Calories are the major determinant of how we lead our lives in a healthy manner. It deals with the kind of food we take in, and how much it is benefitting us. Calories are termed as the energy that our bodies receive. Calories and their use up depends on how we follow a certain lifestyle. If we are regularly exercising, maintaining a healthy diet and sleeping well, our calories will be at good level. When calories get stored for a longer period of time, they convert into fat. As a result we gain weight which can be hazardous and an invitation to various diseases. Calories tracking apps enter as the ideal instructor to manage calories level. 

If you are looking to gain weight, or shed some, it is important to track your physical activities. For this purpose, the calories tracking apps have been introduced. These calories tracking apps provide a complete list of activities, diets and status for your health targets. These tracking apps for health, help in deciding the ideal ways of gaining or losing body weight. It also helps in giving you a complete detail of how much weight you have gained or lost. Over emphasis on calories burning apps, can lead to mental stress and anxiety. There are certain ways in which the calories burning apps should be conducted. 

In this article, there will be an elucidation to why calories play an important role in a healthy lifestyle. Further, there will be an elaboration to the benefits of calories tracking apps. Lastly ,there will be a complete list of 10 best calories tracking apps in 2023. 

Calories and Why They Are Important?

In scientific terms, the amount of energy broken down by the food we eat is named as calories. It is a source of energy that is required to conduct various internal and physical activities. Without calories, talking, beating heart, walking, engaging in any sports and other activities flump out. The more calories a food item has, there will be increased energy provided to our body. Calories must be used up at a certain level to prevent it from piled up as fats. 

Whenever you are eating, it is important to ensure that the food has only the required amount of calories. Over or less calories can cause calorie insufficiency or over sufficiency in the body. The calories consumption also differs based on males and females. A normal male has to have 2000 to 3000 calories per day. Whereas, for females, they must have 1600 to 2400 calories per day. These different calories intake are determined by the United States Department of Health. In a very specific sense, calories are the wheels to lead lives. They are means for us to conduct daily activities for our body.  

There are various reasons for calorie intake to be important. Calories intake are required to perform some of the basic and required activities for the human body. Below are the reasons why calorie balance is important for the human body.

You can also read our blog: 11 Best Calorie Tracking Apps Available 2022

Functioning of Basic Metabolism 

Metabolism is the main entity to digest the food and convert it into an energy source. Calories are required for the metabolic centers to convert them into energy, and enable the work mode of the body. The amount of calories differ based on an individual’s gender, body weight, age and height. The calories intake should be balanced to ensure that the food gets digested to provide energy for the body. The metabolic center in the human body begins from the mouth and goes till the large intestine. The converted energy is stored in different parts of the body, and is put into action where there is an activity to do. 

Physical Activity and Exercise

Calories are essential for human bodies to perform various demanding physical activities and exercise. The more stringent the physical activities, the more the calorie needs. For instance, if a person goes to gym, the calorie requirement will be high. However, if a person has less physically demanding activities, then the calorie needs will be comparatively low. A basic quantity of calories is required for all the people to carry out routine work such as cleaning, cooking, walking, sitting and more. 

Weight Maintenance 

While the common belief is to eat more or eat nothing for weight loss or gain is a myth. Calories play an integral role in both weight gain and weight loss. For instance, in weight loss, the intake of protein, carbohydrates must be increased along with some physical activities. The protein and carbohydrates provide the calories to do the physical activities for weight loss. Similarly, to gain weight, calories are essential too. Eating healthy is essential for weight gain. Eating anything for the purpose of weight gain can lead to unnecessary build of stubborn fat. 

Three Essentials for Survival 

Calories are mainly ‘sourced’ from the three essentials for survival. These are protein, carbohydrates and fats. These three sources provide you with the calories which are essential for conducting various voluntary and involuntary activities. A decrease in the intake of these three sources can lead to calories deficiency. As a result, your body will be prone to diseases due to lower immunity and fatigueness. It is believed that one gram of protein or carbohydrates give four units of calories. Further, these three sources are also essential for adding only the required rate of calories. They do not add calories that will turn into body fat, resulting in obesity and other weight-related issues. 

Therefore, these are the importance of calories intake. A right diet is the ideal source for ensuring an optimistic intake of calories. Calories should be a promoter towards optimal health, and that journey begins through the food we eat. There are various calories tracking apps that have emerged to help maintain an ‘ideal’ diet. An overview of these calories tracking apps and their benefits are explained in the next section. 

Calories Tracking Apps- Meaning and Benefits 

Calories tracking apps are the applications that measure, suggest and track an individual’s attempts to lead a healthy life. These apps provide calorie information regarding each food item. They create an ideal food plan that has balanced intake of all these food items, thus ensuring optimal calories. Apart from dictating an ideal food plan, calories tracking apps also help in different health targets. They assist in weight gain, weight loss, inducing physical activities and more. 

There are various benefits of calories tracking apps. These benefits of calories tracking apps are:

Leading an ‘Optimal’ Life

The foremost thing that a calorie tracking app can do is push the concentration towards living healthily. With the calorie tracking app, one comes to understand the various food items that can have harmful impact on the body, if increased in intake. Further, these health tracking apps provide an overview about an ideal food plan to use, which is affordable too. The health tracking apps also help in deciding the food plan, based on your preferences and mission towards achieving the ‘healthy’ status. The process of optimal living becomes easy, smooth and effective with association with calories tracking apps. 

Right Food Choices

Usually, we eat what we like without being bothered about what calories the food items have. Being in touch and associated with calories tracking apps, one can get an assurance of making right food choices. Several calories tracking apps have food charts that provide the calorie per gram. Based on the food chart available, you can add the required food items in your diet. Further, these calories tracking apps also help in understanding the benefits of a particular food item. They also reveal the impact of under-eating or over-eating of a particular food item. 

Develop Healthy Eating Habits

With the calorie tracking apps, it becomes easy to know what to eat, when to eat and how to eat. These health tracking apps help in establishing a proper structure of the diet, when to have the meals and how to have them. These health platforms also frame particular health habits based on the person’s physicality, age, and required health needs. For instance, if a person is aiming to lose weight, these calories tracking apps would suggest boiled food items. Further, they will also devise what boiled food item can be eaten separately for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

Visualization of the Health Goal

The best advantage of calories tracking apps is the visualization of a person’s health goals. It provides a complete chart and statistics of how a person is working towards the respective health goal. For instance, if a person aims to lose 5 kg, these calories tracking apps will provide a complete overview of it. This overview will include the food intake level, the physical activities performed in a day and the exercise. Another add on of these calories tracking apps is that it lets an individual customize the food item, the exercise type and physical activity through which they want to achieve their respective health goals. 

Health Report on Daily Basis 

With calories tracking apps, it becomes easier to know how far you have achieved the health goal in a day. The health report is provided on a daily basis, helping you to understand what can be done in future. These health daily reports include an understanding of the food consumption, and how well the physical activity is going on. Therefore, the health reports every day provide an insight on new or additional steps that are required to achieve a particular health goal. 

These are the benefits of calories tracking apps. These calories tracking apps help in framing an ideal health plan that can be continued in the long term too. These health related applications make it easier for individuals to set various health goals and achieve them. There are various calories tracking apps that have emerged from time to time. The list of 10 best calories tracking apps in 2023, are listed in detail in the next section. 

10 Best Calories Tracking Apps in 2023

Calories tracking applications help in achieving an optimum health status. The list of 10 best calories tracking apps are listed below. 

Cronometer

Created as a diet app, Cronometer is also termed as a calorie tracking app. This calorie tracking app will provide you with the right amount of intake for food items. It considers various health conditions such as anorexia nervosa, medications, pregnancy and others. You have to start with entering the diet style you want to follow. Once you enter it, the app will guide you in the right choices for food items and their quantities. 

PlateJoy

Available on all iPhones, PlateJoy is essentially a weight loss app curated by the dietitians. In this app, you can customize your healthy meals based on your health goals or preferences. So, if you have health goals like losing weight, doing more exercise, the app will guide you to set the meal goals. This calorie tracking app also has various dietary plans such as keto diet, dairy-free meal and paleo meals. You have to complete a questionnaire to get the required diet plan from the app. 

Noom 

This calorie tracking app relies on the level of emotional eating and control of it. That is, this app recognises the different emotional states that trigger overeating amongst people. By helping people understand their emotional status, the app helps in controlling overeating. Overeating due to emotional increment  is one of the major causes for weight gain. Another highlight of this calorie tracking app is health coaching. The health coaches help in deciding the food intake based on various considerations about an individual. 

Fitbit

With an aim to keep you fit every second, the Fitbit app will provide you with the results of each healthy step that you take. This calorie tracking app is accessible through smartwatches and fitness trackers. It will track the food intake, the amount of physical activities you do, to measure the health status. You can view your diet results, the miles you walked and level of sleep quality on this calorie tracking app. 

MyFitnessPal

Deemed as one amongst best calories tracking platforms, MyFitnessPal is also an overall health tracker. This calorie tracking app is used to understand your health status through the daily calorie intake. It has a humongous body of nutrition database, that includes information of 11 million food items. Once you eat your food, the app will provide the digestion level and calories that you had intake for the meal. You can also track your weight, know different recipes and contact experts for health guidance. 

Lose It!

Specialized in calorie counting and tracking weight, Lose It is an easy calorie tracking app. The app records your weight journey, diet process and the daily calorie intake. The app has a nutrition base of 33 million foods. Once you log in, you can decide your food plan by reading the nutrition intake. You can also know your food intake, by comparing with the prescribed food portion sizes, just by taking pictures! The app is also well known for promoting healthy living by taking on other health concerns, such as cholesterol levels. 

Fooducate

A bit different from the calories tracking apps, Fooducate lets you have nutritious information by scanning the food barcodes. The app currently has 250,000 product barcodes for food that can be traced. The best part about Fooducate is that it provides information about the unhealthy products in every food product. This will help you to refrain from the intake of the food or reduce its intake. Further, this app also provides you with the healthier alternatives for food choices that are not healthy. 

Strides

Strides, amongst the calories tracking platforms, helps in developing small healthy habits and striding to the bigger ones. In this app, you have to develop simple habits like walking, drinking water, eating three meals a day and indulging in some physical activities. You can also check your reports, weekly, monthly and yearly. This app is different from the ardent need of weight gaining or losing. It focuses on living healthily through developing simple habits. 

Lifesum 

Through Lifesum, you can make progress on the calories that you eat. This is done by knowing the unhealthy and healthy items in a food product. It also tracks the amount of nutrients, that is protein, carbohydrates and good fats that is required for the body. This app is also useful for knowing the intake level each day. This calorie tracking app has diet plans that are rich in protein, carbohydrates and good fats.

Fat Secret

Fat Secret is a simple calorie tracking app, amongst calories tracking platforms. It records the level of food that you have and what you have. Further, this app also records the nutrients that you have with each food that you eat. The app has a complete and detailed list of food recipes that are healthy and nutritious. This app is also beneficial if you want to lose weight in a healthy way. Another best part of this app is, you can avail various health benefits for free! 

These are the 10 best calories tracking apps for 2023. These calories tracking apps help you in maintaining an ideal health. 

You can also read our blog: How to Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle!

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Conclusion

The above article provides information on what calories tracking apps. Further, it provides information on the importance of calories tracking apps and their benefits. Lastly, this article has a complete list of the 10 best calories tracking apps of 2023.

Commonly Asked FAQs

1. What is a calorie?

Calorie is the unit of energy that we consume through the digested food. 

2. What is a calorie tracking app?

Calories tracking platforms are the applications that measure, suggest and track an individual’s attempts to lead a healthy life. These apps provide calorie information regarding each food item. They create an ideal food plan that has balanced intake of all these food items, thus ensuring optimal calories. 

3. What are the benefits of calories tracking apps?

The benefits of calories tracking apps are:

• Leading an ‘Optimal’ Life
• Right Food Choices
• Visualization of Health Goals

4. What are the best calories tracking apps?

The best calories tracking apps are:

• Lose It!
• Fat Secret
• MyFitnessPal