6 food journal apps recommended by dietitians to help you track eating patterns and make balanced food choices

Lauren Kronisch, a registered dietitian and founder of The Keto Counter, calls this app her top pick because it's incredibly user-friendly and customizable.

"Cronometer breaks down the calories, food groups, macronutrients, and vitamins and minerals you consume to see if you're meeting your needs," Kronisch says.

The barcode scanner function makes it easy to log food fast, and the database includes tons of food brands, allowing you to get more accurate information.

You can also customize your reports and recommendations to adhere to a certain diet, such as keto, paleo, or vegan. If you're pregnant, the app can personalize your profile to meet higher calorie needs.

As an added bonus, you can log your physical activity within the app — which integrates with Fitbit, Apple Watch, and many other popular fitness trackers so you can see all your health data in one place.

"MyFitnessPal is by far the fan-favorite for my clients. It's user-friendly, comes with bells and whistles, and provides plenty of data tracking tools," says Moskovitz.

While MyFitnessPal doesn't contain quite as many food brands as Cronometer, according to Kronisch, it still boasts an impressive database with more than 14 million foods. 

If you can't find your food in the database, you can still log it manually. You can also download online recipes to calculate the calorie content per serving.

Like Cronometer, MyFitnessPal syncs with many fitness trackers and allows you to record your physical activity within the app. With a paid subscription, you can access a handy barcode scanner, find nutritious meal plans and recipes, and track your macronutrient intake.

Calorie counting apps can trigger or worsen disordered eating behaviors for some people, says Eva De Angelis, a registered dietitian nutritionist and Health Canal nutrition writer. 

That's why De Angelis recommends Rise Up + Recover if you're in recovery from an eating disorder and want to use a food journal for reasons other than weight loss.

This app incorporates many elements of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which evidence supports as an effective treatment for reducing all types of disordered eating behaviors.

While you do track the foods you eat within the app, there's no calorie information. Instead, this app emphasizes tracking the emotions and thoughts you experience around meal times — so you can begin to recognize how those feelings affect your eating habits.

"It encourages mindfulness and helps you to think and talk about food without external judgment," says one reviewer.

The app also offers motivational quotes and the ability to set customized inspirational reminders, to boost your confidence and drive your progress. 

Emotional eating can contribute to unwanted weight gain, but mindfulness — which food journaling promotes — can help reduce emotional eating. 

Moskovitz recommends Ate if you're trying to develop more mindfulness around eating and step away from micromanaging your food intake. 

This app works as a visual food diary, where you can quickly and easily log your choices and keep track of how they made you feel. 

Let's say you notice while journaling that you often overeat when bored or stressed. Identifying those emotional triggers can help you find alternative ways to deal with them — like going for a walk or calling a friend.

The app can also record your movement and other aspects of your health, like blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels. What's more, you can export your entries and stats into a PDF to share with a dietitian, personal trainer, or accountability buddy — Ate makes it easy to share your entries to social media apps, if your social network helps you stay accountable.

One reviewer says Ate helped improve their overall relationship with food and achieve their goal of including more whole foods into their diet, without calorie counting or guilt about their choices.

Calorie counting may prove helpful for some, especially those seeking to lose weight. But it's not always realistic to maintain this strategy forever — plus, calorie counting doesn't tell you anything about the quality of your diet.

See How You Eat offers a helpful alternative to calorie-counting apps. Like Ate, this app focuses on increasing awareness of your eating habits and the factors that drive them — as well as building more sustainable behaviors for lasting improvements.

De Angelis recommends this app because you can log your meals in just three taps: rather than typing in every food you eat, all you have to do is snap a quick photo. 

Visually seeing a review of your recent meals may help you identify areas where your diet falls short — for example, you might notice a glaring lack of veggies or fruits on your plate.

De Angelis says the app also offers the option to set meal reminders, which can prove useful if your hunger cues are out of whack. 

"I have ADHD and frequently forget to eat or am just uninterested in eating, which leads to a lot of migraines from not eating and unhealthy snacking. This app holds me accountable and makes it fun. I haven't had a migraine since I started using this app!" writes one reviewer.

De Angelis recommends keeping a food journal if you experience regular discomfort after eating, or suspect you have acid reflux or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).  

Keeping track of how you feel after consuming certain foods can help you pinpoint which ones cause symptoms like gas, constipation, stomach pains, and bloating. It can also help you track other conditions, like Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, or eczema.

With the mySymptoms app, you begin by logging your meals and any symptoms you experience. The more you track over time, the better the app gets at providing useful analysis. 

You can also log info about other lifestyle factors such as your medications, bowel movements, sleep quality, exercise, and mood — any of which may contribute to your symptoms. At any time, you can export a PDF report of your data to share with your doctor, dietitian, or nutritionist.

One reviewer claimed this app helped them track different variables related to their autoimmune diseases, IBS, and fibromyalgia. Another reviewer called mySymptoms "invaluable" in identifying what foods worsened their gastroparesis symptoms.

Food journaling tips and tricks

Here are some expert-approved tips for getting the most out of your food journaling.

Use whatever format works for you

De Angelis says you might find an app easier to use than a physical journal you have to remember to bring with you everywhere — especially if you keep your phones on you at all times. Also, apps can quickly analyze all your data for meaningful insights. 

But you do have hard copy options, including:

• Training for a Healthy Life: A Daily Food and Fitness Journal
• CleverFox Food Journal
• Food Sensitivity Journal

That said, you don't need to buy a fancy journal — any notebook can do the trick.

Log your meals right away

The more time that goes by, the greater chance you'll forget what or how much you ate. That's why De Angelis recommends journaling while you eat, or immediately after you eat, for the most accurate data.

Make note of your mood, circumstances, and feelings around meal times

Factors like who you eat with, where you eat, and the emotions you feel before and after eating can all affect what and how much you consume. 

For example, you may discover via food journaling that you have trouble making balanced eating choices when you're alone. 

Or, you might notice when you grab sugary breakfast foods like pastries when you're short on time, you end up having a second breakfast two hours later. 

That's why De Angelis strongly suggests recording:

• Your thoughts and feelings right before and after eating
• Who you're eating with, if anyone
• Your energy levels before and after eating

Once you've noticed these patterns, you can make changes, like making time for a breakfast high in protein and fiber instead.

If your goal is weight loss, measure portion sizes whenever possible

When it comes to losing weight, it's not just about what you eat, but also how much you eat. About half of the calorie intake errors that occur on these apps happen due to incorrect estimates of portion sizes. 

That's why Kronisch suggests investing in measuring cups, measuring spoons, and a food scale to get a better sense of portion sizes. 

Entering the right portion sizes for what you eat will ensure you get more accurate data reports.

When to work with a professional

According to De Angelis and Kronisch, it may be time to seek help from a registered dietitian, licensed nutritionist, or eating disorder specialist if you: 

• Experience GI discomfort but can't identify specific food triggers.
• Find that tracking your food intake leads you to fixate excessively on food, severely restrict your calorie intake, or develop other disordered eating behaviors.
• Realize you eat to cope with depression, anxiety, stress, or other overwhelming emotions.

Insider's takeaway

Maintaining a food journal can help you identify food intolerances, lose weight, and gain a greater awareness of gaps or opportunities in your diet. 

You have a wide range of apps and traditional journals to help you log and track your meals, with each catering to different needs and goals. 

For instance, apps like Noom and MyFitnessPal support weight loss, whereas Ate and See How You Eat aim to help boost mindfulness around your eating habits.

Remember: Food journaling doesn't work for everyone. It may prove counterproductive, even problematic, if you have a history of disordered eating. 

That said, you can also try apps geared toward those in eating disorder recovery, like  Rise Up + Recover, to explore how your thoughts and emotions may affect your eating choices.