Lose It! has been around since 2008, and that head start is its best feature. Setup takes a few minutes, the interface stays out of the way, and gentle gamification, badges and streaks, keeps new users logging past the first week. Premium costs $39.99 a year or $9.99 a month as of mid-2026, about half of MyFitnessPal Premium, and adds Snap It photo logging, barcode scanning, a fasting timer, and weekly calorie budgeting. What you do not get is depth. The food database is largely user-submitted, so the same food can show up with different calorie counts, and micronutrient tracking is shallow next to Cronometer. Our verdict: a genuinely good first tracker, cheap and easy to stick with, that power users tend to outgrow once they want verified data or adaptive targets.
What Lose It! is
Lose It! is a calorie and weight-loss tracker built by FitNow and one of the first apps in the category. The pitch is simplicity: set a goal, get a daily calorie budget, and log meals with as little friction as possible. Where MyFitnessPal aims for the biggest database and Cronometer aims for the most accurate one, Lose It! aims to be the easiest to keep using, and it leans on streaks, badges, and challenges to do it.
How logging works
You log food by searching the database, scanning a barcode, describing a meal, or using Snap It, which reads a photo of your plate and estimates the foods and portions. Snap It is the headline paid feature, and like all photo AI it is an estimator: quick and convenient on simple meals, looser on mixed dishes where oil and sauce hide from the camera. Voice logging and a fasting timer round out the paid tier. The underlying math is plain calorie balance, the same arithmetic our free TDEE calculator and calorie calculator run without an account.
What Lose It! costs as of mid-2026
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Food logging, basic macros, with ads |
| Premium monthly | $9.99/mo | Snap It, barcode, fasting timer, ad-free |
| Premium annual | $39.99/yr | About half of MyFitnessPal Premium |
| Lifetime | $299.99 one-time | $249.99 for existing subscribers |
Prices are current as of mid-2026 and Apple Family Sharing covers up to six people on one Premium plan. For everyday use, the $39.99 annual plan is the one worth weighing; the Lifetime option only pays off if you are certain you will stay for many years.
What Lose It! does well
- Simplicity: one of the fastest apps to set up and the easiest to stick with.
- Price: $39.99 a year undercuts most mainstream trackers.
- Gamification: streaks and challenges genuinely help early consistency.
- Maturity: years of iteration, broad device support, and a large user base.
Where Lose It! falls short
- Database quality.Entries are largely user-submitted, so duplicate foods with conflicting numbers are common. Cronometer's verified data is more trustworthy.
- Shallow micronutrients. If you track vitamins and minerals, Lose It! barely covers them.
- Price creep. Longtime users note the app costs more than it used to, and Snap It sits behind the paywall.
- Static targets.Your calorie goal does not adapt to your results the way MacroFactor's does.
Lose It! vs Joules
Full disclosure: Joules is our app, so treat this as a competitor comparison. Lose It! has real advantages, years of maturity, a broad user base, and a Snap It feature that works. Where Joules differs is the step right after the photo. Lose It! saves the estimate; Joules shows it to you as a draft and asks you to confirm or fix it in a tap, aimed straight at the calories a camera cannot see. Around that, Joules gives you one daily health score with reasons, macro rings, an intermittent fasting timer, habit streaks, and Apple Health and Google Fit sync, on a calm screen with no ads. Different priorities: Lose It! optimizes for a gentle on-ramp, Joules for a log that takes about a second. The download page has the details.
Who Lose It! fits
Lose It! fits first-time trackers and anyone who abandoned a heavier app before. It fits badly if you want verified food data, deep micronutrient tracking, or targets that adjust to your weight trend. For the wider field, see our best calorie tracking apps roundup and our Lose It! alternatives breakdown. Whichever app you pick, set the target first with the free calorie calculator.