Pretty good app honestly. Logging meals is fast and the macro breakdown is easy to read. Photo scan gets confused on some Indian dishes though, fix that and it's 5 stars for sure.
Fast Food Calorie Counter App That Reads the Tray โ
You are standing at McDonald's, or waiting on a Domino's box, or holding a Subway wrapper, and you want the number for what is actually in front of you. The chain publishes calories, but for the standard build: no extra sauce, the size printed on the board, none of the swaps you made at the counter. Subway still ships its US table as a PDF you have to open and read sideways on a phone. NutriScan takes one photo of the tray, splits it into items, lets you fix the portion, and adds the result to today's total.
What the number on the menu board is really telling you ๐ฌ โ
It is telling you about one specific build of one specific item. McDonald's own US product pages, checked in September 2026, put a Big Mac at 580 calories and a McChicken at 390 calories with 14 grams of protein and 560 milligrams of sodium. World Famous Fries run 230 calories small, 320 medium and 480 large. A burger and fries is therefore anywhere from 810 to 1,060 calories, and the gap is a single word said at the counter.
Then there is the accuracy of the published figure itself. A JAMA study published in July 2011 measured 269 items from 42 restaurants by bomb calorimetry. Averaged across everything, the restaurants were close, off by about 10 calories per portion. Individually they were not: 50 of the 269 items, 19 percent, carried at least 100 calories per portion more than the restaurant said. Lower calorie items skewed high the most, which is the opposite of what a person ordering the light option wants.
None of that makes the menu board useless. It makes it a starting estimate that needs your order laid over it, which is the job a photo does in a second.
What a drive-through order leaves you to work out ๐งพ โ
The tray, not the standard build
One photo of the whole tray comes back as separate items, each with calories, protein, carbs and fat, plus fiber, the top micronutrients and a NutriScore. Tap plus or minus to move a side from medium to large, type an exact weight, or add the dip cup by speaking it. Free accounts get 5 photo scans a week; manual and voice entry are unlimited.
Cooking method as an input
8 food type tags including restaurant and street food, 11 cooking methods, four oil levels. Deep fried and grilled do not come back with the same number.
A total that survives lunch
The Home screen carries calories and macros against your target all day, so a 580 calorie burger at 1 pm shapes what dinner can be.
Sodium and micros, not just calories
Fast food is usually a sodium question as much as a calorie one. Every meal shows the top micronutrients and a NutriScore, on the free account.
A history you can question
Meals stay in a timeline with a monthly NutriScore calendar, and NutriBites answers questions about them: how many times did I eat out last week, what did those days cost me in sodium. Everything also syncs to Apple Health or Google Fit, and a favorite order can be repeated with one tap instead of scanned again.
How the scan works, step by step ๐ ๏ธ โ
Photograph the tray before you start eating
Open NutriScan, tap the camera and take one photo of the whole tray. Tag it as restaurant or cafe from the 8 food type tags, pick the cooking method from 11 such as deep fried, grilled or oven baked, and set the oil level across four steps. Type or speak anything the camera cannot see, such as extra sauce or a second dip.
Fix the portion and the extras
The tray comes back as separate items, each with calories, protein, carbs and fat, plus fiber, the top micronutrients and a NutriScore. Tap plus or minus to move a side from medium to large, type an exact weight, delete what you left in the wrapper, or add the drink the photo missed by typing or speaking it.
Watch the rest of the day close around it
Every logged meal adds to today. The Home screen shows calories and macros against your target, so a 580 calorie burger at 1 pm is already priced into what dinner can look like. The monthly calendar keeps a NutriScore for each day.
MyFitnessPal, Lose It! and NutriScan on a fast food order ๐ โ
| MyFitnessPal | Lose It! | NutriScan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finding the chain item | Search a database of over 20.5 million foods, restaurant dishes included | Search a database of over 32 million foods and exercises | Photo of the tray, no menu search |
| Photo logging | Yes, AI meal photo logging | Smart Camera reads a barcode or the food itself | Yes, then you correct what it got wrong |
| Cooking method and oil as inputs | No | No | 11 methods and four oil levels on every scan |
| Portion correction | Edit the serving | Edit the serving | Plus and minus, or type the weight |
| Running daily total | Yes | Yes | Yes, on the Home screen |
| Meal plan with a grocery list | No | Meal planning on Premium | 28 day plan and a weekly or monthly grocery list on Premium |
| Cost | Free tier, paid Premium | Free tier, paid Premium | Free tier; Premium about 59 dollars a year |
Lose It! puts macro tracking behind Premium under Advanced Tracking, by its own feature page. MyFitnessPal's strength is the database: if you know exactly what you ordered and it is a standard item, typing it in works. The photo route earns its place when the order is not standard, which at a counter is most of the time.
Leaving room for a fast food meal on purpose ๐ โ
Premium builds a 28 day diet plan from a form: goal, body numbers, eating schedule, food restrictions, and a cuisine list you multi-select from, American included. Each meal slot gives two options with a quick recipe and a portion size, the grocery list generates weekly or monthly and copies out in one tap, and Edit Plan reruns the form when the week changes. If the plan's macros do not match how you actually eat, Modify Macros under Profile lets you set protein, carbs and fat yourself and the calories recompute. Monika, the voice nutritionist, will also log a meal for you while you are still in the car.
The point is not to make fast food disappear from the week. It is to know that Tuesday's burger costs 580 calories before you decide what Tuesday's dinner is.
Want the daily number first? Run it through the calorie calculator. The AI calorie counter page covers the scan itself in more depth, and if you are moving off a database tracker, the MyFitnessPal alternative page is the closer comparison.
What people are saying
Real reviews from people tracking their meals with NutriScan.
Finally sticking to a diet plan because of this app ๐๐ป
Surprisingly fun to use? Lost 1 kg in 4 days just by logging stuff and keeping my NutriScore green. Still on the free side, will probably grab Premium soon.
You take a photo and seconds later you have your macros and micronutrients. That's basically why I stuck with it.
Been using it 2 days now and liking it so far. First week is free so not much to lose.
Did some homework before installing and yeah, the photo scan accuracy is legit. NutriScore is solid too. Keep building, this is great.
Just started but it looks promising. Big plus that you can try it for free.
Finally a calorie counter without ads or upsells every two screens. Photograph the meal, done. Free, simple, exactly what I needed.
Found it right when I needed help fixing my eating. Really glad I did.
Solid pick if you want to track calories and stay on a diet plan without overthinking it.
Lost weight using this. The diet plan kept me honest on bad days. People sleep on how much diet actually matters.
Tracks calories, macros, and even the small stuff like micronutrients. If you're trying to build muscle, this is the app to get.
150k+ downloads and a 4.6 star average across the app stores.
Scan the next one and see ๐ฑ โ
Install it, photograph your next takeout order, and decide from the breakdown rather than from a feature list.
๐ What you get
5 photo scans a week, free
Plus unlimited manual and voice logging. Premium makes scans unlimited.
Portion you control
Size upgrades, extra sauce, half a side left in the box. Fix it and the fix is what gets saved.
Today's total, always visible
Calories and macros against your target on the Home screen, every day from zero.
A 28 day plan on Premium
With a weekly or monthly grocery list, editable macros, and cuisines you actually eat.
New accounts get a 7 day free trial of Premium. When it ends you land on the free plan with everything you logged still there.
Frequently Asked Questions โ โ
How many calories are in a Big Mac with fries? โ
McDonald's own US product pages put a Big Mac at 580 calories, and World Famous Fries at 230 calories for a small, 320 for a medium and 480 for a large. The same order lands anywhere between 810 and 1,060 calories depending on which size the counter handed you, which is the argument for logging the tray you were given rather than the meal you meant to order.
What are the highest protein fast food options? โ
Protein per calorie is the number worth comparing, and the chain publishes it. A McChicken is 390 calories with 14 grams of protein and 560 milligrams of sodium, so it is a light order but a weak protein order. Grilled chicken, a plain burger without the sauce and a bowl without the tortilla usually do better. NutriScan prints protein next to calories on every scanned item, and the Home screen shows how much protein the day still has room for.
Does it handle a custom order? โ
That is what portion correction is for. A published calorie number describes the standard build, so a large side instead of a medium, extra sauce, no cheese or a second patty all move it. After the scan, tap plus or minus on any item, type the exact weight, remove what you did not eat, or add an item by typing or speaking it. The corrected numbers are what gets saved to the day.
How accurate is a photo scan of fast food? โ
NutriScan's own testing puts food recognition at 95 percent or better for foods the database covers. That number is about naming the food, not about judging how much of it is in the box, so the portion, the cooking method and the oil level stay editable after every scan. Restaurant numbers are estimates too: a JAMA study published in July 2011 measured 269 restaurant items by bomb calorimetry and found 50 of them carried at least 100 calories per portion more than the restaurant stated.
What does the free plan include, and what is Premium for? โ
Free gives you 5 AI photo scans a week that reset weekly, unlimited manual and voice logging, calories and the four macros, fiber and micronutrients on every meal, a NutriScore on every meal, unlimited meal history, water tracking and the fasting timer. Premium makes scans unlimited and adds the 28 day diet plan, the weekly and monthly grocery list and the full Progress tab, for about 59 dollars a year. There are two plans, Free and Premium.
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