The 5 Best Macro Calculators of 2021

Track your macros to reach your fitness goals

by
Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication
Anita George
Writer
Anita George is a writer who has been covering technology since 2013. Her work has appeared in Paste Magazine and she holds both B.A. and B.S. degrees.
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Anita George
Updated on January 04, 2021
reviewed by
Ryan Perian headshot
Ryan Perian
Lifewire Tech Review Board Member
Ryan Perian is a certified IT specialist who holds numerous IT certifications and has 12+ years' experience working in the IT industry support and management positions.
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Article reviewed on Oct 20, 2020
Ryan Perian

Macros (or macronutrients) are an important factor in any attempt to eat healthier and improve your physical fitness. We've found the best macro calculator apps to make the tedious work of counting your carbs, fats, and protein intake much easier.

01
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Stupid Simple Macros: Best for Fitness Beginners

A screenshot of the Stupid Simple Macros app on an Android phone. This screenshot shows the app's Food Grid feature that allows you to choose from a grid of food icons to to log the food you eat everyday. Above the grid is a bar graph that keeps track of the number of macros you have consumed.
What We Like

  • Shows macro calculations by grams rather than percentages.


What We Don't Like

  • Overloaded, crowded, and unintuitive interface; the ability to set your own fitness goals is weirdly hidden in the app settings menu.


  • Barcode scanner feature is only available to Pro Membership users. 


The Stupid Simple Macros app might be the best first step in improving your diet as you work to reach your fitness goals. The app helps you create a diet based on your macronutrient consumption limits, and it even warns you when you're nearing your macro limit. 

Stupid Simple Macros is free to download and use for Android and iOS, but you can upgrade to premium versions that focus on diets and fasting. The Pro version with diets is $9.99 and the Pro version that includes fasting is $12.99. You can also just purchase a fasting upgrade for $2.99.

02
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Calorie, Carb & Fat Counter: A Pocket Nutritionist and Personal Trainer

A screenshot of the Calorie, Carb and Fat Counter app on an Android HTC smartphone. The screen shows four food items logged into the food diary part of the app. Here, the app automatically calculates and shows the amount of calories and macros the user has consumed and the amount they will still be allowed to consume for the rest of the day.
What We Like

  • Has a responsive, accurate barcode scanner to quickly log your food items.


What We Don't Like

  • Sometimes the app can be slow to load. Especially when it's trying to load your diet plan. 


Virtuagym's Calorie, Carb & Fat Counter app doesn't just keep track of the macros you consume daily. After you answer a few questions, the app will recommend a diet plan based on your lifestyle, body type, and fitness goals. 

The Calorie, Carb & Fat Counter app also provides exercise recommendations for how to burn the calories you just consumed. It'll even tell you how long you need to do the activity to burn the total amount of calories for the food item you logged.

The app, which is sometimes referred to as Virtuagym Food, is free to download and use for ​Android and iOS. You can purchase their Pro Membership for either a monthly or annual fee. Per month, it's $6.99; per year is $33.99. The Pro Membership offers features such as advanced privacy options and the ability to add your own activities. 

03
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Simple Macro: Easiest Macro Calculator to Use

A screenshot of the Simple Macro app on an Android smartphone. In this screenshot you can see the Simple Macro Home screen which shows a small graph of all three macros consumed over a period of one day. The Home screen also shows the number of grams per macro consumed.
What We Like

  • Easy to read graphs. 


  • You don't have to sign up for an account or sign in through Facebook or Google to use the app. 


What We Don't Like

  • You have to manually enter each food item you consume since there's no food item database or barcode scanner. You also have to plug in all the macro numbers yourself, though you can save and reuse the information for food items you frequently eat. 


With Simple Macro, what you see is what you get: a very straightforward macro calculator app that primarily focuses on the numbers of what you eat every day. With easy to read graphs and a breakdown of each individual food item's macros, Simple Macro is perfect for those who just want to monitor their nutrition and nothing else.

The Simple Macro app is free to download and use, and is available only on Android. 

04
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Mike's Macros: Best Macro Calculator for Bodybuilding

A screenshot of the Mike's Macros app on an Android smartphone. The app can set optimal macro goals for you based on your goals and your body type. And on this screen it can show you how much of each macro you've consumed on a given day out of the total number macros you're allowed to have.
What We Like

  • Simple, easy to use interface.


  • The FAQ included in the app has helpful nutrition and exercise tips, along with answers to possible questions about the app itself.


What We Don't Like

  • The Get Motivated videos feature. It's a collection of motivational videos from developer and online fitness coach Mike Vacanti. The videos themselves aren't bad, but they seem unnecessary for what is supposed to be a bare-bones macro calculator app.


For strength training and bodybuilding enthusiasts, the most notable feature of Mike's Macros is it offers different macro consumption targets for training days and rest days. Otherwise, it's a very simple macro calculator app.

Sometimes referred to as the On The Regimen app, Mike's Macros is free to download and use for Android and iOS. 

05
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Yazio Calorie Counter: Best All-in-One Fitness and Macro Calculator App

A screenshot of the Food Diary screen on the Yazio app for Android.
What We Like

  • Can quickly and easily find food items in their database to log your food in your food diary. 


  • Can log your physical activities; the app incorporates the number of calories you burned into the total number of calories you can still consume for the day. 


What We Don't Like

  • The app itself offers meal plans and suggests recipes, but you can only access one recipe per day and one meal plan (total) when using the free version of the app. All other recipes and meal plans require the Pro version.


Of all the macro calculators on this list, Yazio Calorie Counter is the best at multi-tasking your fitness goals. The app helps you keep up with your exercise goals and develop a personalized diet plan to gain muscles or lose weight.

Yazio also helps count your burned calories, tracks your level of physical activity and exercise, and can be synced with Google Fit. 

Yazio Calorie Counter is free to download and use on Android and iOS, but Yazio Pro can track nutrients like fiber and salt, is ad-free, and provides access to healthy recipes. Yazio Pro has many subscription plans to choose from, with its least expensive being a one month plan for $6.99.

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