Lose It vs MyFitnessPal: the differences that matter daily

Lose It and MyFitnessPal have more in common than their feature lists suggest. Both are database trackers: you search for a food, pick an entry and confirm a portion. Both keep the barcode scanner, photo logging and voice logging behind a paid plan.

So should you use Lose It or MyFitnessPal? Pick Lose It if you want a plan built around a weight goal, with friends and groups for support. Pick MyFitnessPal if you want macro tracking on the free plan, a published price and a 7-day trial before you pay. Every feature and price below comes from each company’s own pages and Lose It’s App Store listing, read on October 28, 2026.

Key takeaways

• Both free plans are search-and-log. As of October 28, 2026, barcode scan, photo logging and voice logging are paid in both apps.
• MyFitnessPal publishes its price: $19.99 a month or $79.99 a year, with a 7-day free trial for new Premium users. Lose It’s site lists no price.
• Two peer-reviewed studies tested both apps’ food data against a research database. Calories and macros correlated well with the reference, though both apps came out low on some nutrients, including protein and fat, over full days.
• The better tracker is the one you still open in week three. Judge each by how long a normal day of logging takes you.

Which one should you pick?

Those are the quick calls. The sections below give the reasons, so you can test them against how you eat.

How do Lose It and MyFitnessPal differ at a glance?

As of October 28, 2026, this is what each company says about its own app.

Sources: Lose It’s home page, How It Works page and App Store listing; MyFitnessPal’s home page and Premium page. Where two of a company’s pages differ, the table says which said what.

What does Lose It do best?

The Lose It app is built around a goal. You enter your stats, and it builds a personalized weight loss plan from them. The home page sums up the pitch in three words: “Say It. Snap It. Scan It.”

Three things stand out:

• Support from other people. The free plan includes community features: you can add friends and join groups. Premium adds logging streaks and “celebrations”, and a member quoted on the How It Works page praises its badges.
• Search that learns. Lose It says its search ranks results by your own logging history and works offline. Foods you eat often rise to the top.
• A big database. Its site cites over 32 million foods and exercises, and its App Store listing 56+ million items and recipes.

The trade-off is the free plan’s scope. Lose It’s App Store listing puts the barcode scanner, photo and voice logging, and advanced macro and nutrient tracking under Premium. Its site does not list a price.

The App Store listing shows several Premium purchases, from $9.99 to $79.99, plus two labeled Lifetime. It doesn’t say what period the others cover. You’ll see the real offer in the app before you pay.

What does MyFitnessPal do best?

Range. MyFitnessPal’s home page cites “over 18 million global foods”, including restaurant items, packaged goods and recipes you save yourself. That breadth helps most if you eat out a lot or buy branded foods.

It also publishes a long list of connections: 40+ apps and devices on its home page. Its Premium page names Apple Watch, Fitbit, Garmin, Samsung Health and smart scales. Lose It lists Fitbit, Garmin and Withings among its Premium syncs, but gives no count.

Its pricing is easier to read. As of October 28, 2026, Premium is $19.99 a month or $79.99 a year, and first-time users get a 7-day free trial.

Premium adds barcode scan, meal scan, voice log, custom macro goals, intermittent fasting tracking and an ad-free diary. The free plan still tracks calories, macros and micronutrients. Lose It’s App Store listing puts macro tracking in Premium.

Which app’s numbers are more accurate?

Two peer-reviewed studies each tested both apps side by side. Both compared the apps’ food data with a research database (NDSR). Neither tested photo or voice logging.

Single foods. A 2022 study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (PMID 34662722) took the 50 foods eaten most often in a 2017 weight-loss study in Chicago. It compared each app’s nutrient data for those foods with NDSR.

Per the abstract, Lose It and MyFitnessPal agreed with the reference from good to excellent (intraclass correlation 0.89 to 1.00). The exception was fiber in MyFitnessPal (0.67).

On a second check of calories (a Bland-Altman analysis), MyFitnessPal showed the poorest agreement with NDSR. The authors concluded that Lose It, like CalorieKing, had mostly excellent agreement.

Whole days. A 2018 study in Public Health Nutrition (PMID 29534771) had a researcher enter thirty 24-hour dietary recalls from lower-income adults into five free apps, including these two. Per the abstract, calories and macros correlated with NDSR from 0.73 to 0.96 across the apps.

Each app also came out significantly lower than NDSR on some nutrients. For MyFitnessPal, that was protein, fat, sodium and cholesterol. For Lose It, it was protein, fat, sodium, sugars, cholesterol and saturated fat.

A separate study of MyFitnessPal alone also found close agreement for calories. In a 2020 study in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (PMID 33084583), 50 people kept 4-day food records in the app. After the researchers removed extreme values (2.8 percent of entries), calories correlated with a reference database at r=0.96.

What it means for you: for calories and macros, both databases look usable, and Lose It looked a little tighter on single foods.

In the full-day test, both came out low on some nutrients, such as protein, fat and sodium. Neither study tested how real users pick entries and portions, and in our view that is where most logs drift. For more on estimates, see how AI calorie counters work, and where they miss.

Which one is easier to keep using?

Feature lists rarely answer this. On the free plans, both apps work the same way: search, pick an entry, set a portion, and repeat for every food. Three meals a day makes that a real job.

Both sell the same way out of it. Photo, voice and barcode logging are paid in both, and each exists to cut the search step. So the real question is less “which app” and more “will I pay for the shortcuts, and will I use them?”

Whichever you choose, these habits help:

• Save your usual breakfast as a meal, so one log a day takes a tap.
• Estimate when you’re unsure. A rough number keeps the day going.
• Log at the table, not at night from memory.

Tracking isn’t right for everyone. If you have a history of disordered eating, talk to a doctor or a registered dietitian before you start counting.

If logging feels heavy after a week, that’s a fact about the method, not about you.

Where does Getfiit fit?

We make Getfiit, so weigh this section with that in mind. It’s an AI nutrition and fitness coach that lives in WhatsApp, and it skips the food search. You send a photo, a voice note or a sentence, and it replies with calories, protein, carbs and fat. There’s nothing new to install, because WhatsApp is already on your phone.

Here’s an illustration of a voice note log. It’s an example, not a measured result:

9:41

Getfiit

online

Today

0:06

12:38

Got it: two scrambled eggs, a slice of whole wheat toast with butter, and a coffee with milk. Roughly how much milk, a splash or half a cup?12:39

just a splash12:40

Logged. If anything looks off, reply to the entry or tap Edit to fix it.12:41

It doesn’t scan barcodes, and it doesn’t connect to a watch. If you want either, MyFitnessPal or Lose It is the better fit. Getfiit is for people who stopped logging because of the typing. It estimates, says so, and asks when something is unclear, like the milk above.

As of October 28, 2026, Getfiit costs $19.99 a month after a 3-day free trial, and you can cancel anytime. See how it works.

Frequently asked questions

Should I use Lose It or MyFitnessPal?

Neither wins outright. Lose It is built around a weight goal, with friends and groups on the free plan. MyFitnessPal tracks macros for free, publishes its price and a count of 40+ connected apps and devices. For calories alone, either can do the job.

Is Lose It free?

Yes, there’s a free Basic plan. As of October 28, 2026, its App Store listing includes calorie tracking, a weight loss plan and community support in Basic. Barcode scanning, photo and voice logging, and advanced macro and nutrient tracking are Premium.

Is MyFitnessPal free?

It has a free plan with food, weight and exercise tracking. As of October 28, 2026, barcode scan, meal scan, voice log and custom macro goals need Premium, at $19.99 a month or $79.99 a year.

Which is more accurate, Lose It or MyFitnessPal?

In a 2022 test of 50 common foods, both agreed well with a research database, and Lose It slightly more so. In a 2018 test of full days, both came out low on some nutrients. Neither is exact. If you’re thinking about a photo app instead, see whether Cal AI is accurate.

What if I’m also considering Cronometer?

Cronometer is built for detailed vitamins and minerals. See Cronometer vs MyFitnessPal for that comparison.

Your next step

Choose one and give it two weeks, logging breakfast and dinner only. Still opening it on day 14? Keep going. If not, it’s the chore that failed, not you, and a faster way to log is worth a try. You can also browse our other tracker comparisons.