Welcome to Calorie Counter! 👋 If you're just getting started, this guide will walk you through the main features and show you where to find everything you need to start tracking your food, activity, and progress.
🎯 Start with your calorie and macro goals
When you first set up the app, your daily calorie and macro goals are automatically calculated based on the information you provide, such as your age, height, weight, sex, activity level, and fitness goal.
Your daily calorie goal appears on the main screen and shows the estimated amount of calories you can eat each day to work toward your chosen goal. If you select weight loss goal, the calculation already includes the calorie deficit needed to support that goal:
✍️ Note: If your calorie goal seems unusually low or changes after you log a workout, your Energy Expenditure mode may be set to Activity Tracking. In this mode, your goal can start lower and increase as you log workouts, allowing you to eat back the calories burned through exercise. For example, a 1,200-calorie goal can increase to 1,600 after logging a 400-calorie walk.
You can change your Energy Expenditure mode in Profile settings.
👉 For a detailed explanation of how this works, see What is Energy Expenditure and how do I adjust it?
Below your calorie goal, you'll also see your daily macro targets for:
green letter F — fats
blue letter C — carbohydrates
yellow letter P — protein
🍽️ Log your meals
To start tracking what you eat, tap Add next to Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, or Snacks, or tap the Plus ➕ icon in the bottom menu. You can also search for a food or enter your meal directly in the search bar below:
You can choose whichever food logging method is most convenient for you:
Search our food database
Use AI Text Recognition
Use AI Photo Recognition
Scan a nutrition label or barcode
Create a New Food
Create a Custom Recipe
Use Quick Add option
Each method is designed for different situations, so you can choose the one that works best for your meal.
👉 You can find detailed instructions for each option in How can I log my food?
🏃 Track your water intake, steps, activity and weight
The Water widget lets you set your water intake goal and keep an eye on your hydration throughout the day:
The Steps widget shows your daily steps synced from Apple Health, so you can keep track of your movement without having to enter steps manually:
In the Activity widget you can log your daily activity and workouts:
Tracking your activity helps the app understand how active you are and, depending on your Energy Expenditure mode, may affect your daily calorie goal.
👉 Learn more about logging and managing your workouts in How do I add a workout/activity? and how activity affects your calorie goal in What is Energy Expenditure and how do I adjust it?
In the Weight widget you can log your daily Scale Weight and track your True Weight over time, which helps you understand your longer-term weight trend:
👉 For an explanation of these two weight values, see What’s the difference between Scale Weight and True/Trend Weight?
📈 Check your progress
Your Progress section gives you a broader view of how you're doing over time:
Here you can find detailed graphs and statistics on your:
Nutrition
Weight
Water intake
Activity
Steps
You can view your statistics across different time periods, making it easier to spot trends, visualize your progress, and see how your habits change.
If your lifestyle, goals, or preferences change, you can retake the initial goal-setting quiz to recalculate your calorie and macro targets. In the Progress tab, tap the toggle icon in the Goal section to start the quiz again:
There you can update settings such as:
Fitness goal — lose, maintain, or gain weight
Current and goal weight
✍️ Note: If you set a new weight goal in the quiz, the weight graph in the Goal section of the Progress tab resets and starts tracking from a new point. This change cannot be reverted.
Your previous weight logs and overall statistics are not deleted and you can still view them in the Weight section of the Progress tab.
Nutrition program — Smart, Guided, or Manual
Activity level
Step goal
Once you complete the quiz, your calorie and macro targets will be recalculated based on your updated answers.
👉 The full instructions for updating your goals are listed in How do I change my calorie and macro goals?
👤 Customize your plan in Profile
Tap the person icon in the top left corner of the main screen to open your Profile settings:
Here you can:
Choose your weight goal — lose, maintain, or gain weight and specify your current and goal weight
Select your nutrition program — Smart, Guided, or Manual
Change your Energy Expenditure mode — Estimation or Activity Tracking
Choose your preferred weight, height, distance, water, and food units
Change the app language
Connect Apple Health to sync workouts, activity, steps, and weight data
You can return to these settings whenever you want to update your plan or preferences.
✨ Discover more in Explore
Tap the square icon in the bottom menu to open the Explore tab:
In this tab you can find:
Ready-made meal plans
Recipe ideas for different preferences and diets
Helpful nutrition, fitness, and wellness articles
Whether you're looking for something new to cook or want to learn more about nutrition and fitness, Explore gives you additional ideas and resources to support your goals.
You're all set! 🎉 These basics should help you get started with Calorie Counter app and begin your journey toward a healthier lifestyle.
If you need help with a specific feature, contact our Support team through the in-app chat and we'll be glad to assist!