Best Weight Gain Apps: Track Calories & Build Muscle Effectively

Sergey Oreshko - Co-founder and CEO of MyNetDiary

Four weight gain apps compared on the thing that stalls a bulk: a calorie target that cannot learn from your results. We checked which apps recalculate your surplus as the scale climbs, how deep their protein and nutrient tracking goes, and what each costs.

The best weight gain app for most people is MyNetDiary. The free app sets a weight gain goal toward a target weight and date and scans barcodes with no ads. It tracks protein and up to 108 nutrients per food entry from a staff-verified database of 2M+ foods. Premium adds Advanced Autopilot, which estimates your energy expenditure from your logged food and Trending Weight and moves your targets as that estimate changes. MacroFactor runs the same kind of adaptive target inside a subscription-only program built for lifters. Cronometer suits people who chart intake against weight and sync devices. MyFitnessPal has the largest crowdsourced database.

We build MyNetDiary, so read our pick with that in mind. We compared how each weight gain app sets a gain goal, tracks calories and protein, and adjusts the plan as your needs change, plus database quality and price. Features and US app store prices are as of October 2026, and speed figures come from our January 2026 test of 127 identical food entries. The same features serve someone regaining weight after an illness and someone bulking for the gym. Their nutrition plans and fitness goals differ; the apps differ in how much of the plan they do for you.

What Makes a Good Weight Gain App?

Apps to help gain weight have four jobs. They set a surplus toward a target weight and date, keep the protein target visible by the gram, show whether the extra calories carried vitamins and minerals, and recalculate the surplus as your expenditure rises. Logging has to be quick enough to keep up with every meal and snack. These are nutrition trackers; none of them programs your training.

• A gain plan, not a calorie counter’s loss plan run in reverse: target weight, date, weekly rate, planned training.
• An adaptive calorie target: an estimate of your actual total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) that updates from your food log and weight trend as new data comes in. A profile formula waits for you to change its inputs. MyNetDiary’s Advanced Autopilot and MacroFactor both work this way.
• Macro tracking by grams or percent, protein by the gram, and nutrient completeness, the number of nutrient fields populated per food entry.
• A verified database on research-grade sources. Food databases differ, and an inaccurate entry for a food you eat regularly distorts the log day after day.
• Fast, ad-free logging with no account required to start.

Quick Comparison: Best Weight Gain Apps at a Glance

Two of the four apps for weight gain adjust targets from your food log and weight trend and two update a formula; the rest of the table covers surplus control, nutrients, database and price, as of October 2026.

Figures for each weight gain app come from the current iOS apps and each company’s official pricing and help pages, checked October 2026.

The 4 Best Weight Gain Apps

MyNetDiary is the best weight gain app for most people. Their entry-level annual paid plans cost between $59.99 and $79.99; the difference is what each does for the money. For the wider field, see our seven-app food tracker roundup.

1. MyNetDiary - Best Overall for Tracking a Calorie Surplus

Best for: the best overall food tracker with fast logging, large verified database and 108 nutrients (best for tracking micronutrients, vitamins, and minerals alongside macros and calories). It hasn’t hidden its core utility behind a paywall.

A gain plan in MyNetDiary, day to day:

1. Set a gain goal under My Weight Goal & Plan: current and target weight, then a date or a weekly rate. The app sets daily calories and macros, and workouts in the Exercise Plan raise the target.
2. Log meals and watch calories and protein against the plan. For example, a 2,800-calorie target with 2,200 calories logged by dinner leaves 600 calories to plan for the rest of the day.
3. Weigh daily and follow Trending Weight on the weight trend graph, which smooths day-to-day fluctuations.
4. In Premium, turn on Advanced Autopilot and the target updates itself weekly.

A gain goal in MyNetDiary with its daily calorie and protein targets.

Features:

• Advanced Autopilot (Premium). An adaptive algorithm: instead of relying only on a profile formula, it estimates your actual energy expenditure (TDEE) from your logged food, logged exercise, and Trending Weight, then updates calorie and macro targets as that estimate changes. Your weight forecast updates with every entry. It is the same approach MacroFactor uses, and it runs for weight gain goals as well as weight loss. It asks for food logs at least six days a week and weigh-ins at least twice a week, and it works best after about three weeks of records, so give it those three weeks.
• Nutrient depth and database: detailed tracking of vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients, up to 108 nutrient fields per food entry including amino acids and omega fatty acids; how many are populated depends on the food. The staff-verified database of 2M+ foods rests on the same research-grade sources as Cronometer (USDA and NCC), with every branded and restaurant entry reviewed by staff, 2,500 to 3,500 foods a day.
• Free: macro planning, with macronutrient targets by grams or percent (protein default 20% of calories); a barcode scan; sleep tracking; and groups and recipe sharing, which give it a community presence at no cost. We do not charge for the basics.
• Speed: 711 actions for 127 entries in our January 2026 test: MacroFactor 877, Cronometer 1,003, MyFitnessPal 1,035 (23%, 41% and 46% more, with MyNetDiary as the base). We counted every tap.

Why it stands out: Free, ad-free tracking with a gain goal plus adaptive planning in Premium: no other food tracking app for weight gain here offers both. In the September 2026 Diet App Scorecard, which averages each month’s written US App Store reviews because reviews describe real daily use, MyNetDiary scored 4.45 out of 5, the highest of these four apps, with a top-three finish in every edition since February!

Price: Free. Premium $8.99 per month or $59.99 per year (Advanced Autopilot, Meal Scan, meal plans), Premium lifetime $179.99, Premium Plus $14.99 per month or $99.99 per year (AI Coach and AI Suggest Meals, its AI-powered meal suggestions).

Start tracking free: App Store | Google Play. No account required.

2. Cronometer - Best for Charting Intake Against Weight and Syncing Devices

Best for: strong device integrations, multi-variable charting and non-English language support, with verified food database.

Features:

• Is the surplus working? Custom charts (Gold) answer that by laying protein or calories over your weight trend.
• Up to 95 nutrients from a curated database of about 1.2M foods. It syncs WHOOP, Oura, Polar, Suunto, Garmin and Dexcom.
• The calorie target is formula-based, updated from your weight and activity, with an optional setting that adds the thermic effect of logged food. It does not recalibrate expenditure from logged intake against your weight trend, as Advanced Autopilot does.
• Downsides: 1,003 actions in our test, 41% more than MyNetDiary; ads in the free tier; logging needs an Internet connection.

Why it stands out: The natural pick for a lifter who already wears a Garmin or a WHOOP and wants intake and weight on one chart. More in our Cronometer vs. MyNetDiary comparison.

Price: Free with ads. Gold $10.99 per month or $59.99 per year.

3. MacroFactor - Best for Flexible Macro Programs

Best for: ideal for athletes and serious macro trackers.

Features:

• Expenditure algorithm: estimates your energy expenditure from logged intake and trended weight change, and a weekly check-in sets next week’s calories and macros. MacroFactor introduced this approach before MyNetDiary added Advanced Autopilot in 2024. Both use logged intake and weight trend to personalize the estimate. This comparison does not test which algorithm estimates expenditure more accurately.
• What MacroFactor adds is a program built for lifters, with three levels of control. Coached sets calories and macros from the rate of gain you choose as a percentage of body weight per week. Collaborative adjusts calories weekly while you set the macro split, and Manual leaves everything to you without the weekly adjustment. Protein can be set per pound of body weight, and an expenditure chart explains each weekly change. If you want a second opinion on your expenditure, it is a differently tuned algorithm with its own weekly workflow.
• About 57 nutrients and 1.36M foods from USDA, NCC and Open Food Facts. In our test it needed 877 actions, 23% more than MyNetDiary.

Why it stands out: If the adaptive target is the only thing you want, MyNetDiary Premium has it for less. MacroFactor earns its price with the program around the algorithm: you choose how much of the plan the app controls.

Price: $11.99 per month or $71.99 per year, with a 7-day trial and no free version.

4. MyFitnessPal - Best for a Large Food Database

Best for: huge crowdsourced food database, most integrations, powerful meal planner.

Features:

• 20M+ items, mostly user-submitted (company-reviewed foods plus public user submissions): an obscure dish is usually there, often in several versions with different numbers.
• Gain goals at 0.5 or 1 lb per week, custom macro targets by percent (by grams in Premium), 21 nutrients and 40+ integrations. Meal planning is a Premium+ feature, a tier above the $79.99 Premium: the Meal Planner builds a weekly meal plan with a grocery list.
• No adaptive TDEE algorithm: the goal recalculates from a formula when you change your weight. The barcode scanner is in Premium (the only free-tier app here that charges for it), the free version shows ads, and it needed 1,035 actions in our test, 46% more than MyNetDiary.

Why it stands out: Breadth: if your bulk runs on a specific protein bar, MyFitnessPal almost certainly has it. See our MyFitnessPal vs. MyNetDiary comparison for the tier-by-tier detail.

Price: Free with ads. Premium $79.99 per year.

Common Weight Gain Mistakes (and How an App Helps Fix Them)

Five problems stall weight gain, and apps for gaining weight can help with each; the first is where the adaptive apps earn their price, and the other four are habits a food log makes visible.

• One calorie target for the whole bulk. Why does it stop working? A heavier body costs more to run and move, so a week-one surplus is smaller by week eight. Advanced Autopilot or MacroFactor re-estimates it. In Cronometer or MyFitnessPal, update your current weight and recheck the target every two to three weeks.
• Reading single weigh-ins. Water, glycogen and sodium swing the scale by a pound or two a day. For progress monitoring, review your weight trend graph weekly, not the single number.
• Losing the surplus on busy days. Autolog your regular meals (Premium) and log as you go, so the gap shows while there is time to eat. If appetite or food volume is the limit, smaller, calorie-dense meals and snacks every few hours add up more easily than three large ones; our dietitians’ weight gain guide covers them. Premium also includes dietitian-designed meal plans if meal planning is the part you skip.
• Protein in one sitting, or protein without calories. Spread protein across meals and keep carbs and fat up. Muscle grows from training plus total calories.
• Calories without nutrients. A 3,000-calorie day of pastries clears the calorie bar and misses iron, calcium, vitamin D and fiber. Check the nutrient report too. This is where nutrient completeness pays off.

Ready to build a consistent calorie surplus without the guesswork?

You get a gain goal, food logging, and calorie and protein tracking free in MyNetDiary. No ads. No judgment. Of the four apps to help you gain weight compared here, only MyNetDiary pairs an ongoing free tier with adaptive planning in Premium.

Twenty million entries sounds like more food. Often it is the same food several times, with different numbers.

MyNetDiary is the app I would hand to a friend, and yes, we built it. Download it free and set a gain goal under My Weight Goal & Plan; a week of logs will show you where the calories go missing. Premium adds Advanced Autopilot for customers who want the target to update itself ($8.99 per month or $59.99 per year).

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