Food logging apps for your clients

For registered dietitians in private practice, a food logging app may be helpful for effective counseling sessions with your clients. A few questions to consider before picking your app of choice:

• Can you easily see what your clients are logging?
• Does the app integrate with your practice management software?
• How easy it the app to use for your ideal clients?
• Do your clients have the option to log their meals with photos? 

Depending on your niche, consider the app that is the best fit for your client and their needs. For dietitians working in weight loss, a food logging app that tabulates calories, servings or exchanges may be most helpful. 

For dietitians working with clients in the disordered eating realm, source apps that do not track triggering information. 

And for those working with people with diabetes, tracking carbs, blood sugars and exchanges may be the best fit. 

Rise Up + Recover

The Rise Up + Recover app is designed for clients in treatment for eating disorders. Your client can log meals, emotions, and behaviors through the app; summaries can be exported to you as the dietitian on the treatment team. 

Given there is no calorie counting involved, this app takes the pressure and anxiety out of food logging for many people. It’s free to use, and currently has a 4.7 out of 5 rating in the App Store.

Recovery Record

Also for dietitians in the field of eating disorders, Recovery Record is designed for use by doctors, dietitians and therapists with their clients in all treatment settings: inpatient, outpatient and residential. 

Recovery Record is HIPAA compliant and can be used to write secure client notes as well as send messages directly to your client. The cost to use is free for your first patient and scales up to $49 per month at the most, based on your client volume. 

Cara Care

Trying to identify food triggers can feel like finding a needle (or three) in a haystack. The Cara Care app allows your digestive health clients to track their meal intake while also tracking their digestive symptoms. This app is designed for your clients with IBS, IBD, GERD and dyspepsia. 

One unique feature of the Cara Care app is that it includes hypnosis to reduce stress and anxiety and calm the gut. The Cara Care app is available for download in the Apple Store and Google Play. 

Nutritionix

Nutritionix is a robust tracking app that allows your clients to track individual foods (ex: an apple), grocery store items (ex: a frozen burrito) as well as menu items from 100s of restaurants (ex: Dairy Queen Turtle Pecan Cluster Blizzard). Your clients will love how quickly they’re able to track their meals using this app. 

Note: Nutritionist syncs with Kalix, a great option for your telehealth software. 

GOmealplans

GOmealplans is a software program and app created by a fellow registered dietitian. Not only can you use this program to create meal plans for your clients with ease, your clients can use the software to track their meals. 

For more information about this menu planning program and others, visit our Meal Planning Tool blog. 

Ate

Ate is a unique food tracking app in that your clients can track their meals and snacks by snapping a quick photo of them. This may be the best fit for dietitians working in the Intuitive Eating realm as the app coaches your client through logging not only their meals and snacks, but also their feelings: all without judgement or shame!

Ate is available for download on the Apple Store and on Google Play. 

New to Intuitive Eating? Read What Does an Intuitive Eating Dietitian Do on our comprehensive blog post.  

MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal is a well known food tracking app with 6+ million foods in their database, including global cuisines. The app can be used to track meals manually, via barcode scanner, by picking items from popular restaurants and even importing recipes from the web. 

Your client can track their weight, exercises and log photos of their body over time. The MyFitnessPal app can sync with many of your client’s other fitness apps, including Fitbit, Garmin, Strava and Jawbone. 

Note: MyFitnessPal syncs with Healthie. via Fitbit integration) however only daily totals populate not individual food entries or photos. 

Diabetes Type 2 by Nourishl‪y

Nourishly is a tracking app that has a non-diet approach. Instead of tracking calories burned and eaten, Nourishly tracks health behaviors. In addition to their main app, Nourishly has released condition specific apps, including Type 2 diabetes and IBS. 

Diabetes Type 2 is a free and HIPAA compliant app that was designed with input from dietitians. It is used to log meals, drinks and blood sugars, but also stress, physical and other factors that influence your client’s blood sugar on a day-to-day basis. 

The app also encourages developing positive mental self-talk and coping skills to support mental health, all through developing healthier lifestyles, too. 

Cronometer

Cronometer is a free tracking app that allows the user to track their calories and 83 different nutrients. Cronometer is adaptable to different dietary plans, including keto, vegan and paleo. It also syncs with devices like FitBit and Garmin.

Your client can track a few different ways, including a barcode scanner, a place to track supplements and popular restaurants can easily be tracked when your client dines out. 

Opt for Cronometer Pro ($24.99 for up to 10 clients and HIPAA compliant) to monitor your clients account and add custom foods/recipes.

Lose It!

Lose It! tracks macros, calories and other nutrients. Your client can track meals and snacks by entering them in manually, scanning barcodes or taking a photo of their meals. 

The Lose It! app syncs with devices like Fitbit trackers, Misfit trackers, Fitbit scales, Garmin trackers, Withings scales, Google Fit, and more.

Monitoring your clients log is feasible via the Ascend for Lose It! app. However, this free tool may be a better fit for coaches that aren’t subject to HIPAA compliance.

Allergy restaurant apps 

How do your clients work on implementing their food safety needs into their real lives? There is an app for that! Anything that can reduce frustration can help your client to stick to their goals. 

Find me Gluten Free

This app helps your client to quickly find restaurants offering gluten-free menu items. The app lets you see restaurants on the map and call or navigate to the restaurant, 

The Find Me Gluten Free app is free to download and use, but the premium subscription offers additional features. This app is well reviewed with a 4.9 out of 5 rating. 

Happy Cow

For dietitians working with vegetarian and vegan clients, we have the app for you! The Happy Cow app allows your client to find vegan and vegetarian restaurants across the US and 183 countries around the world. 

Your clients can also use the Happy Cow app to find health food stores, grocery stores, and farmer’s markets. The app is free to download and use on Google Play. The paid version offers additional features, such as saving favorite restaurant listings to review later and offline. 

Allergy Eats

Allergy Eats has been trusted by users for more than 10 years. Allergy Eats offers detailed information and peer reviews of more than 400,000 restaurants around the US. Your clients can customize the app with their allergies to find restaurants and menu options in their hometown and while traveling. 

Allergy Eats is available for download on the App Store and Google Play. The app is free to download and use. 

Fast FODMAP Lookup & Learn

This app is one option for learning which foods contain FODMAPs and which may be safer for your clients with IBS. As your IBS clients are dining out, they can quickly read through the menu for potentially safe meal options and then use the app to verify their choices. It is free to download and has a 4.7 out of 5 rating. 

Apps for Managing Your Business

As a one-person, mega-CEO of a nutrition business, how  do you keep track of everything? From tasks to expenses, there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes of a nutrition business. 

Good news: there are apps for these needs, too! Keep in mind that the best choices for your business will have the functionality that streamlines your processes as well as be HIPAA compliant. Our HIPAA compliance blog post has many tools and resources for your practice. 

Trello

Trello is a program that can be used on your desktop or on the app to keep track of tasks and to manage projects and teams. It’s perfect to capture ideas and details as you think of them because the app is always available to jot them down. 

Tasks are on cards that can be moved through the processes in your business. Any team member, such as your VA, is privy to the task boards. Notes, comments and suggestions are all housed within the app. 

The cost for Trello is free for individuals to use. Additional fees are based on what extra features you’re adding and which software programs are being integrated. 

Additional project management apps include Asana, Monday and ClickUp. 

Wave

Wave is a software program that you can sync with your business to track your business expenses and invoice clients…for free! Tax session will be far less overwhelming when your expenses are neatly categorized. 

If you would also like to use Wave to process payments or other features, there is a per-transaction fee and monthly fee. 

Hushmail

Hushmail for healthcare is a HIPAA compliant email tool that doesn’t cost a fortune. You might expect a bare bones tool – not so! They have an app that allows you to check your emails on the fly without putting your client’s privacy at risk. The app is available for download via the Apple Store. 

RingRx

Don’t let getting a secure and convenient phone number for your business be complicated. Sharing your personal phone number with clients is definitely not necessary – you can easily add a second line to your smartphone. 

RingRx is a great option for you to have the convenience of a business number  and the flexibility and portability to answer client calls using your cell phone. Features include calls, texting and faxing. RingRx is HIPAA compliant. 

Tip: For a deep dive into HIPAA be sure to check out our detailed post, Unraveling HIPAA Compliance for Your Private Practice.

Toggl Track

Toggl Track is a tool that you can use to track how you’re spending your time. You can add clients and projects and start a timer as you work on tasks. This is helpful not only for tracking billable time, but also to get a sense for how long things actually take in your day-to-day of running your business. The timer within Toggl Track keeps you honest and accountable. 

This helps you to accurately charge for projects, schedule your weeks without going into your overtime. Knowing how long tasks take you to complete can also in the process of hiring a VA. Are you spending five hours a week and to judge if your VA is the right fit for you. 

Best Apps for Dietitians: Key Takeaways

The best apps for dietitians and nutritionists in private practice are the ones that save you time, help you to connect with your current and future clients and streamline your processes. There are 28 apps here for you to consider using. Are there any that we missed? Comment below!