MyFitnessPal or Yazio? Foodvisor or Lifesum? Twelve head-to-heads, and the blind spot they all share.
Every verdict at a glance: who wins on what, and what neither of them calculates.
The Lean Team · 6 min read · Updated 1 September 2026
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Every mainstream app relies on a formula published 35 to 105 years ago. These equations estimate metabolism from weight, height and age, never from body fat.
How these head-to-heads are judged
Four measurable criteria, applied identically to all twelve head-to-heads, plus each app's calorie expenditure formula.
Food database
The number of available entries and their reliability. A large catalogue saves time on packaged products and local brands, but community databases contain wrong entries: the same chocolate bar can exist in fifteen versions with fifteen different values.
MyFitnessPal wins on volume, the legacy of fifteen years of contributions. Cronometer wins on reliability, with data mostly drawn from verified sources such as the USDA. These are two different qualities, often confused.
Logging speed
The real time it takes to log a full meal. This is the criterion that decides whether you quit: an accurate but slow app ends up deleted after three weeks.
Three methods coexist: searching a database, barcode scanning, and photo scanning of the dish. Photo is fastest for home cooking, least accurate on quantities. Weighing your food remains the accuracy benchmark, at the cost of time.
Usability
Day-to-day readability and onboarding quality. This looks secondary, but it is not: adherence predicts results better than calculation accuracy. A rough estimate followed for six months beats a perfect calculation abandoned after ten days.
Free access
The share of features usable without a subscription. Some apps lock barcode scanning, others detailed macros, others leave the essentials open. This criterion does not rate a price but the real scope of the free version.
The calorie expenditure formula
This is the criterion comparisons forget, even though it sets your daily target. Every app in this comparison estimates your basal metabolic rate from weight, height, age and sex, then multiplies the result by an activity multiplier you pick yourself at signup.
Two problems follow. First, these formulas ignore your body fat, even though fat tissue burns very little energy compared with muscle, liver or brain. Second, the activity multiplier is self-declared and frozen: it measures neither your real steps, nor your workouts, nor digestion, nor the drop in metabolism that comes with a prolonged deficit.
MyFitnessPal or Yazio?
Yazio for usability, MyFitnessPal for the catalogue.
MyFitnessPal
YazioThe detailed analysis
MyFitnessPal relies on Harris-Benedict, a formula published in 1919. Yazio moved to Mifflin-St Jeor, published in 1990. On paper Yazio is more modern; in practice the gap between the two formulas stays marginal because neither factors in your body fat. Both ask you to pick an activity multiplier at signup, and that multiplier never moves again, whatever you actually do with your days.
What MyFitnessPal does better. A much larger food database, inherited from fifteen years of community contributions. Useful if you eat niche products or a lot of local brands. Its integration ecosystem with watches and sports apps is also the richest on the market.
What Yazio does better. A more readable interface, better-built onboarding, integrated meal plans. Yazio is more pleasant day to day for someone starting out who needs guidance rather than configuring everything themselves.
Neither measures your NEAT from your real steps, nor adjusts your metabolism when your deficit drags on.
Foodvisor or Yazio?
Foodvisor to photograph your meals, Yazio for a structured plan.
FoodvisorYazioThe detailed analysis
Foodvisor bets everything on photo recognition of dishes, Yazio on nutrition plans and guidance. On calorie expenditure, both use Mifflin-St Jeor 1990 with a self-declared activity multiplier. The difference between them therefore plays out entirely on food entry, not on the accuracy of your expenditure.
What Foodvisor does better. Photo scanning a dish avoids manual entry. Handy for mixed meals and home cooking that is hard to break down line by line. The time saved is real on non-packaged meals.
What Yazio does better. More polished meal plans, recipes and progress tracking. Yazio structures a multi-week goal better and holds up better over time for a beginner.
Photo scanning solves calorie input. Neither solves the other half: calories burned.
Two men, 80 kg each, 1.80 m, 30 years old. The first at 12 % body fat, the second at 30 %. A weight-height-age formula gives them the same number. Their real metabolism differs by roughly 260 kcal per day.
Lifesum or Yazio?
A close call: same formula, same logic, a matter of interface.
LifesumYazioThe detailed analysis
Lifesum and Yazio share the same technical base: Mifflin-St Jeor 1990 and an activity multiplier chosen at signup. Choosing between them is a matter of interface taste, not a gap in method. Neither stands out on calculation accuracy.
What Lifesum does better. More refined design, qualitative food scoring, themed diets (keto, high protein) better showcased.
What Yazio does better. Clearer weight tracking and goal projection, a slightly richer European food database.
Both give you a fixed target. Your metabolism, however, drops during a prolonged deficit.
Lifesum or MyFitnessPal?
MyFitnessPal for the database, Lifesum for the experience.
LifesumMyFitnessPalThe detailed analysis
MyFitnessPal remains the historical benchmark for food catalogues, with the drawback of sometimes wrong community entries. Lifesum favours a more controlled but shallower database, in a more polished interface. On expenditure, Harris-Benedict 1919 for MyFitnessPal, Mifflin-St Jeor 1990 for Lifesum: two formulas that both ignore your body composition.
What Lifesum does better. A markedly more modern interface, qualitative meal scoring, better day-to-day readability.
What MyFitnessPal does better. The largest food catalogue on the market, many third-party integrations, a long history.
Neither recalculates your BMR from your body fat, the factor that separates two people of the same weight.
Foodvisor or MyFitnessPal?
Foodvisor for speed, MyFitnessPal for completeness.
FoodvisorMyFitnessPalThe detailed analysis
Two opposite philosophies of food entry: the photo versus searching a catalogue. Foodvisor estimates portions from the image, which is fast but remains an estimate. MyFitnessPal requires typing but gives exact control over quantities when you weigh your food.
What Foodvisor does better. Photo scanning of a full dish, real time saved on non-packaged meals and home cooking.
What MyFitnessPal does better. Quantity accuracy when you weigh your food, a very large catalogue, many integrations.
The real error is not only on the plate: it is in an expenditure estimated without your body composition.
Cronometer or FatSecret?
Cronometer without hesitation if micronutrients matter to you.
Cronometer
FatSecretThe detailed analysis
Cronometer is the most serious app on the market for micronutrients, with data mostly drawn from verified sources such as the USDA. FatSecret positions itself on free access and a community catalogue, without particular scientific ambition on nutritional accuracy.
What Cronometer does better. Tracking of more than 80 micronutrients, verified data, a lean mass option available in the BMR settings.
What FatSecret does better. Broad free access, an active community, decent barcode scanning, few locked features.
Cronometer accepts a lean mass figure, but it is up to you to know it. Without a reliable measurement, the option stays theoretical.
FatSecret or MyFitnessPal?
MyFitnessPal for the catalogue, FatSecret for free access.
FatSecretMyFitnessPalThe detailed analysis
Both rely on a community food catalogue and a self-reported log. FatSecret leaves more features accessible without a subscription. MyFitnessPal keeps the edge on data volume and integrations with the sports ecosystem.
What FatSecret does better. Core features accessible without paying, a simple interface, no permanent paywall.
What MyFitnessPal does better. A deeper food database, an integration ecosystem with watches and sports apps.
Both apply an activity multiplier you chose once and for all.
Total expenditure breaks down into BMR + NEAT + EAT + TEF, with metabolic adaptation modulating BMR during a deficit. Mainstream apps estimate the whole thing with a single self-declared multiplier.
FatSecret or Yazio?
Yazio for structure, FatSecret for free access.
FatSecretYazioThe detailed analysis
Yazio invests in meal plans and guidance. FatSecret remains a classic food diary, very accessible, without a strong editorial direction. Two different approaches to the same problem, with the same limitation on expenditure calculation.
What FatSecret does better. Few locked features, immediate onboarding, broad free access.
What Yazio does better. A guided path, recipes, a clearer goal projection over several weeks.
Structuring a goal is pointless if the starting number is estimated by a population formula.
Cronometer or Yazio?
Cronometer for data rigour, Yazio for comfort.
CronometerYazioThe detailed analysis
Cronometer aims at nutritional accuracy, Yazio at adherence. Two different audiences: one wants to audit their diet in depth, the other wants to hold a target without spending too much time on it.
What Cronometer does better. Verified food data, complete micronutrient tracking, configurable BMR settings.
What Yazio does better. A friendlier interface, better long-term adherence for a beginner.
Neither rigour nor comfort makes up for an expenditure calculated without your body fat.
Foodvisor or Lifesum?
Foodvisor for photo logging, Lifesum for overall tracking.
FoodvisorLifesumThe detailed analysis
Foodvisor concentrates its product effort on image recognition. Lifesum builds a more complete tracking experience, with food scoring and guided diets. The choice depends on what holds you back: logging, or motivation.
What Foodvisor does better. Estimating a dish from a photo, very useful for home cooking.
What Lifesum does better. More polished long-term tracking, better progress readability, themed diets.
Both display a static target while your expenditure varies every day.
Foodvisor or Noom?
Two products not playing the same game: a tool versus a programme.
Foodvisor
NoomThe detailed analysis
Noom sells a behavioural programme with coaching, Foodvisor sells a fast logging tool. Noom works on habit and the psychology of eating, Foodvisor on the friction of logging meals. Comparing the two amounts to comparing guidance with a tool.
What Foodvisor does better. Photo scanning, direct calorie tracking, no programme commitment.
What Noom does better. Behavioural guidance, educational content, human follow-up.
Noom works well on adherence. But its calorie target comes from a formula without body fat, just like everywhere else.
Cronometer or Foodvisor?
Cronometer for the data, Foodvisor for the speed.
CronometerFoodvisorThe detailed analysis
Cronometer favours accuracy and traceability of nutritional data. Foodvisor favours logging time. One demands rigour, the other saves it. Both estimate your expenditure in the same way.
What Cronometer does better. A verified database, detailed micronutrients, advanced settings.
What Foodvisor does better. Photo recognition, near-instant logging of a full meal.
Accuracy on one side, speed on the other. Expenditure stays just as roughly estimated in both cases.
What none of these apps calculates
Whatever the head-to-head, the winner shares the same limitation as the loser. Total energy expenditure is made of four building blocks, plus one factor that modulates them.
BMR: basal metabolic rate
The energy burned at complete rest, meaning 60 to 70 % of total expenditure. It is the heaviest block, so the one where an error costs the most.
Population formulas estimate it from weight. Yet two people of 80 kg, one at 12 % body fat and the other at 30 %, do not have the same lean mass and therefore not the same metabolism. The gap commonly reaches 200 to 300 kcal per day, invisible to every app in this comparison. Lean recalculates BMR from real body fat, measured by AI BodyScan, via a patented proprietary model.
NEAT: non-exercise activity
Walking, climbing stairs, standing, moving at work. It is the most variable block from one person to another, and from day to day within the same person. An activity multiplier chosen once at signup cannot represent it: a 3,000-step day and a 14,000-step day do not produce the same expenditure, yet give the same target in these apps.
EAT: exercise
Workouts proper. Most apps do add them, but on a rough self-reported basis, often a generous one. The expenditure of a session depends on the sport, intensity, duration and body mass.
TEF: digestion
Digesting costs energy, and that cost depends on what you eat: protein demands markedly more than carbohydrates and fats. A protein-rich diet therefore raises total expenditure at equal calories. No app in this comparison calculates TEF from the macros actually eaten.
Metabolic adaptation
During a prolonged deficit, the body reduces its expenditure. This is why weight loss stalls after a few weeks even though nothing changed in the diet. The calorie target set at the start gradually becomes wrong.
No mainstream app models this phenomenon. Lean calculates it and applies it as a coefficient that modulates BMR week after week, based on your real data.
That is why a head-to-head between two of these apps plays out on usability and the food database, never on the accuracy of the number. They all rely on the same estimate.
Get Lean, Stay Lean
iOS and Android. The BodyScan AI works from a single photo. No skinfold calliper, no bioimpedance scale, no DEXA.
Frequently asked questions
MyFitnessPal or Yazio?
Foodvisor or Yazio?
Why compare the competitors with each other?
What do they all have in common?
Where does Lean stand?
Internal links
- Lean comparisons hub · every app against Lean.
- Free TDEE calculator · no signup required.
- Understanding TDEE in detail.
- MyFitnessPal alternative: 5 apps compared.
- How to count your calories.
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