After being in a relationship with MyFitnessPal for many years, it’s finally time to acknowledge that we’ve grown apart. It’s time to move on. We’ve had some great memories together, and I’ll always remember how good it felt to be together so frequently every day.
A new app rolled into town, though, and it’s all the rage. My friend Jordan recommended that I reach out to the app to connect, and I’m so glad he did. It’s the start of a brand new relationship, free from silly pay walls and scanning restrictions.
That app is none other than Calorie Counter by FatSecret.
Why Leave MyFitnessPal?
MyFitnessPal was great. Really great. I’ve been a user since around 2012 or 2013, I think, and while there was always a premium tier you were never forced to use it. I was a subscriber to that for a while just to support the platform, but none of the premium features really added to the experience. It just felt good to support a developer that added value to my fitness journey and was critical to my success with 75 Hard.
The Start of the End
Well, that developer swapped hands in 2015 when UnderArmour bought MyFitnessPal for a staggering $475 million. The huge company came in and made some pretty irritating changes. Around this time I canceled my premium subscription and was happy to find that the changes wouldn’t put me off the system completely.
The changes mainly included in-your-face ads and consistent pop ups telling you how much you’re missing without the premium tier. Except there just wasn’t much that I was missing. I had to go through a few extra screens to get to configure my macros, and I didn’t get recipe recommendations, but all in all the functionality was in tact.
The Killing Blow: 2022
In October 2022 the app made a move that was the death of the app for a lot of people: the scanner was put behind a paywall. And what’s worse is the price – $19.99 per month! For a UPC scanner? Hard pass. Thankfully I’m very consistent with my diet, so most of my food choices were already available in my recent items, but I was immediately open to an alternative.
December rolls around, Christmas cheer is in the air, and my guy Jordan decides to pay it forward with a recommendation. There’s a new food tracking app making waves and I need to check it out.
What Makes Calorie Counter Better?
Well, everything, really. Let’s talk about what Calorie Counter by FatSecret has.
Food Diary
This is the main feature that most people will use: the meal tracker. You can scan product barcodes/UPCs or type in the product name or description to log the food. From here you can configure the measuring metric (scoop, gram, oz, etc.) and enter the quantity.
You can see your macro percentages, calorie progress at the bottom of the screen when you scroll. The clip below shows you just how easy it is to log your food and make sure that you’re aware of the nutrition information.
Social Features
If you’ve spent any time on this blog you know my thoughts on social media, so naturally I don’t spend much time in this area. The same went for MyFitnessPal. It could definitely be valuable for someone that does want to invest some time in sharing and keeping up with progress updates, though.
The Paywall
I tell you what guys, I can’t speak highly enough about an app that respects me as the user. Calorie Counter does what MyFitnessPal used to: give me what I need without a fee and let me support you because I want to, not because I have to. I can’t say whether I’ll join the premium tier for Calorie Counter long term, but if the key functionality is there I’m happy to occasionally throw a few dollars at the app every now and again to say thank you.
What’s In The Premium Tier?
If you were so inclined, though, what would the premium tier get you? Well, some pretty neat stuff, actually.
- Predesigned Meal Plans for Balanced, Mediterranean, High Protein, Intermittent Fasting, and Ketogenic diets
- Meal Planning Tools with weekly progress reports
- Unlimited Access to Recipes
- Additional Meal Tracking to allow you to track more than 3 meals per day
- Water Tracking to keep yourself on pace with your hydration goals
- Copy Food to Multiple Days to speed up the process of logging your food for routine meals
Is Premium Worth It?
This all depends on you. There are 3 payment methods, with the longest naturally giving the biggest discount.
- Monthly – $6.49/month
- 3 Months – $15.99, or $5.33/month
- 12 Months – $38.99, or $3.24/month
I’ll give these features a shot and report back with my findings. I can’t say for sure whether it’s worth it, but I’ll take the plunge and keep you informed!
Do keep in mind that MyFitnessPal is bold enough to charge you $20 per month for even the scanner, which is more than half of the price of a full year subscription here.
Conclusion
And that’s a wrap! To summarize, both apps do the same thing. MyFitnessPal has fallen from grace, and no matter what the alternative is, you can find one that’s better for you. Is that Calorie Counter? That’s up to you to decide.
One last point: No, this is not a sponsored post! I just love this app so far and want to pay it forward.
