A great way to help you to lose weight, identify food intolerances, or simply make more balanced food choices, is to maintain a food journal. These journals help you keep track of:

What and how much you eat and drink
How you feel before, during, and after consuming these foods and beverages
Other details around your habits, like whether you eat with others or in front of the television

Although food journaling can sometimes feel like tedious homework, it's one of the most effective and affordable tools for improving your eating habits, says Lisa Moskovitz, a registered dietitian, CEO of NY Nutrition Group and author of The Core 3 Healthy Eating Plan. "Not only can journaling help with accountability and increase self-awareness, but this practice can also shed light on nutritional deficiencies or patterns that may contribute to unwanted health symptoms." Plus, with so many apps to choose from, you're bound to find one that fits your lifestyle, goals, and preferences.

Here are five food journaling apps that make it super easy to log your meals and track your eating tendencies, you can take the first steps toward adjusting any habits you'd like to change. In addition to these apps, Success Studio has its own meal plan and journal that we can provide to our members! When using this with our complimentary Inbody scans, we can help you measure progress!

Cronometer

according to Lauren Kronisch, a registered dietitian and founder of the keto counter, Cronometer is incredibly user friendly; the barcode scanner function makes it easy to log food fast, and the database includes tons of food brands, allowing for accuracy. you can also customize your reports and recommendations for specific diets. It breaks down the calories, food groups, macronutrients, and vitamins/minerals you consume to see if you’re meeting your needs. plus, you can log your physical activity, which integrates with fitbit, apple watch and more.

MyFitnessPal

while myfitnesspal doesn’t contain as many food brands as cronometer, it still boasts an impressive database of more than 14 million foods. And if you can’t find a specific food, you can log it in manually. you can also download online recipes to calculate the calorie content per serving. with a paid subscription, you can access a barcode scanner, find nutritious meal plans, recipes, and track your macronutrient intake.

Rise Up + Recover

Rise Up + Recover is a terrific app if you’re in recovery from an eating disorder and want to use a food journal for reasons other than weight loss. while you do track the foods you eat, there’s no calorie information. instead, this app emphasizes tracking emotions and thoughts you experience around meal times so you can begin to recognize how those feelings affect your eating habits

Ate

***this is a great journal app for emotional eaters.emotional eating can contribute to unwanted weight gain, but mindfulness, which food journaling promotes, can help to reduce emotional eating.***

See How You Eat

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 factors that drive them as well as building more sustainable behaviors for lasting improvements. a great feature is that users can log their meals in just three taps; this process starts by snapping a picture. visually seeing a review of your recent meals may help to identify areas where your diet falls short. See How You eat is great for those with adhd:”I have adhd and frequently forget to eat or am uninterested in eating, which leads to a lot of migraines…this app holds me accountable and makes it fun. I haven’t had a migraine since i started using this app!” writes one user.

If you have a food journaling app that you use, let us know in the comments below. And if you need more support in your weight loss journey click the button below to learn how we can help!

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There's an App for That