Cronometer vs. LoseIt: Which is Better in 2025?

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We are known for our detailed nutrition app reviews here at FeastGood, where our team of Registered Dieticians and Nutrition Coaches have personally tested and collected client feedback on two dozen of the most popular apps.

In this article, I’m putting Cronometer and LoseIt head-to-head in ten key categories to let you know the pros and cons so that you can decide which one is right for you and your goals.  This article is an update from Cronometer vs Lose It: Which is Better In 2024? Pros & Cons.

Key Takeaways

• Cronometer is still the clear winner in 2025, with a win in 9 out of 10 categories reviewed (up from 8 out of 10 in 2024).

• If you’re an intermediate to advanced macro-tracker who loves data, and you want to optimize your nutrition for high-level athletic performance and/or body composition goals, Cronometer is best for you.

• If you’re new to tracking macros and would prefer to focus on counting calories for weight loss without overcomplicating the process, Lose It is best for you.

What is Cronometer?

Cronometer is a “data-forward” nutrition tracking app, meaning that it gives you a ton of valuable information about macronutrients (it has protein, carbs, fat and alcohol separately, and breaks each macronutrient down into sub-categories like trans fat vs. saturated fat vs. mono- and polyunsaturated fats) and micronutrients (with over 80 micronutrients available), as well as many biometric options for measurements, blood & lab tests, and more.

You can also log your water intake, and exercise, and sync other devices to record your sleep stats, heart rate, and more.  I always make a point of mentioning that it even tracks your poop (no joke!) – that’s no laughing matter when you realize that this is a very valuable indicator of your digestion and overall health.

It’s a fantastic app for working with health professionals like doctors, coaches or dieticians because you can export reports to share with them. The Gold version – Cronometer’s paid app – allows you to design your own custom reports and charts.

Like most nutrition apps, Cronometer starts with a detailed intake process (read about it in my Beginner’s Guide to Using Cronometer) that leads you to suggested energy (calorie) intake and macronutrient targets.  You can also adjust these targets if you are working with a coach, or know what you want to do on your own.

Then, you can start tracking your intake and activity, and recording your progress.  You’ll easily be able to see if you’re making desired progress, and can adjust your targets accordingly.

Pros

• Customizable calorie & macronutrient targets
• Verified food database
• Detailed micronutrient information
• Comprehensive library of biometric markers
• Customizable charts and reports
• Shareable recipes
• Excellent community support

Cons

• Multiple entries for the same food as manufacturers update their labels over time; you’ll need to pay attention to which product you’re actually consuming
• Several customization options are only available in the paid (Gold) version

One of the cons in my 2024 was the fact that the free version of Cronometer didn’t have the ability to record foods as separate meals, but they added that functionality to the free version part-way through 2024.

What Is Lose It?

Lose It is a much more basic nutrition tracking app, with more of a focus on tracking calories than on tracking macronutrients.  The primary audience is people who want to lose weight.  It has less focus on micronutrients, so it’s not as helpful for people looking to optimize their health by keeping track of one or more micronutrients like sodium or fiber.

The app’s recommendations for calorie targets for weight loss are generally too low for active and/or muscular people.  Also, if you get the paid version, which does include macronutrients, the protein recommendation is too low to support lean muscle mass.

That said, you can adjust the targets if you know what they should be.  For example, if you are working with one of our coaches or dieticians, you can input their targets in the app.  The app can send daily or weekly nutrition reports to these professionals.

Some clients also like the fact that Lose It has a built-in social network in the app, rather than having to go to Facebook or a forum outside of the app itself for support.  

Pros

• Customizable calorie & macronutrient targets
• Built-in community
• Motivating badge and reward system

Cons

• Inaccurate (too-low) calorie and macronutrient recommendations
• Limited free functionality
• Limited membership options

1. Food Database

Cronometer

Cronometer’s verified food database is growing by the day, as users can submit nutrition labels for food products not previously in the database.  These entries show up with the label CRDB (Cronometer User Database).  The submissions are checked by the in-house Cronometer team, but they are only as accurate as the manufacturer label, which could have errors.

Your best bet is to stick to entries for NCCDB (Nutrition Coordinating Center Food & Nutrient Database) and USDA (United States Department of Agriculture National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference).

These are highly accurate nutritional databases, especially for foods that don’t necessarily come with a label, like most fruits and vegetables, and some grains and meats (the minimally-processed, nutrient-dense whole foods that should make up the majority of your intake).

Lose It

Unlike Cronometer’s fully verified database, Lose It’s food database has both verified and unverified entries.  And the verified entries are only verified by the in-house Lose It team, versus an independent database. 

 2. Tracking Capabilities

Cronometer

Cronometer has incredibly detailed tracking for macro- and micronutrients (statistics are available for over 80 micronutrients), as well as body measurements and medical test results.  Plus, you can record subjective indicators like mood and sleep quality!

For Cronometer Gold members, the options are essentially unlimited because you can create a “custom biometric” to track anything you want.

Even the free version of Cronometer produces standard reports and charts on many of these metrics, and Gold members can create custom reports and charts.

Lose It

Lose It has far less detail. It tracks basic food data (calories, macronutrients and a limited number of micronutrients). The free version tracks weight, but body measurements and medical test results are only available for tracking in the paid version.

Unlike Cronometer, there are no free reports in Lose It.

3. Calorie Recommendations

Cronometer

My experience was that Cronometer provided realistic, sustainable calorie recommendations for my stated goals (I’ve used Cronometer personally for weight loss, weight maintenance and weight gain).  

Cronometer’s recommendations are also very adjustable because you can adjust your estimated basal metabolic rate and activity level (check out our TDEE calculator to learn more), or simply override the recommendation completely with a target from your coach or healthcare professional.

Lose It

My experience was that Lose It provided a calorie target that was much too low for healthy, sustainable fat loss. Losing weight too quickly can mean sacrificing lean muscle mass instead of losing body fat, resulting in a less favourable body composition at a lower body weight.

Keep in mind that a reasonable calorie deficit should be no more than a 10-20% reduction from the number of calories needed to maintain your weight.  For example, if your maintenance intake is 2,000 calories, a reasonable calorie deficit is 300 calories, for a daily intake of 1,700 calories.

Similar to Cronometer, you can override the targets in Lose It if you have a target you want to use.

4. Level of Customization

Cronometer

Cronometer is incredibly customizable, even including the way information is displayed.  As mentioned above, calorie and macronutrient targets are easily adjustable, and you can even use different “templates” on different days if you want different targets on different days (for example, higher targets on days when you have extra long and/or extra intense workouts).

You can even schedule your templates in advance using the Target Scheduler feature in Cronometer Gold.  For example, I used to have a long run every Sunday, so I scheduled higher targets on that day in advance, using a set template to apply every Sunday.

As for information display, you can toggle “on” or “off” for what you want to see on the dashboard, and you can share your reports and charts with your healthcare provider.  This makes it incredibly easy to focus on the health metrics and results that are most important to you.

Lose It

Lose It also allows you to customize calories, macronutrients and micronutrients.  Similar to the templates in Cronometer, you can have different targets for different days of the week.

But, that’s about as far as Lose It’s customization goes.  Lose It reports are only available in the paid premium version, and those reports only show food items eaten, with a summary of calories consumed and calories expended.

5. Education Opportunities

Cronometer

Cronometer has a really cool feature called “Ask the Oracle” (in the paid Gold version of the app).  It will recommend food items to help meet the need for a given micronutrient.  For example, if you want to consume more niacin, you can “ask the oracle” and it will give a list of recommended foods that are high in niacin.

Cronometer doesn’t have formal lessons like Noom but the wealth of data in the app can really help you learn about the nutritional profile of different foods, and the charts and reports will show you how consuming different foods impact your results, whether that’s for certain health markers (like trying to lower your cholesterol) or for body weight and/or body composition.

Lose It

Lose It will also help you learn the basics about the nutritional profile of different foods (calorie content and macronutrient breakdown), but it doesn’t give the same insights into micronutrients.  It also doesn’t have the same reports and charts to help you learn the link between your intake and your health results.

If your main focus is on weight loss, and the other data would be overwhelming and/or distracting for you, then Lose It could be the right choice.

6. Coaching

Cronometer

Cronometer got edged out by MacroFactor in our head-to-head review of those two apps because it doesn’t provide the same experience of “having a coach in your pocket.” Cronometer does not have built-in coaching features.  

The targets will not automatically or dynamically adjust based on your recorded progress the way they will in MacroFactor, which is considered our #1 nutrition coaching app.

That said, Cronometer does have the Cronometer Pro, which is an account that a nutrition coach or other healthcare professional can use to enrol clients into Cronometer, and monitor their food logs, reports and progress, and provide coaching.  

This coaching includes in-app messages, and also insights from the data in the app that can be discussed in face-to-face coaching sessions (whether virtual or in-person)

Lose It

Lose It does not have any built-in coaching features and it does not have a professional dashboard for coaches to work with clients in the app.

7. Recipe Database

Cronometer

Cronometer does not have a recipe database.  That said, users can input their own recipes (I have 167!), or import recipes using a URL.  Cronometer Gold users can also share recipes with their friends in the app, and Cronometer Pro clients can get recipes from their coach.

Lose It

Lose It does not have a recipe database.

8. Exercise Calories

Cronometer

Cronometer has a setting for “exercise calories” (estimated calories burned during exercise) that allows users to decide whether estimated calories burned during exercise should be added to the daily calorie target or ignored.  

I personally don’t even log my exercise in Cronometer: I have a much more detailed training journal for the details of my workout, and I don’t adjust my calorie targets based on any one day of exercise (unless it’s an unusually long and/or intense workout, or competition day).

Cronometer also has a setting that allows users to either use a built-in “activity multiplier” to estimate how many calories they burn each day, on average, based on their activity level (sedentary, light activity, etc.) OR to import “activity calories” from wearable trackers like Garmins, Fitbits or Apple Watches.  I stick to the activity multiplier, since estimates from wearables are notoriously inaccurate.

Lose It

Like Cronometer’s exercise calories setting, Lose It has the option to either add ALL of the estimated calorie burn from activity on top of the preset daily calorie target, OR it will completely exclude the estimated calorie burn.  This second option happens when you log exercise and select “exclude from total calories.” 

If one of the goals of exercise is to create a calorie deficit for weight loss, then it doesn’t make sense to add those calories on top of your daily calorie target.  On the other hand, if your goal is weight maintenance or weight gain, then you might indeed need to increase your intake on training days, especially if your workout is particularly long and/or intense.

Keep in mind, however, that estimates of calories burned on exercise are often wildly inaccurate (not just on wearables like I said above, but on treadmills, stationary bikes, etc.).  Our general recommendation is to come up with a calorie target that already takes into account an average weekly amount of activity and not get in the habit of adjusting calories day by day – that can make it much harder to hit your targets consistently and is an unnecessarily complicated approach.

9. Price

Cronometer

With the exceptions of the template Target Scheduler, custom biometrics, custom reports and recipe sharing, all of the features described in this article are available in the free version of Cronometer.

Unlike other apps, Cronometer has made MORE functionality available in the free version of its app (ahem MyFitnessPal, putting the barcode scanner behind a paywall) – between the 2024 article and the 2025 article, Cronometer made “diary groups” (the ability to log foods in distinct meals) available in the free version.

At the time of publication, Cronometer Gold was $4.99 US/month for a yearly subscription ($59.88 US) or $10.99 US/month monthly.  I think this is incredible value for what you get – it’s less than your daily fancy coffee!

That said, I actually think that most users can get everything they need (and more) with the free version of Cronometer – it’s already that good.

Use the link below to get 10% off Cronometer Gold, and unlock even more features to personalize your goals.

Lose It

Lose It is unique in that it offers only an annual or lifetime membership option (no monthly).  The annual membership is $39.99 US ($3.33 US/month) and the lifetime membership is $189.99 US for new members (or $149.99 US for existing premium members who decide to switch from annual to lifetime).

You’d pretty much need to use Lose It for 4 years (or more) for the lifetime membership option to be worth it, and I’m not sure that many people want or need to use a nutrition tracking app for that long unless they are an elite or professional athlete or bodybuilder.

Even my own 1,000-day macro tracking journey was shorter than 4 years.

Since many of the most helpful features in Lose It are only available in the paid version (such as tracking macronutrients, recording measurements, getting reports), I feel as though most users would benefit more from the premium option.  This is the opposite of my opinion for Cronometer.

10. Reviews

Cronometer

Cronometer is rated #24 in Health & Fitness in the Apple App Store, with a rating of 4.8/5 on almost 75k ratings.

Lose It

Lose It is rated #13 in Health & Fitness in the Apple App Store, with a rating of 4.8/5 on almost 694k ratings.

This is an impressive and significant improvement from 2024, when it had a rating of 4.5/5 stars – ratings in the past year would have to have been overwhelmingly positive to pull up the average rating.

Conclusion

And there you have it: Cronometer is still a winner in our books in 2025, with wins in 9/10 categories reviewed.

Other Diet App Comparisons

• Cronometer vs MyFitnessPal
• MacroFactor vs Cronometer
• MacroFactor vs Lose It
• Noom vs Lose It