Medscape Medical News
Food Tracking for Weight Loss: It Works if It's Used, Even Imperfectly, Study Finds. By Kathleen Doheny, September 15, 2026.
Medscape reported on MyNetDiary's peer-reviewed study of 5,132 users, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, and asked clinicians at Stanford, Stony Brook, NYU and Montefiore Einstein to review it. In the study cohort, each additional day of food tracking per week was associated with 35% higher odds of clinically significant weight loss, and users who tracked two to three days a week still lost 7.35% of body weight on average. Obesity medicine physician Kevin Gendreau, MD, on the practical takeaway: "the bar is lower than people assume."
Good Housekeeping
Best Food Tracking Apps, 2026 update. Good Housekeeping Institute Nutrition & Fitness Lab.
Good Housekeeping Institute's registered dietitians included MyNetDiary in their 2026 roundup of food-tracking apps, calling it a solid choice for people who want strong free features.
Nutrients (peer-reviewed journal)
Evaluating the Quality and Comparative Validity of Manual Food Logging and Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Food Image Recognition in Apps for Nutrition Care. University of Sydney, Charles Perkins Centre, August 2024.
Researchers screened 800 top-ranked apps in Australia's app stores and evaluated 18 in depth. MyNetDiary received the third-highest quality score of the 18 apps (4.29 of 5) and scored above average for behavior-change potential (17 of 21). Free app versions were tested.
Read the study (open access) →Nutrition and Health (peer-reviewed journal)
Quality and nutritional accuracy of mHealth nutrition apps in Türkiye: A validation study using food records. Istanbul Gelisim University, July 2026.
In an independent evaluation of 17 nutrition apps, MyNetDiary received the highest overall quality score on the Mobile App Rating Scale (4.39 of 5) and offered the most features of any app assessed. In the accuracy test against dietitian-compiled three-day menus, MyNetDiary's calorie estimates were within about 0.2% of the reference records, among the closest of the 13 apps tested. Free app versions and standardized menus were used.
Read the study →Forbes Health
Best Weight Loss Apps Of 2024
"MyNetDiary scores high points for having a free version that includes food, water and exercise tracking, “gentle” meal and weigh-in reminders, shopping lists and diet and nutrition blogs. As an added benefit, MyNetDiary includes guidance and information on a wide range of diets, including low carb, keto, vegetarian and vegan—so no matter what eating plan you choose, you can feel supported."
Read the story →Today's Dietitian Magazine
MyNetDiary app was featured in the January 2022 Issue of Today's Dietitian Magazine.
Read the story →Forbes Health
Best Calorie Counting Apps of 2022
"Aside from tracking and logging your calories, this app is chock-full of features ranging from advice to diet-specific recipes. It’s also great if you have an Apple Watch, as its design is particularly optimized for the device. Additionally, this app makes logging food quick and easy, thanks to its built-in barcode scanner and robust foods database."
Read the story →MSN
The 10 Best Free Nutrition Apps
"This app helps users track their calories from each meal, made easier with a barcode scanner and a huge database of different kinds of food, from a bacon and egg sandwich from Starbucks to plain whole milk."
Read more →Good Housekeeping
11 Best Weight Loss Apps of 2022, According to Registered Dietitians
MyNetDiary named the best weight-loss app for people with diabetes
"MyNetDiary has one of the best interfaces of all the apps we reviewed, and it comes with a customizable dashboard. The app creates a daily calorie budget based on age, weight, height and sex. Users can choose between a weekly weight loss rate or a target date. In addition to a social tab that contains a dietitian’s blog, there is a learning section that contains education on different dietary preferences such as low-carb, keto and high-protein diets."
Read more →Diabetes Forecast
MyNetDiary's Diabetes Tracker app has been recognized and reviewed as one of the favorite apps in the 2017 Diabetes Forecast Consumer Guide!
Read the story →
Women's Health
Women’s Health praises MyNetDiary’s science-backed approach and clear guidance, calling it a reliable way to lose weight when you follow the program.
Read the story →Healthline
MyNetDiary is among the Best Nutrition Apps! Healthline's editors carefully selected each winner based on quality, usability and contribution to the community. More about Best Weight Loss apps
Runner's World
MyNetDiary is among the Best Weight Loss apps by Runner’s World!
Unlike most tracking apps, MyNetDiary doesn’t require you to create an account, making it a more private option. You can customize the home screen to see your most important data points. The database, which provides information about food items, is updated daily, and users can submit photos of foods not available so they can be added.
Read the story →The Wall Street Journal
Testing Online Calorie Counters
MyNetDiary.com was the quickest to use because it guesses what users are searching for as they start to type. Many of the specific foods we ate (like Japanese Kani salad) were listed thanks to 300,000 contributions from the site's community.
NPR
Web Sites: Weight Loss Tactical Support
Online weight-loss programs are gaining in popularity. Some people are finding they would rather try to lose weight through a database than meet in a group.
NBC
Apps to help you keep those New Year Resolutions
Number one on everyone’s New Year’s Resolutions is losing weight and the top system I can recommend you get right now is called My Net Diary. There’s a version that works on your computer but for the Blackberry, Droid and the iPhone and iPad, their $2.99 app is the best one I’ve ever experienced.
FOX 5 in DC
Mobile Apps to Improve Your Life
MyNetDiary member, TonyBinDC, is interviewed about using the MyNetDiary App to lose 130 pounds in a year!
Health Magazine
America’s Healthiest Diet Tricks
Keep a diary — People who kept food diaries doubled their weight loss, according to research.
MyNetDiary App noted as an option for the “techie.”
Chicago Tribune
iPhone Health and Fitness Applications
Cell phones can't actually get hot enough to pop popcorn, regardless of what you may have seen on YouTube. But some do have other unexpected abilities that just might help improve your quality of life.
JMIR mHealth and uHealth (peer-reviewed journal)
The Most Popular Smartphone Apps for Weight Loss: A Quality Assessment. University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre and University of Leeds, December 2015.
Researchers scored 28 of the most popular weight-loss apps on a 100-point quality scale covering accountability, scientific accuracy, features, usability, and behavior-change techniques. Two MyNetDiary apps placed tied-second and fourth of the 28, behind Noom, against an average score of 47.3.
Read the study (open access) →Group Health
GroupHealth reviews of 2017's top nutrition diet apps for Android and iPhone. Calorie Counter & Food Diary by MyNetDiary is one of several popular food diary apps.
American Journal of Preventive Medicine
Evidence-Based Strategies in Weight-Loss Mobile Apps, UMass Medical School
MyNetDiary ranks highest in independent study: Physicians interested in referring patients to weight-loss mobile apps should select apps such as MyNetDiary that are free and include the highest proportion of evidence-based strategies.