Carb Counting- There’s an App for That!
About a year ago I gave a talk on carb counting with one of my colleagues at our Pacific Northwest Diabetes Summit. In preparing for the talk I put together a resource list that contained various books, websites and computer programs and apps that help to track carb intake. When I put this list together I did not really have a device to take any of the apps for a “test drive.”
Since preparing the original list of carb counting resources, in the name of diabetes research, I begged my wife to have all of my relatives pool their money and buy me an iPad for my birthday. As soon I got my iPad I promptly downloaded all of the apps on my list, and proceeded to ignore each and every one of them. Fortunately, the Pacific Northwest Diabetes Summit rolled back around this November and we were asked to dust off our carb counting talk, update it, and present it again. Nothing cures procrastination like a deadline to turn in your PowerPoint for a talk that one is giving.
What follows is my review of eight carb counting apps. What all of these apps have in common is that they can be downloaded at no cost and are compatible with my iPad. It seems that most, but not all apps these days are compatible with at least iPhone/iPad and Android interfaces.
To evaluate the apps in this review I did my best to enter a complete day’s worth of food into each one of them. My opinion of the apps is shared as a rating between 1.0-5.0 “stars”, and there is a link to websites where each of the apps can be downloaded, as well as a listing of interfaces with which the apps are compatible.
Similar to the fact that Bill Cosby has received numerous honorary degrees from a variety of universities, presumably for being such a good guy, I am giving “Carb Counting with Lenny” an honorary five stars for being such a good app. I would love to give it a legitimate five stars if it truly counted and tracked carbs. However, it is more of an introductory carb counting app. The app that does count carbs and is my favorite is the “SparkPeople” app.
If any other educators have apps that they are fond of, I would love to hear about them. Enjoy!
Calorie Counter diets and activities
Rating: 3.0 stars
To download this app: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/calorie-counter-diets-activities/id433849825?mt=8
This app is compatible with: iPhone/iPad, iPod Touch
Like
- Custom food easy to make.
- Keeps running total of kcals, fat cho, pro, chol, sat fat, fiber.
Dislike
- Appears intuitive, but not that easy to maneuver.
- Limited data base.
- Doesn’t keep running total of Na.
- Not easy to move a food from one meal to another.
- Could not figure out how to create a favorite.
Calorie Counter by Fat Secret
Rating: 3.5 stars
To download this app: http://www.fatsecret.com/connected/
This app is compatible with: iPhone/iPad, Android, Blackberry
Like
- Love barcode option- transposes info from label into your data base.
- Very easy to look up cooked penne pasta!
- Comprehensive data base. Able to track down a lot of Trader Joe’s foods.
- Like “recently eaten” function as well as “most eaten” function
- Easy to enter portions. Realistic servings (unlike GoMeals)
Dislike
- Looking for entries that have not happened on the current date is not intuitive- I was choosing “food diary”, when I should have been on “diet calendar.”
- Not super intuitive out of the gate.
- No opportunity to create a “favorite” food.
- No opportunity to create separate snacks.
- Finding “add a new food” not easy (is at bottom of a search- “can’t find what you are looking for- add a new food”).
Carb Counting with Lenny
Rating: 5.0 stars (honorary 5 stars)
To download this app: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/carb-counting-with-lenny/id383324474?mt=8
This app is compatible with: iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad
Like
- Intuitive, fun and easy to use. Has been designed with kids in mind, but anyone of any age who is new to carb counting will get something out of this app.
Dislike
- Doesn’t actually track carbs.
GoMeals
Rating: 3.5 stars
To download this app: http://www.gomeals.com
This app is compatible with: iPhone/iPad, iPod Touch, Android
Like
- Pretty intuitive once you start working with it.
- Creating favorites is easy.
- Easy to edit and categorize foods.
- Good fast food data base (I believe data base is associated with Calorie King data base).
Dislike
- Serving sizes inconsistent. Sometimes the serving size is presented as “one serving”, sometimes “1 cup”, etc.
- Restrictive serving sizes in “homemade” manually entered foods. For example Trader Joe’s Rice Crackers was not in the data base, so I had to enter the nutrition info manually. The serving size is 37 crackers. The serving I ate was 20 crackers. Serving size choices from manually entered menu = 1 ea, 1 serving, 1 cup, or 1 piece. Entering via “piece” would be perfect, but can only choose 7 pieces as a maximum serving. Ended up taking 1/37 of the nutrition facts to get info for one piece and then entering my 20 crackers in increments of two 7’s and one 6.
- No bar code function.
- Not able to find “cooked penne” in data base, only dry penne. This required me to have prior knowledge of serving size and kcals to pick accurate serving of 1/8 of a box dry which is 220 kcals and 42 grams of cho for my one cup of cooked pasta.
- Setting up personal profile- could not figure how to add my weight in pounds. Kept getting some kind of error message.
- No opportunity to track physical activity.
- Don’t like fact that can’t see total fat, cho and protein grams (just % and kcals).
Lose It
Rating: 2.0 stars
To download this app: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lose-it/id297368629?mt=8
This app is compatible with: iPhone
Like
- Like serving options. Very realistic- cups, tsp, etc.
- Simple items (milk, sugar, etc.) easy to find.
Dislike
- On iPad app does not take up entire screen. Is basically the size of an iPhone screen. Can double size of image, but makes image a little blurry.
- Can only scan barcode, cannot manually enter. Scanning function did not work on iPad.
- Have to “turn on” carbs, pro, fat from “more”- “nutrient preferences”.
- Running total of carbs is not kept. Only running total is calories.
- Only took going through breakfast to know that this app is not a user friendly carb counting app. Did not have patience to enter rest of my meals.
- Is more of a kcal counter than a carb counter. Have to work very hard to count carbs and see them.
- A very basic app. Not very powerful carb counting app.
myFitness Pal
Rating: 3.0 stars as a carb counter. 4.0 stars as kcal counter
To download this app: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/mobile
This app is compatible with: iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows
Like
- Pretty intuitive
- Comprehensive data base.
- User friendly. Easy to add foods quickly.
- Found TJ’s eggplant humus! Great data base!! Only had to manually enter one food.
- Entering servings is easy. Lots of choices. Info displayed in detail (e.g.- 45 cookies instead of 3 servings of Trader Joes Cats cookies).
- Nice readout on “Daily Value” for vitamin A & vitamin C, as well as Ca & Fe.
Dislike
- On iPad app does not take up entire screen. Is basically the size of an iPhone screen. Can double size of image, but makes image a little blurry.
- Cannot see running cho total; is more of a kcal counter than a cho counter. This is a major drawback. Have to look at each food and keep your own cho total in another spot. Can use “daily summary” to look at cho for the day.
- Couldn’t find accurate entry for cooked penne pasta. Had to do math and come up with the carbs.
- Bar code scanner didn’t work on iPad. No option to manually enter bar code number.
- User friendly kcal counter. Average cho counter. Can’t see running total of carbs per meal.
SparkPeople
Rating: 4.5 stars
To download this app: http://www.sparkpeople.com/mobile-apps.asp
This app is compatible with: iPhone/iPad, iPod Touch, Blackberry, Android
Like
- Clean, clear graphics.
- Easy to add food to favorites!
- Very intuitive and user friendly.
- Very comprehensive data base with easy search feature.
- Easy to create new food.
Dislike
- Not a lot of serving options. Many times the info is presented per serving, not cup, tsp, etc.
- Does not keep a running total of meal carbs, just kcals
- No bar code scanning option
- Snacks not separated out by time of day.
- Easy to move one food from a particular meal to another time of day (snack, etc).
Love this App!! Far and away the best carb counting app I looked at.
The Daily Plate (AKA Livestong.com Calorie Tracker)
Rating: 3.0 stars as a carb counter. 4.5 stars as kcal counter
To download this app: http://www.livestrong.com/calorie-counter-mobile
This app is compatible with: iPhone/iPad, Blackberry, Windows
Like
- Can classify meal and snack period (e.g.- morning snack, etc.).
- Intuitive and user friendly.
- List of recently eaten foods easily accessible for re-entry.
Dislike
- Pop-up adds.
- No running total of cho. Have to look up separately by food.
- Can only add calories to custom food. No cho, etc. Had to add a higher Na marinara sauce than the one I used because I could locate the sauce that I used in the data base.
- Very good kcal tracker. Not a great cho tracker.