MealSaidBlog
Notes from building MealSaid, the calorie tracker you talk to.
Is MyFitnessPal still free in 2026? What is paywalled
Yes, with ads. Eight of the 33 features in MyFitnessPal's own plan table are free. Barcode, voice, photo and the AI Coach need Premium at $79.99 a year.
Does MacroFactor write nutrition to Apple Health?
Yes, and so do Lose It and Cronometer. None of the three names which of Apple Health's 39 nutrition fields it writes. Checked 28 October 2026.
How to stay consistent with calorie tracking: 6 rules
Six rules from habit research, with sample sizes. Health habits took a median of 59 to 66 days to feel automatic, and 4 to 335 days across people.
Can I log food by talking to an app? I checked 22
Eleven of 21 iPhone food trackers document saying what you ate, checked 27 October 2026. Three take the meal through Siri with the app still shut.
Hands-free calorie tracking while cooking or driving
Three iPhone apps log a meal with zero touches. MyFitnessPal needs five and Lose It needs eight, counted from their own steps on 26 October 2026.
Calorie tracker for ADHD, counted by decisions per meal
No app treats ADHD. Logging one food takes 6 choices in Lose It, 5 in MyFitnessPal, 4 in Cronometer and 1 if you say the meal out loud.
A simpler Cronometer alternative: I counted the steps
Cronometer's own help page lists 4 steps to log a food, Lose It lists 9. Five simpler alternatives with prices and step counts, checked 25 Oct 2026.
Best free calorie tracker for iPhone: widgets, Siri, Watch
MyNetDiary's free tier documents 4 home screen widgets, 12 lock screen widgets and a Watch app that logs food. Five iPhone trackers, checked 25 Oct 2026.
MacroFactor vs Cronometer: price, nutrients and Health sync
Cronometer Gold is $59.99 a year, MacroFactor $71.99, and only Cronometer has a free tier. Nutrient counts and Apple Health, checked 24 Oct 2026.
6 Cal AI alternatives that do not need a photo
Six calorie apps that log a meal with no camera, with prices read on 24 October 2026. MyNetDiary gives voice logging away free. Cal AI publishes no price.
Lose It vs MyFitnessPal in 2026: same price, same paywall
Both charge $79.99 a year. MyFitnessPal paywalled the barcode scanner in 2022, and Lose It says it is moving its scanner to Premium now.
How many calories off is a calorie tracker? 330 to 579
Three doubly labeled water studies put logged intake 330 to 579 calories a day under measured expenditure. The food database was off by 26.
Is Cal AI accurate? It missed 345 calories a meal
Cal AI says it is about 80% accurate. In an NIH test of 102 weighed meals it came in 345 calories low, the biggest miss of the four photo apps tested.
Free calorie counter without a subscription: what you get
Nine free calorie apps list 89 in-app purchases between them, $0.99 to $119.99. What each free tier still does, from the US App Store, 22 October 2026.
Calorie tracker with voice input: what you actually get
Voice input means three different things in calorie apps. Seven iPhone trackers compared on 21 October 2026, and five charge a median of $79.99 a year.
· UpdatedWhich calorie apps remind you to log food, and do they work
Four of six iPhone trackers send a logging reminder, checked 21 October 2026. In a 30 person trial, 19.05% of reminders were tapped at best.
Why most people quit calorie tracking within two weeks (what the research says)
Seven studies on food-logging dropout, with numbers and links. 2.58% of 189,770 downloads stayed active. Simplified logging got 97% of days versus 49%.
MyFitnessPal alternatives in 2026, checked this month
What MyFitnessPal moved behind the paywall, what Premium costs now ($79.99 a year), and seven alternatives compared on price, logging, Apple Health and ads.
How to log food on iPhone without opening an app (Siri, Lock Screen, widget)
Three ways to log a meal on iPhone in one sentence or one tap, step by step with MealSaid, plus what Shortcuts can and cannot do with four other calorie apps.
How MealSaid works
What happens when you say "two eggs and toast" to MealSaid, how the call works, where your data goes, and what the app does not do.
Which calorie apps actually write to (and read from) Apple Health
Nine calorie apps checked against their own docs on 20 October 2026: who writes nutrition to Apple Health, who reads it back, why calories get doubled.