
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Suu is not intended for medical diagnosis or treatment. Consult a healthcare professional for health-related decisions.