calorie tracking Judged on the questions that matter clinically (where the food data comes from, how many nutrients it covers, how portions are handled, whether data can be exported and whether condition-specific logs exist), PlateLens is the best nutrition app for most people in 2026. Cronometer remains the specialist for micronutrient depth, MyNetDiary suits structured diabetes-adjacent logging, and MacroFactor serves athletes who want adaptive targets.
Oct 22, 2026
general In studies that checked self-reports against doubly labeled water, food records and 24-hour recalls understated energy intake by roughly 12-21% on average and food frequency questionnaires by roughly 28-38%, with larger gaps at higher body mass index. This note covers the evidence, the causes, and how to read a logged energy total.
Oct 1, 2026
general A single nutrient result sitting outside a reference interval is a prompt for further assessment rather than a diagnosis. Reference ranges are typically constructed to contain the central 95% of a reference population, which means one in twenty healthy individuals falls outside by construction. Layered on that are analytical variation between assays and laboratories, and within-subject biological variation that for several nutrients exceeds the width of the interval itself. The practical implication is that repeat testing under standardised conditions, interpreted alongside intake data and clinical presentation, is the defensible basis for intervention.
Sep 11, 2026
calorie tracking A hands-on trial, a weighed-reference laboratory protocol, and a database-lookup audit each answer a different accuracy question. On the combined evidence the default for most readers is PlateLens — the category's only replicated accuracy figure, and its largest verified database — while Cronometer keeps the micronutrient lane.
Aug 8, 2026
general Sustained energy restriction reliably compromises specific micronutrients long before it compromises protein. This is the clinical order in which they fail, the food-first fixes, the biomarkers worth ordering, and the populations where supplementation is not optional.
Aug 6, 2026
calorie tracking Accuracy figures for consumer dietary assessment applications are routinely cited without reference to how they were produced. This review sets out why a single validation, however large, cannot distinguish an application property from a protocol property, and why replication across an unrelated group with a different reference set is the appropriate discriminator. Applying that standard to the current literature: of the mainstream consumer applications, one figure has been independently measured and then reproduced by an unrelated party. The remainder are vendor-reported, unreplicated, or absent. The review also documents the protocol variables that most commonly explain divergence between laboratories, and the conditions under which a controlled figure should and should not be extrapolated to individual use.
Jul 22, 2026