Can an app – something that’s essentially a series of carefully cobbled-together ones and zeros – truly be life-changing? It’s something I'd never considered before, bar, perhaps, winning big on the lottery (disclaimer: this has sadly yet to happen). And yet, in November 2023, I downloaded an app that, with no exaggeration, has changed my life.
This is part of a regular series of articles exploring the apps that we couldn't live without. Read them all here.
The app in question? Calorie Counter+ by Nutracheck. Disappointed? I get it. A calorie-counting app doesn't sound exhilarating – and yet, installing it proved to be one of the best things I’ve ever done.
I’ve struggled with being a healthy weight my whole life, and while I’ve had a few years of stability here and there, nothing ever worked long-term. Come November 2023, I was 247 lbs (112kg / 17.6 stone) and miserable. I had no energy. Clothes were a nightmare. And I just generally felt… not nice.
Something had to be done, and I didn’t want to put myself through unsustainable diets like keto or intermittent fasting like I’d done in the past, because while they do work, their effects, for me at least, were only short-term.
Tired of yo-yo-ing up and down and craving stability once and for all, I finally bit the bullet and turned to calorie counting to help me lose and (more crucially) keep the weight off.
Starting my journey on November 1 2023, I used Nutracheck’s app every single day to help track what I was eating. Eight months later, I'd lost 84 lbs (38kg / six stone), and reached my goal weight of 165 lbs (75kg), while completely transforming my relationship with food in the process. Here's how...
Why calorie counting?
Before I dive into the details of the app, it’s worth covering calorie counting, and how it works. While there are plenty of detailed resources that cover this in more detail (and I encourage you to check them out), it’s good to have a refresh to show why an app like Nutracheck is so useful.
For starters, our bodies burn a certain number of calories just to keep us alive – this is your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). On top of this, you burn additional calories through daily activities and exercise, giving you your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE).
For example, someone might have a BMR of 2,000 calories (what they'd burn if they stayed in bed all day). But because they're moderately active, their TDEE might be 2,500 calories. This means that they need 2,500 calories daily to stay at their current weight (also known as their maintenance calories).
Even an innocent bowl of muesli that I poured myself without weighing came in at around 500 calories once I’d plugged the numbers into the app – this awareness alone was transformative.
There are a bunch of online calculators out there to help you roughly work out these numbers (Nutracheck's app also does this when you enter your age, weight, height and activity levels), and it’s a crucial part of the process. While no calculator is 100% accurate, these ballpark figures are vital starting points, which you can adjust as your weight goes up or down during the process.
The next important thing to know is that one pound of fat is equal to around 3,500 calories (or just under half a kg). The rest is simply maths – to lose one pound of fat, you need to create a deficit of 3,500 calories (in other words, eat 3,500 calories less than you burn). Over a seven-day week, that means eating 500 fewer calories each day than your maintenance calories.
In our example above, that would mean that the person with 2,500 maintenance calories would need to hit a target of 2,000 calories a day. After one week, they should have lost around a pound of fat (not accounting for other things like water weight fluctuations). If you stick to this formula consistently over time, you’ll see progress. I found the predictability incredibly motivating, especially compared to previous diets where results felt more random.
Exercise, of course, also burns calories and can help contribute to this deficit, but it’s far more reliable and easier to eat less than it is to try and create a deficit solely with exercise. One pizza that took you 10 minutes to eat would take hours to burn off via walking or running, for example. Heartbreaking, isn’t it?
So that’s the maths out of the way. Your next question might be why you need an app to track calories at all, and it’s a valid one. The thing is, it’s extremely easy to underestimate just how many calories we’re consuming. Something as simple as a splash of olive oil in a pan when you’re cooking can add an extra 200 calories to your meal in the blink of an eye – that’s almost half your daily deficit.
For people like me who struggle with intuitive eating and knowing what the right proportion sizes are, calorie-tracking apps , like Calorie Counter+, are an absolute godsend.
Why Nutracheck?
For me, what made Nutracheck different from other calorie-tracking apps like MyFitnessPal is its focus on the UK market. With a database of over 350,000 UK products, you can easily scan barcodes and find accurate nutritional information for foods you actually buy.
This might seem like a small detail, but when you're trying to build a sustainable habit, removing the annoyance of manually entering nutritional information for every single thing you eat makes a huge difference. Paired with a set of kitchen scales for entering the specific weight of foods and ingredients, it’s a very powerful tool indeed.
Getting started with the app is straightforward, too. After downloading, you input your current weight, height, and goal weight, and the app guides you through a simple setup process. You can customize your dashboard to prioritize the metrics that matter most to you, whether that's calories, protein intake, or your five-a-day target.
What surprised me most, though, was how quickly logging food became second nature. The barcode scanner is lightning-fast (though you do need an internet connection) and, for eating out, it’s relatively easy to search for similar meals in the database to give you a rough estimate.
Within a week, weighing portions and scanning barcodes became as routine as brushing my teeth. The real eye-opener, though, came from seeing just how many calories were in my usual portions. Even an innocent bowl of muesli that I poured myself without weighing came in at around 500 calories (!) once I’d plugged the numbers into the app. This awareness alone was transformative.
One of Nutracheck's standout features is also its recipe calculator. For someone who cooks most meals from scratch, this tool is invaluable. You can input all of your ingredients and portions, save the recipe, and then easily log it whenever you make that meal again. It takes the guesswork out of homemade meals and helps you understand exactly what's going into your food.
By focusing first on meeting my basic nutritional needs and then fitting in treats where I could, I developed a much healthier relationship with food.
The app also takes exercise into account as well. While I mainly focused on diet for my weight loss, the ability to sync with various fitness trackers (including Fitbit, Garmin, and your phone's built-in sensors), helps provide a complete picture of your daily energy expenditure.
The app automatically adjusts your calorie allowance based on your activity level, which is particularly useful if you're having a more active day. However, I chose not to use this feature as it’s far safer to not fall into the trap of 'eating calories back' especially as fitness trackers make educated guesses at best.
Beyond the calories
But perhaps the most important feature of Nutracheck for me isn't technical at all – it's the philosophy behind it. Unlike restrictive diets that ban entire food groups, Nutracheck simply helps you understand what you're eating. As long as I hit my daily targets for protein and fibre, and got my five portions of fruit and vegetables, everything else was fair game – including alcohol, ice cream, and snacks. This was revolutionary.
What's also freeing about this approach is that no food is off-limits. Previous diets had always failed because they were too restrictive – cutting out carbs entirely with keto, or limiting eating windows with intermittent fasting. With Nutracheck, I could eat whatever I wanted, just not however much I wanted.
The app also helped me make smarter choices about treats. For instance, I discovered that a large bowl of popcorn was far more satisfying as an evening snack than a small chocolate bar for the same calories, letting me enjoy snacking while still staying on track.
This subtle but crucial difference in approach meant I never felt deprived or developed the guilt-binge cycle that had derailed my previous attempts at weight loss. By focusing first on meeting my basic nutritional needs and then fitting in treats where I could, I developed a much healthier relationship with food.
The app itself tracks seven key nutrients alongside calories – protein, carbohydrates, fat, saturated fat, sugar, fiber, and salt. This comprehensive tracking helped ensure I wasn't just losing weight, but doing it healthily. The protein tracking particularly helped me maintain muscle mass during weight loss, especially as I started going to the gym a few months into my endeavor.
Sustainable success
After reaching my goal weight in July 2024, I'm still using Calorie Counter+ today. I've increased my daily calories significantly – from 1,750 at the end of my weight loss phase to around 2,750 for maintenance.
The app has helped me find this sweet spot where I can maintain my weight while eating substantially more, thanks to increased activity levels and a better understanding of portion sizes. While I still log everything, it's more about maintaining awareness than strict control. The app has essentially taught me what proper portions look like, making it easier to eat intuitively while staying at a healthy weight.
At $29.99 / £27.99 for an annual subscription (a 61% saving compared to paying monthly), I can honestly say Nutracheck's app has been the best money I've ever spent on my health. While it might not be the most exciting app on my phone, it's certainly the most impactful. It's helped me lose weight in a way that feels sustainable for the first time in my life, without ever feeling like I was on a diet.
Sure, calorie counting isn't for everyone, and it certainly isn't a magic solution. The key is understanding that this is a marathon, not a sprint. The app helped me shift my mindset from seeking quick fixes to accepting that real, sustainable change takes months, not weeks. But if you're like me – someone who's tried everything else and is ready for a more measured approach – Nutracheck's Calorie Counter+ might just be the tool you need.
Download Calorie Counter+ by Nutracheck on iOS or Android.
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