Best Free Weight Loss Apps UK: Food & Calorie Trackers I’ve Tried
If you’re trying to lose weight, you definitely don’t have to pay a monthly subscription just to keep track of what you’re eating.
There are still some genuinely useful free weight loss apps available in the UK, although working out what is actually free has become surprisingly complicated.
An app might be free to download but charge for barcode scanning. Another might let you log food for free but put detailed nutrition information behind a subscription.
I’ve looked specifically at apps you can genuinely use without paying, and which free features you actually get.
If you’re happy to pay for extra features or want to compare these with programmes such as WW and Slimming World, have a look at my separate guide to the best weight loss apps in the UK.
For this guide, though, I’m concentrating on what you can do without paying.
Quick answer: which free weight loss app is best?
If I wanted straightforward free food tracking, I’d look at MyNetDiary.
If I wanted detailed information about protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals, I’d choose Cronometer.
If I wanted a free structured weight-loss programme rather than simply a food diary, I’d also consider the NHS Weight Loss Plan app.
And if barcode scanning matters to you, check whether it’s included before choosing an app. Some popular trackers now reserve it for paying subscribers.
Why use a free weight loss tracking app?
A food-tracking app can help you get a clearer picture of what you’re eating. That doesn’t necessarily mean you need to log every mouthful for the rest of your life.
For some people, tracking for a while is useful for learning more about portion sizes, calories, protein, fibre and the nutritional content of foods they regularly eat. It can also help you notice patterns.
Perhaps breakfast isn’t keeping you full for very long. Maybe you’re getting less protein than you thought. Or perhaps your portions are simply different from what you’d assumed. The app isn’t there to judge any of that. It’s just information.
I think that’s an important distinction because I’ve experienced periods where numbers around weight loss became far too important to me. If tracking helps you understand your habits, brilliant. If it makes you anxious about every mouthful or means you’re thinking about food constantly, it may not be the right tool for you.
An app acts like a digital food diary. It does all the complicated maths for you. You just type in your meals, and it adds up your calories and nutrients. According to Healthline, using a tracking app can help you build healthier habits over time by increasing your awareness of portion sizes. You do not need to track forever. Just a few weeks of tracking can teach you enough to make better choices for life. Free weight loss tracking apps are all you need for this.
Which are the best free weight loss tracking apps right now?
Here is a breakdown of the best free tools available today that will not cost you a penny.
Cronometer: best free app for detailed nutrition tracking
Cronometer is my pick if you want to know much more than simply how many calories you’ve eaten.
Its free Basic account lets you track calories, macros and a huge range of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients.
You also get barcode scanning without paying, which is increasingly unusual.
That makes Cronometer particularly useful if you’re interested in things such as protein, fibre, iron or calcium rather than focusing entirely on calories.
The downside is that the amount of information can feel overwhelming if all you wanted was a very simple food diary.
If you love data, you’ll probably enjoy it.
If graphs make your eyes glaze over, you may prefer MyNetDiary.
MyNetDiary: best for simple free food tracking
MyNetDiary is a good choice if you want something straightforward. You can use the free version for food tracking and progress monitoring without needing to pay simply to get started.
I particularly like apps where logging food doesn’t feel like an administrative task. The cleverest tracker in the world isn’t very useful if entering lunch takes so long that you stop bothering after three days.
For someone who wants a relatively simple digital food diary, MyNetDiary is one I’d try.
What about MyFitnessPal?
MyFitnessPal still has a free version, and you can use it for food and exercise logging, tracking progress and viewing macronutrients.
However, some features are now reserved for Premium.
Most notably, barcode scanning is currently a Premium feature.
That’s why I wouldn’t automatically recommend MyFitnessPal as the best free option anymore.
If you don’t care about barcode scanning and already like its interface, the free version may still be perfectly adequate.
But if scanning packets is how you prefer to log food, I’d look at alternatives such as Cronometer.
What makes Cronometer good for tracking vitamins?
If you care about your overall health as well as your weight, Cronometer is a fantastic choice. The free version does not just track your daily calories and protein. It tracks up to 95 different vitamins and minerals.
Why is FatSecret a good, completely free option?
FatSecret is often overlooked, but it is genuinely excellent. The app is completely free. There are no sneaky premium upgrades hiding the best tools from you.
You currently get a barcode scanner, a diet calendar, and a weight tracker at zero cost. It also has a lovely community feature. You can chat with other users for support, share healthy recipes, and celebrate your weight loss milestones together.
How does Lose It! help with simple calorie counting?
Lose It! is fun and colourful. It uses a very visual interface to show your daily calorie budget. You get a little graphic of a daily calorie bar. It fills up as you eat throughout the day.
This makes it very easy to see if you have room for an evening snack. Please be aware that their barcode scanner now requires a paid subscription. However, the manual text search works perfectly well and is very fast.
How to choose the right weight loss tracking apps for your goals?
You need to pick an app that fits your lifestyle. If an app is annoying to use, you will simply stop using it.
Choose MyNetDiary if you want the easiest and fastest logging experience with a free scanner.
Choose Cronometer if tracking specific nutrients matters more than a simple interface. This is especially useful if you are trying to find the best plant-based protein sources and want to check your daily intake of iron, calcium, or fibre.
Choose FatSecret if you want all the features completely free and enjoy having a community chat space to keep you motivated.
Do I need to track my food forever?
Absolutely not. Some people enjoy tracking and find the structure useful long term. Others use an app for a few weeks or months while they learn more about the foods and portions they regularly eat. And some people discover they absolutely hate tracking.
You haven’t failed at weight loss because you don’t want to tell your phone about every potato you’ve eaten. Use an app for as long as it is genuinely helping you. The goal isn’t to become brilliant at logging food. It’s to understand your habits well enough to make choices that work for you.
What should I check before downloading a free weight loss app?
There are plenty of apps that describe themselves as free, but “free” can mean very different things. Some give you almost everything you need without paying, while others are free to download but put many of their most useful features behind a subscription.
Before spending ages setting up your profile and entering all your goals, it’s worth checking what you can actually do with the free version.
What is actually free?
Don’t assume that because an app is free to download, it’s free to use properly.
Look at what is included without a subscription. Can you log as many meals as you want? Can you see your daily calories and nutrients? Can you track your weight? Are useful reports included?
I don’t mind an app offering a paid upgrade – developers need to make money too – but I do find it frustrating when something presents itself as a free tracker and you discover that most of the features you downloaded it for require Premium.
Is barcode scanning free?
If you eat a lot of packaged foods, barcode scanning can save a surprising amount of time. Instead of searching for the exact yoghurt, cereal or loaf of bread you’ve bought, you simply scan the packet.
The catch is that barcode scanning isn’t free on every app.
Some include it in their free version while others reserve it for paying subscribers, so this is definitely something I’d check before committing to one particular tracker.
If you cook mostly from scratch it might not matter to you at all. If you’re going to be scanning half the contents of Aldi every week, it probably will!
Can I create my own recipes?
This would be high on my list.
If you regularly make things like chilli, curry, pasta dishes, soup or overnight oats, you don’t want to enter every individual ingredient every single time you eat them.
A recipe feature lets you enter everything once, choose how many portions you’ve made and save it for next time.
Check whether creating and saving recipes is included in the free version, particularly if you cook most of your meals yourself.
Does it contain UK foods?
This is something that can easily be overlooked when an app is recommended by someone in the US.
A huge food database sounds impressive, but it isn’t much use if you spend your life searching for foods from Tesco, Asda, Aldi or Lidl and can’t find them.
UK versions of products can also have different ingredients and nutritional information from products with the same or similar names elsewhere.
If you’re in the UK, I’d look for an app with a good UK food database or one that makes it easy to add and save foods yourself.
Can I track protein and fibre?
Calories might be your main reason for downloading an app, but I think it’s worth looking at what else it tracks.
Protein and fibre can both be useful things to keep an eye on, particularly if you’re trying to make your meals more filling and nutritionally balanced.
Some apps go much further and show vitamins, minerals and other nutrients too.
You don’t necessarily need dozens of graphs telling you about every micronutrient you’ve consumed before you’ve even finished breakfast, but having the information available can be useful.
Can I connect my watch or fitness tracker?
If you already use an Apple Watch, Fitbit, Garmin or another activity tracker, check whether the app can connect to it.
Having your steps, workouts and other activity information sync automatically is much easier than entering everything manually.
I would also check what happens to exercise calories when you connect it. Some apps automatically adjust your daily calorie allowance according to activity, so make sure you understand what the app is doing rather than assuming every number it gives you is an instruction to eat more.
Are there adverts?
Free apps need to make money somehow, and adverts are one way they do it.
Personally, I can cope with a few adverts if it means I get a useful app for nothing. There is a point, though, where constantly closing pop-ups makes an app more annoying than useful.
Have a look at recent reviews in the app store too. They’re often a good way of discovering whether a recent update has suddenly made the free version much more advert-heavy.
What happens to my data?
This isn’t the most exciting thing to check, but it is important.
Weight-loss apps can potentially hold quite a lot of personal information, including your weight, age, food intake, activity and health-related information.
Before signing up, have a look at the app’s privacy information and settings. Check what information it collects, whether it shares information with third parties, whether you can delete your account and data later, and what permissions it wants on your phone.
I wouldn’t automatically panic because an app collects data it genuinely needs to function, but I do think we should know what we’re agreeing to rather than clicking Accept seventeen times because we just want to log a sandwich.
NHS Weight Loss Plan – best for a completely free structured programme
The NHS Weight Loss Plan app deserves a mention here because it’s a little different from most of the other free weight-loss apps I’ve included.
Rather than simply giving you somewhere to record your food, it’s designed around a 12-week weight-loss plan.
The NHS says the app can help you set weight-loss goals, plan your meals, make healthier food choices, record your food and drink and keep track of your progress. It also gives you a suggested daily calorie target.
What I particularly like about this option is that it is genuinely free. There isn’t a Premium version waiting to tempt you with the features you thought you were downloading in the first place.
That makes it a good starting point if you’re new to weight loss and don’t just want a blank food diary staring at you.
On the other hand, if you’re somebody who loves detailed nutritional information and wants to monitor things such as protein, fibre, iron and calcium, an app such as Cronometer is likely to give you far more data.
I see the NHS app as more of a free weight-loss programme, whereas Cronometer, MyNetDiary and similar apps are primarily tracking tools.
If you’re not sure where to start and don’t want to spend anything, though, the NHS Weight Loss Plan is definitely one I’d consider.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Are free weight loss tracking apps safe to use?
Yes, most popular apps are safe and protect your personal data. However, it is always a good idea to read their privacy policies. If you have a history of eating disorders, please speak to a doctor or a medical professional before using any calorie tracker.
Do I need to pay to scan barcodes on MyFitnessPal?
Yes. As of recent updates, MyFitnessPal moved its barcode scanner to their premium paid plan for most users. This is a big reason why many people are now switching to free alternatives like MyNetDiary or FatSecret.
Can these apps track my daily steps?
Yes. Many of these weight loss tracking apps can connect directly to your phone’s built-in step counter or your smartwatch. This means your daily steps will automatically sync and update your daily calorie budget without you doing any extra work.
Which app is best for a complete beginner?
Lose It! is very beginner friendly. It has a bright, simple layout. It does not overwhelm you with too much scientific data right away. It just focuses on your daily food intake and your calorie goals.
Do I have to track my food forever?
No, not at all. Many people just use an app for a few weeks to learn about portion sizes. Once you understand how many calories are in your favourite meals, you can often maintain your weight without tracking every single bite.
Your next steps for a healthier lifestyle
Starting a weight loss journey can feel a bit scary, but you do not have to do it alone. Downloading a free app is a brilliant first step. It puts you back in control of your daily habits.
Pick one of the free weight loss tracking apps mentioned above and give it a try for just one week. Do not worry about being absolutely perfect. Just focus on being honest with your daily logging. Small, consistent changes add up over time. Grab your phone, pick your favourite app, and start building a healthier routine today.
Have you found other apps you think should make this best free weight loss tracking apps list? Let me know in the comments below!
