healmeal
Calorie counter

Calorie counter, the simple way.

Three ways to count without typing everything by hand. Look up a food, run a quick calculator, or snap a photo of your plate in the healmeal app.

Browse the food database

Calories and macros for hundreds of everyday foods.

Open →

Run the calculators

TDEE, BMI, macros, deficit and water intake. No signup.

Open →

Log from a photo

Snap your plate. healmeal returns the calories and macros in seconds.

Download on the App Store

What a calorie counter is for

A calorie counter is a record of what you eat in a day, scored against a target. The target depends on your weight, your activity, and what you want to do next, whether that is losing fat, holding steady, or building muscle. The tool itself does not change anything. The act of writing down a plate is what changes the next plate.

Used well, a calorie counter answers two questions. How much am I eating in a day, and what does that look like on a plate. After a couple of weeks the numbers stop being a surprise. Most people can stop logging at that point, or drop to logging only one meal a day to keep the calibration honest.

We are not interested in the parts of this category that lean on guilt, on streaks, or on bright red warnings. A calorie counter is a notebook. It works when it disappears into your day, not when it shouts at you.

Common questions

  • What is a calorie counter?

    A calorie counter is any tool that records the food you eat and reports how many calories it contained. It usually tracks protein, carbs and fat at the same time. healmeal does the same, but works from a photo instead of a typed search.

  • Is healmeal free?

    Yes. The food database on this site is free to browse. The iPhone app is free to download and includes a generous daily allowance of photo logs. There is an optional Premium tier for heavier use.

  • Do I have to count every calorie?

    No. Most people do well by logging two or three meals a day for a few weeks until they have a feel for portions. After that, you can keep going or stop. The goal is awareness, not perfection.

  • How accurate is the photo estimate?

    For common dishes the photo estimate is within about five percent of a hand-logged entry. For mixed plates the variance is wider, so every log is editable. You can read the full breakdown on the methodology page.