MyNetDiary vs. Lose It!: Features, Database & Accuracy Compared

Sergey Oreshko - Co-founder and CEO of MyNetDiary

Lose It! has the larger food database, with more than 60 million items. It also has lower recent user reviews than MyNetDiary, takes 23% more taps to log the same week of meals, and tracks 27 nutrients in its top tier compared to MyNetDiary's 108. Database size is not the same as database quality. Here is how MyNetDiary and Lose It! stack up across food database accuracy, nutrient depth, logging speed, free-tier value, AI tools, and recent reviews.

Lose It! and MyNetDiary both target weight management, but they optimize for different things. Lose It! prioritizes scale and social motivation: a 60 million-item crowdsourced database, head-to-head challenges, and friend leaderboards. MyNetDiary prioritizes accuracy and nutrient depth, with a database built on research-grade sources and verified by nutrition staff.

This comparison covers the dimensions that determine which app you will still be using six months in: food database quality, nutrient tracking depth, logging speed, pricing, and what is included before you pay anything. (For a broader look at how diet tracker apps compare across the market, see our diet tracker apps insider guide.)

What Are MyNetDiary and Lose It!?

MyNetDiary, founded in 2005, is a nutrition tracking and weight management app that optimizes for accuracy over raw database size. It offers a generous free tier, with barcode scanning, voice logging, shopping list, and no ads, and requires no account creation or email address. You can start tracking immediately and anonymously. Premium adds Meal Scan (photo-based food logging) and other advanced tracking features. Premium Plus adds AI Coach, AI Restaurant Menu Scan, and AI Suggest Meals. The app is available on iOS, Android, and the web.

Lose It! is the second most recognized calorie tracking app after MyFitnessPal, with a database of more than 60 million crowdsourced food items and a long history of social and gamification features. The app is operated by FitNow, Inc., which has been part of Ziff Davis (NASDAQ: ZD) since its 2022 acquisition and now sits within the Everyday Health Group division alongside brands like Everyday Health, What to Expect, and BabyCenter. Lose It! offers a free tier, a Premium tier, and a lifetime option. The app is known for challenges, friend connections, and a community-driven weight loss approach. Lose It! is available on iOS, Android, and the web.

MyNetDiary vs. Lose It!: At a Glance

Core Features Comparison

MyNetDiary's free tier includes barcode scanning, voice logging, custom macro and nutrient targets, shopping list, and no ads. Lose It! Premium is required for most of these in Lose It!. The full feature-by-feature breakdown is below.

Which Food Database Is More Accurate: Largest or Verified?

Lose It! Food Database

Lose It! has the largest claimed database in the category at over 60 million items. The size means you can almost always find what you are looking for, from obscure restaurant dishes to international packaged foods. The trade-off is that the database is overwhelmingly crowdsourced; users submit entries that go live with limited professional review, leading to duplicate entries with conflicting calorie counts, outdated data for reformulated products, and occasional inaccurate numbers. The burden of choosing the correct entry falls on the user.

MyNetDiary Food Database

MyNetDiary's 2M+ database is smaller than Lose It!'s, but it is built on USDA FoodData Central and NCC (Nutrition Coordinating Center, University of Minnesota) research-grade sources. On top of that foundation, MyNetDiary's nutrition staff verifies entries against manufacturer and restaurant information, removes duplicates, and updates entries when products are reformulated. The database grows by 2,500 to 3,500 foods daily through the PhotoFood service, where users submit photos of nutrition labels and trained staff review each submission before it goes live.

That verification work is why the database has been licensed to power more than 30 other diet apps and services, and is currently used in 5 academic and clinical research trials.

Food Logging Speed: MyNetDiary vs. Lose It!

In a January 2026 7-day food logging test on iOS (127 entries, 70 unique foods, 13 barcode scans), MyNetDiary required 711 actions to complete the week. Lose It! required 872, or 23% more. On a per-entry basis, MyNetDiary averaged 5.60 actions per food vs. 6.87 for Lose It!. In meal-by-meal head-to-head, MyNetDiary was first or tied for first in 21 of 27 meals; Lose It! won 4. Full methodology and results are in our calorie tracker speed test.

Lose It!'s search-as-you-type interface and "My Foods" tab keep most logging quick. Time was lost in two specific places: most foods defaulted to grams-only serving sizes (requiring manual conversion for cups, tablespoons, or ounces), and the crowdsourced database returned multiple near-duplicate entries that the user had to scroll through and compare. Over a realistic week of three meals a day, those frictions compound. MyNetDiary's verified, deduplicated database lets users pick the first matching result and move on, with serving sizes available in the units they actually use.

What Does MyNetDiary's Free Tier Include vs. Lose It!?

The free-tier gap is where these two apps diverge most sharply. Both offer food logging, weight tracking, and basic exercise tracking at no cost. After that, they part ways.

MyNetDiary's free tier covers what most users actually need on day one: barcode scanning, voice logging, full 108-nutrient tracking, custom macro and nutrient targets, shopping list, an in-app community, and no ads, all without requiring an email address or account. Lose It! puts most of that behind its $79.99/year Premium paywall, including the barcode scanner (a recurring complaint in recent user reviews), voice logging, custom targets, water and step trackers, recipe import, and future-meal planning.

Lose It!'s free tier shows ads. Multiple Lose It! Premium subscribers in our April 2026 review analysis also reported seeing ads despite paying, including auto-playing pop-ups and GLP-1 promotions. MyNetDiary has never shown third-party ads in any version.

How Many Nutrients Does Each App Track?

MyNetDiary tracks 108 nutrients per food entry, the most of any consumer nutrition tracking app. This covers all macronutrients, the full spectrum of vitamins and minerals, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acid subtypes, and individual amino acids. Lose It!'s free tier displays only the 4 nutrients found on a typical food label (calories, fat, carbs, protein); Premium expands tracking to 27 nutrients.

Beyond the raw count, what matters is nutrient completeness, the number of nutrient fields actually populated per food entry. An app that nominally tracks 100 nutrients but only fills in 20 of them for any given food is not giving you the full picture. MyNetDiary's NCC database license adds amino acid profiles and fatty acid subtype data that crowdsourced databases like Lose It!'s generally do not include, and the staff-verification process ensures each entry includes as many nutrient fields as the label and source databases provide.

Sue Heikkinen, MS, RDN, the lead Registered Dietitian Nutritionist on this article, notes: "In clinical practice, a four-nutrient view of a client's diet is rarely enough. When someone reports fatigue or recurring deficiencies, the answer is usually hiding in iron, vitamin D, magnesium, or B12, none of which appear on a standard nutrition label. A tracker that only shows calories and macros is fine for general weight loss, but for clinical nutrition work, the depth has to be there."

Which AI Features Does Each App Offer?

AI tools are becoming a real differentiator between nutrition apps. Lose It! offers AI Meal Scan in its Premium tier — photograph a plate and the app attempts to identify the foods. MyNetDiary's AI lineup is broader.

• Meal Scan (Premium): Photo-based meal logging.
• AI Coach (Premium Plus): Personalized nutrition coaching available 24/7. Analyzes your food diary and offers tailored guidance. For example, it flags a 200-calorie breakfast followed by a 400-calorie lunch as front-loading your deficit, and suggests a more balanced distribution to avoid evening overeating. Lose It! has no equivalent.
• AI Restaurant Menu Scan (Premium Plus): Photograph a restaurant menu and the app identifies nutritious options that fit your goals. No other major nutrition app offers this feature.
• AI Suggest Meals (Premium Plus): Accepts free-text instructions like "suggest a high-protein vegetarian dinner under 500 calories" and proposes meals that fit your targets.
• Voice Logging (free): Describe a meal in natural language and the app logs it. Lose It! includes voice logging in Premium only.

What Planning and Health Tracking Does Each App Offer?

Planning what to eat ahead of time, and adjusting calorie targets as your weight changes, is where the two apps diverge most. Lose It! is minimal here, with no built-in recipe library, no meal planner, and no diet-specific customization.

MyNetDiary Premium includes Premium Diets developed by Registered Dietitians (High-Protein, Low-Carb, Keto, Mediterranean, Vegetarian, and Vegan), 650+ RD-developed recipes, a full-featured Meal Planner, and Premium Menus (weekly meal plans prepared by RDs). On the algorithm side, MyNetDiary's Advanced AutoPilot (Premium) recalculates your calorie target weekly from your actual weight trend, so the number adjusts as your metabolism shifts. Lose It! does not offer adaptive metabolism adjustment. MyNetDiary Premium also offers four calorie-estimation methods (EER, RMR, BMR by body fat percentage, and BMR Mifflin-St. Jeor); Lose It! uses Mifflin-St. Jeor only.

Exercise calorie add-back also differs. MyNetDiary offers 0% or 50% in the free tier and full 0% to 100% adjustment in Premium. Lose It! offers 0% or 100% only. MyNetDiary's 50% default reflects the well-documented overestimation of calorie burns by fitness trackers.

Beyond food, MyNetDiary's free tier already covers water, step tracking, weight forecasting, BMI, and body measurements. Premium adds medication tracking, blood glucose tracking, full body measurements (12 metrics), and up to 50 custom trackers for sleep quality, stress, blood pressure, A1C, ketones, and symptoms. Lose It! requires Premium for water, step, and sleep tracking and offers body measurements and blood glucose in Premium, but no medication tracking and no custom trackers.

MyNetDiary Premium also includes GLP-1 Companion, a feature suite designed specifically for users taking Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Zepbound, and other GLP-1 medications. GLP-1 Companion adapts daily nutrient targets to the reduced appetite and altered eating patterns common on these medications, tracks injection schedules and side effects, and prioritizes protein intake to help preserve lean mass during rapid weight loss. Lose It! has no equivalent feature.

Pricing: Free, Premium, and Lifetime Plans

Pricing as of May 2026. Check each app for current rates.

MyNetDiary Premium is $20/year less than Lose It! Premium, and MyNetDiary's lifetime plan is $120 less. MyNetDiary's free tier also includes barcode scanning, voice logging, and custom macros, which require Premium in Lose It!.

Community, Recent Reviews, and User Sentiment

Community is the area where Lose It! has a genuine edge. It offers head-to-head and group challenges focused on weight loss, exercise, and other health goals through its main app and a separate Challenges app for team and corporate wellness. Combined with friend connections, support groups, logging streaks, and milestone celebrations, the social experience is one of the strongest in the category. With over 57 million users and 150 million pounds lost collectively, Lose It! has built significant community proof.

The MyNetDiary side takes a different approach: an in-app community with public and private groups, comments, recipe sharing, success stories, and free food sharing with family. Log dinner once with the barcode scanner and everyone in the household gets the entry. There are no formal head-to-head challenges. Friends and family connections are free in both apps.

All-time App Store ratings can be misleading because they accumulate over many years. Recent reviews tell you what users actually experience today. In our April 2026 Diet App Scorecard, which analyzed 2,995 US App Store reviews across leading calorie tracking apps, MyNetDiary received the highest average user rating at 4.54 out of 5. Lose It! averaged 3.46.

Reviewers from MyNetDiary praised the staff-verified food database, free barcode scanning, and ad-free free tier, features that competing apps' reviewers frequently cited as missing or paywalled. Lose It! users credited the app for significant weight loss but raised three recurring complaints in April: recent UI changes that added steps to logging (particularly the removal of the quick-add button), the migration of barcode scanning behind the $79.99/year Premium paywall, and intrusive ads (including auto-playing pop-ups and GLP-1 promotions) that several premium subscribers reported still seeing despite paying.

These are monthly ratings calculated from current reviews only, not the all-time star ratings the App Store displays. For a step-by-step guide to choosing a calorie tracker app, see our best free calorie tracking apps roundup.

Pros and Cons

MyNetDiary strengths: verified database with the deepest nutrient tracking, AI Coach and Restaurant Menu Scan unique to MyNetDiary, RD-developed recipes and Premium Diets, free Professional Connect for dietitians, and a free tier that does not require an account.

MyNetDiary drawbacks: smaller database (occasional custom entries needed for niche items), no head-to-head challenges, English-only interface.

Lose It! strengths: largest food database in the category, strong social and gamification features (challenges, friend leaderboards, streaks), 57M+ users with 150M+ pounds lost collectively, interface available in 8 languages, and a lifetime plan.

Lose It! drawbacks: crowdsourced database with reported accuracy concerns, barcode scanning and voice logging paywalled behind Premium, only 4 nutrients in the free tier and 27 in Premium, ads in the free tier (and reportedly in Premium for some subscribers), and no AI coaching, recipe library, meal planner, or custom health trackers.

The Bottom Line: Which App Should You Choose?

Choose MyNetDiary if: accuracy and nutrient depth matter more to you than database size, you want barcode scanning and AI voice logging without paying or signing up, or you track health metrics alongside food (medications, blood glucose, custom trackers). Premium adds RD-developed recipes, meal plans, Keto/Mediterranean/other dietitian-built Premium Diets, the Advanced AutoPilot adaptive metabolism algorithm, and GLP-1 Companion for users on Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, or Zepbound. Premium Plus adds AI Coach, AI Restaurant Menu Scan, and AI Suggest Meals.

Choose Lose It! if: social motivation is what keeps you logging, you need an app interface in a language other than English, or you frequently log obscure regional or international packaged foods where Lose It!'s 60M-item database has an edge.

For everyone else, MyNetDiary's combination of staff-verified data, 108 nutrients per entry, faster logging, a broader AI toolkit, and a genuinely useful free tier makes it the stronger pick. MyNetDiary is trusted by registered dietitians through its free Professional Connect platform and used by dietitians and health professionals worldwide.

Track your meals and nutrients with confidence. Try MyNetDiary free at www.mynetdiary.com.

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