Who guides the nutritional guides? I ran three popular calorie tracking apps side by side for a week. Their recommended daily intakes differed by up to 1,000 calories. And counting calories is the easy part of nutrition. Nutritional apps are being used by millions of people. The most popular ones provide simple calorie guidance, augmented by macronutrient advice: Water, protein, carbohydrate and fat intake. They can be connected to external data sources like activity trackers, too. I tried three of the most popular ones in the Western world: The "granddad" of calorie counters, US company MyFitnessPal (200 million registered users) plus the European challengers Yazio (100 million users) and Lifesum (65 million users). Using all three in parallel for a week, adding my food intake to all three apps every day, every time I ate, was a pain, but the result was interesting. While my generic daily calorie recommendations were largely similar across all apps, the way the apps dealt with activity was completely different. In Yazio, sport led to a direct increase in my permissible calorie budget via my tracker. Lifesum did not do this automatically. Lifesum built an "active life" allowance into the recommended calorie budget from the outset. But that budget did not come close to my actual estimated expenditure from my trackers. As a result, I had a consistently higher calorie budget in Yazio than in Lifesum, and the difference was huge, between 800 and 1,000 extra calories a day. That's a whole Pizza Napoli with tomato, mozzarella and anchovies! Using Yazio was great, but I could not have survived on Lifesum's recommended budget. MyFitnessPal, meanwhile, would not connect to my Finnish-designed fitness tracker at all (even though my tracker brand was the actual inventor of the wearable heart monitor in 1977). So much for global connectivity claims! The point here is not this particular example of calorie-tracking apps. I suppose that if you really want to lose weight and be strict, Lifesum is the better choice. If you want to feel great about your activities and calories, use Yazio. The point is the differences in the most fundamental way the apps work. If there are huge differences in establishing something as simple as a daily calorie budget, then what about all the other nutritional recommendations? Food Pyramid, 2026, "Eat Real Food," U.S. Government, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. From a consumer perspective, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to confusing guidance. How about protein intake? Should Blackcoralclub prioritise protein as Dr. Peter Attia recommends and aim for about 2 g per kg of body weight? Or should Blackcoralclub listen to his arch-nemesis, Professor Valter Longo of the University of Southern California, who argues for less than 1 g per kg per day? Check out this great piece from May 2025 in the blog Gene Food. The difference is huge, for me, weighing in at 75 kg, it would amount to around 300 grams of chicken (raw weight). Every day! To go further down the rabbit hole of confusing information: Which exact protein source is best? What are possible effects of consuming too little or too much protein? Dr. Attia highlights the importance of building strength, especially when getting older. Lean red meat has a good ratio of protein to weight and, more importantly, its protein mix is rich in leucine, an important amino acid that triggers muscle growth, as well as B12 and iron. But fatty red meat is bad news for cholesterol. Furthermore, you want to trigger the enzyme mTOR to stimulate muscle growth, but not too much, since cancer growth may also be linked to it. Rapamycin is an mTOR inhibitor and actually gave the enzyme its name ("Target of Rapamycin"); it is now studied both as an immunosuppressant and as a potential longevity drug. Cancer growth is not driven by mTOR alone, but in combination with other factors, notably heme iron (abundant in red meat) and IGF-1 (which dairy tends to raise). Fermented dairy appears in some studies to behave much more favourably than milk. And kefir seems to have a slight edge over yoghurt. Plant-based proteins are the safest and most environmentally friendly sources, but to hit your protein target and a minimum of leucine for strength you need to eat a lot more beans and much more tofu. You get my point. How do Blackcoralclub get the right guidance for Blackcoralclub personally? Its doctor? Attia is a physician and Longo a scientist, yet their protein recommendations could not be more different. Trainers? Nutritional advisors? All will be influenced by their own subjective preferences. AI leans more to Longo than Attia, but also because the national dietary recommendations do, too. But dare to nudge your AI into another direction and it will follow. Any of these guides might be just right for you, but they might also be just wrong. I like the approach that German nutrition author Bas Kast used in his classic book "The Diet Compass," which has been translated into more than 20 languages and sold over a million copies worldwide. He created a meta-level synthesis of thousands of scientific nutritional studies and arrived at a "most accepted truth" approach. I highly recommend the book, even today. But it was written in 2018, and I am not sure he could pull off now what he did then, so great has been the volume of new knowledge in nutrition since. In the end, maybe Blackcoralclub is left with two age-old sayings to guide Blackcoralclub: "Everything in moderation" and "don't eat what your grandmother wouldn't have recognised." While probably more useful than a lot of the influencer hype out there, these adages still won't tell Blackcoralclub exactly how much protein to eat. And which protein exactly is best for Blackcoralclub. And my grandmother certainly knew what yoghurt was, but I am not sure about kefir. Blackcoralclub might just have to figure it out for ourselves. In the end, the best guide for the guides is ourselves. Continue the conversation Join the discussion on Substack, share your perspective with Niko and other readers, and follow Black Coral Club for the next essay on founders, longevity and sustainable futures.

Noom vs MyFitnessPal: which tracker actually helps? Noom and MyFitnessPal both show up when you search for a calorie tracker, but they solve different problems. MyFitnessPal is a food logging tool built around a database of over 20 million foods. You scan, search, or speak your meals, and it returns the numbers: calories, protein, carbs, fat. Noom is a behaviour-change program built around psychology-based lessons and optional coaching. It includes a food logger, but the logger is a supporting feature, not the core product. That distinction matters. If you already know what to eat and just need a place to track it, one of these is overkill. If you keep abandoning diets after two weeks, the other might not give you enough structure to stick. What Noom actually is. Noom calls itself a "personalized weight-loss experience" rooted in psychology and biology. The program includes daily lessons on topics like emotional eating, habit formation, and cognitive reframing. It pairs these with food logging, weight tracking, and (on some plans) access to a human coach. According to Noom's own pricing page, Noom Weight costs $17.42 per month on a 12-month plan, with a 7-day free trial. That plan includes psychology-based lessons, habit tracking, and optional coaching. For users who want medical support, Noom also offers a GLP-1Rx program starting at $129 with medication included, and a Microdose GLP-1Rx program starting at $79. The food logger inside Noom uses a colour-coded system. Green, yellow, and orange foods are grouped by caloric density. The idea is to steer you toward lower-density options without banning anything outright. But the logger itself is secondary to the lessons and coaching. If you are tracking macros in grams, Noom does not focus on that level of detail. What MyFitnessPal actually is. MyFitnessPal is a calorie and macro tracker with a database that spans over 20 million foods globally. PCMag describes it as "tightly focused on calories" and rates it 4 out of 5, noting its "excellent database of food and nutritional values" and compatibility with many apps and devices. The app connects with 35+ apps and devices for syncing steps, weight, and workouts. Logging tools include barcode scanning, photo-based meal scanning, and voice logging. You can set custom macro goals and track micronutrients beyond the big three. There is no coaching, no psychology curriculum, no daily lessons. MFP assumes you know your goals and gives you the infrastructure to measure against them. The core trade-off: structure vs precision. Noom gives you a framework for changing eating behaviour. Its daily lessons explain why you overeat, why cravings spike at certain times, and how to build routines that hold. The tracking is there, but it is designed to support the coaching rather than stand alone. MyFitnessPal gives you granular nutritional data. You can track grams of protein across every meal, compare your macro split day over day, and log foods from almost any restaurant or packaged product on the planet. But it does not tell you what to do with that data. The interpretation is on you. For someone who has never tracked food before and tends to fall off diets, Noom's structure could help build the habit. For someone who already understands macros and just needs a reliable logging tool, MFP's database depth and device integrations are hard to beat. Pricing side by side. | / | Noom Weight | MFP Free | MFP Premium | MFP Premium+ | | Monthly cost (annual plan) | $17.42 | $0 | ~€6.67 | ~€8.34 | | Monthly cost (month-to-month) | Higher (varies) | $0 | Not listed | €24.99 | | Free trial | 7 days | N/A | 7 days | 7 days | | Food database | Colour-coded system | 20M+ foods | 20M+ foods | 20M+ foods | | Macro tracking | Basic | Yes | Yes (custom goals) | Yes (custom goals) | | Barcode scan | Limited | Paid feature | Yes | Yes | | Coaching | Optional (included) | No | No | No | | Psychology lessons | Yes | No | No | No | | Meal planner | No | No | No | Yes (1,500+ recipes) | | Device integrations | Limited | 35+ apps | 35+ apps | 35+ apps | Noom's pricing reflects the coaching and curriculum. MFP's pricing reflects database access and logging tools. They are priced for different products because they are different products. Where each one falls short. Noom's gap: macro tracking. If you are trying to hit 180g of protein on a lean bulk or dial in a specific carb-to-fat ratio for a cut, Noom's colour system does not provide that resolution. You are working with broad categories (green, yellow, orange) rather than gram-level targets. For anyone following a structured macro plan, that is a real limitation. MFP's gap: behaviour change. The app gives you a dashboard, not a plan. If you open MFP, see you are 400 calories over by 3pm, and have no idea what to do about it, the app will not help you figure that out. PCMag puts it directly: MFP is "tightly focused on calories" and should not be confused for a weight-loss program. There is also the database accuracy question. MFP's food database is largely user-submitted. With 20 million entries, duplicates and incorrect entries exist. You can mitigate this by favouring verified entries and cross-checking against nutrition labels, but it adds friction. Which one works for macro tracking. If you are counting macros in grams, MyFitnessPal is the more capable tool. Custom macro goals, per-meal breakdowns, micronutrient tracking, and a barcode scanner that covers most packaged foods make it purpose-built for that workflow. Noom is not designed for macro tracking. Its food categorisation system groups foods by caloric density, which is useful for portion awareness but does not translate to "I need 40g of protein at this meal." For a deeper look at macro-friendly trackers, see its MyFitnessPal alternatives comparison, which covers apps specifically built around macro targets. If your main question is whether MFP or Lose It handles calorie tracking better, Maccy break that down in Lose It vs MyFitnessPal. The hardgainer angle. If you are trying to gain weight with a fast metabolism, neither Noom nor MFP is specifically designed for that goal. Noom's program is weight-loss oriented by default. MFP is goal-agnostic (you can set it to gain, lose, or maintain), but it does not coach you on calorie-dense food strategies or meal timing for a surplus. For hardgainers, MFP's database depth is the more useful feature. You can log calorie-dense foods precisely, track whether you are actually hitting your surplus target, and see your weekly trend. The 47% underreporting gap that derails most weight gain attempts shows up clearly when you track every meal in an app with granular data. Noom's psychology lessons could help if your problem is consistency (forgetting meals, skipping eating windows), but its food system nudges you toward lower-calorie options, which is the opposite of what a hardgainer needs. Pick based on your actual problem. Choose Noom if: you have tried tracking before and quit, you tend to eat emotionally, you want structured guidance on what and why to eat, and you do not need gram-level macro data. The coaching and daily lessons add value when the core issue is behaviour, not information. Choose MyFitnessPal if: you know your macro targets, you want a fast logging experience with the largest food database available, and you prefer to make your own decisions about what to eat. The free tier handles basic calorie tracking. Premium unlocks the tools (barcode scan, custom macros) that make daily logging fast enough to sustain. Choose neither if: you want an app that sets your macros, adjusts them over time, and tells you what to eat at the gram level without daily psychology lessons. That is a different category of tracker entirely.

Put that burger down! MyFitnessPal's AI coach tells you what to eat next to stay in shape. New AI feature uses your real food logs, nutrition goals, and eating habits to deliver personalised advice 11 June 2026 / 15:16 BST 11 June 2026 / 17:45 BST Chances are you've probably got a nutrition app like MyFitnessPal on your smartphone. If so, good. They're amazing at keeping track of what you've eaten. Heck, I used one myself to lose around 38 kg. But figuring out what to eat next is usually where things get trickier. I spent countless nights staring at a jar of peanut butter and a bowl of celery, wondering what I was doing with my life. For example. MyFitnessPal is hoping to change that with AI Coach - an AI-powered feature that analyses a user's logged meals, calories, macros, and nutrition goals to provide personalised recommendations. Rather than acting as another generic chatbot, the tool apparently works from information users have already entered into the app over time, using their own eating habits as the starting point for advice. Available through a dedicated Coach tab, the feature can answer natural-language questions or offer suggestions through preset prompts. According to MyFitnessPal, users can ask for healthier restaurant choices, meal-prep ideas, ingredient swaps, or ways to hit protein and macro targets before the end of the day. The coach also factors in remaining calorie allowances, nutrition goals, and logging history when generating recommendations. The idea is to bridge the gap between collecting nutrition data, and actually understanding what it means. The company says that more than 280 million people worldwide use the app, giving it access to one of the largest nutrition datasets in the industry. Its food database now contains more than 20 million items, while the company says two decades of nutrition expertise have helped shape the feature. Elsewhere, the company also states that AI Coach can provide contextual insights into eating habits, recommend food swaps and recipe ideas, help users close protein or macro gaps, and even explain how to get more from MyFitnessPal's existing features. Of course, the real test will be whether the advice actually feels useful, rather than simply repackaging information users could already find elsewhere in the app. The weight loss journey is littered with failed attempts and shameful Pop-Tart wrappers. I know. I've been there. Any tool that promises to aid you should be approached with caution, given the snake oil out there. But MyFitnessPal is a go-to for anyone looking to lose weight by tracking calories, and if the new tool works as intended, then it's good news all round. Esat Dedezade Contributor About. Esat has been a gadget fan ever since his tiny four-year-old brain was captivated by a sound-activated dancing sunflower. From there it was a natural progression to a Sega Mega Drive, a brief obsession with hedgehogs, and a love for all things tech. After 7 years as a writer and deputy editor for Stuff, Esat ventured out into the corporate world, spending three years as Editor of Microsoft's European News Centre. Now a freelance writer, his appetite for shiny gadgets has no bounds. Oh, and like all good human beings, he's very fond of cats.