The protein tracker app for people who lift

The short answer

• SayLift, best overall for lifters: say your workout and your meals, and the protein shows up next to your training in one app, so you do not need two. You can also snap a meal, scan a barcode or type it. $4.17 a month (billed $49.99 a year) after a 3-day free trial, with no free tier and no ratings yet.
• MyFitnessPal, best for the biggest food database: the default. The largest food database here and a protein target you can set, but scanning a barcode, photographing a meal and voice entry all sit behind Premium ($19.99 a month or $79.99 a year).
• Cronometer, best for careful numbers on a free plan: the most careful numbers, and the free version scans barcodes. Gold ($10.99 a month or $59.99 a year) adds photo and voice entry.
• Carbon Diet Coach, best for weekly coaching: a coach that sets your protein and calorie targets and adjusts them at a weekly check-in. The most expensive here at $99.99 a year.
• Lose It!, best for weight loss: built for weight loss, with protein tracking, photo, voice and barcode entry in Premium.

Three things people mean by "tracking protein"

Picking the wrong app usually comes from wanting one of these and installing an app built for another.

Hitting a daily number. You want a target, say 160 grams, and a running total that tells you at dinner whether you need a shake. Every app here does this. The difference is how fast each meal goes in, because a target you stop updating is worth nothing.

Knowing what a meal contained. You want to know whether that chicken wrap was 25 grams or 45. This is where database quality matters. Cronometer's verified entries and MyFitnessPal's sheer size help most, and a barcode is exact for anything with a label.

Seeing protein next to training. You lift, and you want to see whether the heavy week and the low-protein week were the same week. Most food apps are separate from your training log. SayLift puts meals and workouts on one timeline, and Carbon Diet Coach charts body weight and intake together, though not your lifts.

How the trackers compare

Why SayLift is #1 for lifters

How we ranked them. Four things: built for people who lift, a real lifting tracker in the same app as your food (sets, reps, weights and a coach that sets your next working weight), how quickly a meal goes in, and the price per year. SayLift has a full lifting tracker in the same app as your food. You can say a meal or a whole day in one recording, and at $49.99 a year it costs less than Cronometer Gold ($59.99) or Carbon Diet Coach ($99.99); MyFitnessPal and Lose It! list some plans at or below that price. Each section below says where the others are stronger.

One app instead of two. SayLift holds both: your sessions and your meals sit on one day-by-day timeline, and its coach sets your next working weight from your own sets.

Voice first. Say your workout after training and it writes down every exercise, set, rep and weight. Say what you ate and it works out the calories, protein, carbs and fat, then shows the day's protein against your optional daily guide (about 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight).

Photo, barcode or typing too. Snap the plate and its AI estimates the meal, scan a barcode for the label numbers through Open Food Facts, or type a few words. Every line can be changed before you save.

What it does not do. Meal numbers are estimates, and a photo alone often reads low because oil, butter and sauces do not show. The daily guide sets targets for calories and protein only. There are no micronutrients and no body-weight chart. It is iPhone only, subscription only, and new, with no App Store ratings yet.

The price. $4.17 a month, billed $49.99 a year, after a 3-day free trial, or $7.99 a month or $3.99 a week. There is no free tier, and the subscription covers both the workout and the food side.

Who should pick something else. If you want a big searchable food database with years behind it, MyFitnessPal (over 20.5 million foods) or Cronometer (1.1 million verified foods) is the better pick. If you want a coach that adjusts your targets every week, Carbon Diet Coach does that and SayLift does not. If you need a free app or Android, pick MyFitnessPal or Cronometer. If you do not lift, the workout half of SayLift is wasted on you.

SayLift is our app, so weigh this ranking with that in mind. Everything above is what the shipping app does today.

#1 SayLift: best overall for lifters

SayLift started as a training log you fill in by voice, and the same microphone now takes meals. You say "two eggs, toast and a protein shake for breakfast," snap a photo of the plate, scan the barcode on a pack, or type a few words. Each meal comes back with calories, protein, carbs and fat, split into lines you can change before you save.

A few details make the daily habit easier. You can say your whole day in one recording and each meal saves on its own, at its own time. Say "yesterday" and it lands on yesterday, up to 14 days back. When you type, your own foods come up first with the numbers you already checked, and a saved meal can be added again with no new estimate, so the same breakfast gives the same protein every time. Calories are rounded to the nearest 10 and marked ≈, which is honest about what an estimate is.

The daily guide is optional. It covers calories and protein, and SayLift can suggest protein from your body weight at about 1.6 grams per kilogram. Nothing turns red and no day is marked as failed. Your meals sit on the same day-by-day timeline as your workouts, and Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets start a meal entry in one tap. If you also want the coach that sets your next working weight, it is the same app.

The honest limits. Meal numbers are estimates, not medical advice, and a photo alone often comes out too low because oil, butter and sauces do not show. There are no micronutrients, no water log and no body-weight chart. The guide sets calories and protein only. Estimates need a connection and are capped at 10 an hour and 20 a day, though entering a meal by hand, with your own numbers, is uncapped and works offline. The coach reads your training only and does not use what you eat. There is no Apple Health sync. It is iPhone only, on iOS 17 or later. It is subscription only, at $4.17 a month billed $49.99 a year, $7.99 a month or $3.99 a week after a 3-day trial, with no free tier, and it is new, with no App Store ratings yet.

That is why it is our #1 for lifters: you can say a meal or a whole day in one recording, and your protein sits next to a full lifting tracker with a coach in the same app. If a free tier, a long track record or Android matters more to you, MyFitnessPal and Cronometer are the safer picks.

#2 MyFitnessPal: best for the biggest database

MyFitnessPal is where most people start, and for good reason. Its listing claims more than 20.5 million foods, including restaurant dishes, so almost anything you eat is already in there. You can set a custom protein target, save meals you eat often, and see the day's total as you go.

The catch for anyone who wants entry to be quick is that the quick parts cost money. Barcode scanning, meal scanning from a photo and voice entry are all listed under Premium, at $19.99 a month or $79.99 a year, with some lower prices also on the list. On the free version you search and tap, and there are ads.

#3 Cronometer: best for careful numbers

Cronometer is built for accuracy. Its database of more than 1.1 million verified foods is smaller than MyFitnessPal's but more consistent, and it tracks far more than protein, including vitamins and minerals. The barcode scanner is free, which makes it the best free option here for anyone who eats a lot of packaged food.

Photo and voice entry, repeat items and a recipe importer come with Gold, at $10.99 a month or $59.99 a year. It also syncs with Apple Health and Apple Watch. If you want the numbers to be right more than you want them to be fast, start here.

#4 Carbon Diet Coach and #5 Lose It!

Carbon Diet Coach was designed by Dr. Layne Norton and dietitian Keith Kraker, and it behaves like a coach. You enter your food and your body weight, check in each week, and it adjusts your calorie and protein targets. It charts weight, body fat, and protein, carb and fat intake over time, and reads body weight from Apple Health. It is the best fit here for a lifter who wants the targets set for them, at $11.99 a month, $59.99 for six months or $99.99 a year.

Lose It! is a weight-loss app first. The free version covers calorie tracking and a weight-loss plan. Protein tracking, meal targets, photo and voice entry and the barcode scanner are in Premium, which its App Store list shows at several prices from $9.99 to $79.99. It is a reasonable choice if losing weight matters more to you than lifting.

How much protein do lifters aim for

This is an app page, not a nutrition guide, so briefly: SayLift's suggestion is about 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight, and it is a guide, not a limit. The International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand on protein and exercise puts most people who train in a range of 1.4 to 2.0 grams per kilogram a day. If you have a medical condition, ask a doctor or a dietitian rather than an app.

How to keep a protein log you actually maintain

1. 1Enter the meal right after you eat it. A meal recorded at the table takes seconds; a day rebuilt from memory at 10pm takes ten minutes and is mostly wrong.
2. 2Save the meals you repeat. Most lifters eat the same three breakfasts. Add them once and reuse them, so the protein is identical every time.
3. 3Enter the protein-heavy item first. If you only get one thing in, make it the chicken, not the side salad.
4. 4Do not chase decimals. A total that is 10 grams off but recorded every day beats a perfect one you gave up on.
5. 5Look at the week, not the day. One low day means nothing; a week of them is the thing worth fixing.

How to pick

• Entering meals is the reason you always quit, and you lift: SayLift, if you accept $4.17 a month (billed $49.99 a year) after the 3-day trial and the lack of ratings.
• You want the biggest food database and do not mind paying for scans: MyFitnessPal.
• You want accurate numbers and a free barcode scanner: Cronometer.
• You want a coach to set and change your targets every week: Carbon Diet Coach.
• Your main goal is losing weight: Lose It!
• You want carbs and fat targets too: read our comparison of apps for tracking carbs and fat as well as protein.
• You are bulking or cutting right now: see trackers that keep up with a bulk or a cut.
• You are on Android: MyFitnessPal, Lose It!, Cronometer or Carbon Diet Coach. SayLift is iPhone only.