Calorie Counter: Diets & Activities

Current version: 1.1

RD Rating: 4 Stars

Developer:
ARAWELLA CORPORATION

Age rating: 4+

Compatibility: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.
Requires iOS 4.2 or later.

Reviewed by: Sarah Krieger, MPH, RD, LD/N

Synopsis of the App

This app features a classic food diary that tracks calories, water, fitness and the time each food item is consumed. It also tracks a variety of nutrients, including total fats, carbohydrates, protein, cholesterol, saturated fat and fiber. The app also offers an option to create your own diet and physical activity plan and an Integrated Body Tracker for registering the changes of your body parameters and monitoring the progress with the help of colorful graphs.

Pros

Beyond counting calories, this app also offers the option to track glasses of water.
May be integrated with Facebook and Twitter
The summary page is visually pleasing and easy to understand and navigate.
The database is adequate and includes more than 400,000 brands, varieties and restaurants.
Allows you to set your own goals for weight loss, weight gain or keeping fit and create your own diet and physical activity plan
Log your physical activity and keep track of calories burned

Cons

The bar code scanner is meant to help quickly add foods to the database, but was not user-friendly.
While the diary section allows you to log your weight and encourages users to log body measurements, from bust, waist and hips to thighs, arms, calves and neck, it doesn't offer guidelines on healthy measurements or ratios.
The activity database is not comprehensive. For instance, it doesn't recognize inline skating as an activity and asks the user to identify the amount of calories burned.
Although tracking your water consumption can be beneficial, the given recommendations are not science-based. A general recommendation of 10 cups a day is provided, which is too general and not appropriate for everyone. Drinking 8 cups a day has received a lot of hype, but is not based on anything scientific, and fluid needs vary day to day and person to person based on current weight, activity level, health status and other factors.

Bottom line

My clients have used this app and I like it when they do. The visual of the food intake layout is appealing and easy to use. I recommend this app for anyone who is aiming to see his or her food and exercise intake while trying to lose weight, maintaining weight after weight loss or controlling diabetes under the guidance of a registered dietitian or doctor.

Sarah Krieger, MPH, RD, LD, a registered dietitian with expertise in weight management and nutrition education, is a Spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

QUICK LINKS
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