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Every year, I make New Year’s resolutions for self-improvement, and every year, I fail to live up to them. Most of these goals are unrealistic to begin with, so by February every year, they quietly fall apart. The start of 2025 was no different either. Until I got tired of repeating the same cycle, setting goals, abandoning them, and pretending «I’d start fresh» in 2026.
This time, I decided to take my health and physical activity extremely seriously. Like everyone else, I’ve tried diets, workout plans, and fitness trackers, and I’ve also tried to track my goals by journaling on paper. None of them stuck. I realized the problem wasn’t the effort; it was sustainability. I didn’t need another temporary fix. I needed something that would force consistency without feeling overwhelming. That’s when I found this app, and it changed everything for me.
A closer look at Lifesum's food and goal tracking
Logging every bite, sip, and small win
Credit: Shimul Sood / MakeUseOf
Lifesum works as a daily food diary that keeps everything in one place. Based on your height and weight, it calculates how many calories you can consume in a day, shows how many you’ve already eaten, and tracks the calories you’ve burned. There are a lot of food apps that let you do that by simplifying nutrition, but this one’s different. All you need to do is log your meals — breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks — either by snapping a photo or manually entering the ingredients. The app then breaks the meal down into carbs, protein, and fats. If you also log the portion sizes in grams, the calorie count of that meal becomes even more accurate.
Beyond meals, Lifesum also tracks your everyday goals. You can also log your daily wins, like your water intake and how many fruits and vegetables you eat, which makes the experience even more personalized.
Since you control these goals, keeping them realistic is the key to staying consistent.
And to tie it all together, this data can also be synced with the Health app on your smartphone, keeping your tracking seamless across platforms.
The right way to use this app
What consistency looks like in real life
Credit: Shimul Sood / MakeUseOf
The first thing I do every day is log my meals, water intake, fruits, and veggies. I also make a point of adding the kilocalories I burned. My goal is simple: stay in a calorie deficit by eating a little less, prioritizing protein, and burning at least 700 calories a day.
This is a goal shaped around my body and its needs. Since everybody’s body type is different, setting goals that align with your own body makes far more sense than following a one-size-fits-all approach.
That’s why tracking activity matters just as much as tracking food. If you skip it, you’re basically guessing how well you’re doing. The app’s Daily Progress view helps here, as it shows how my days track across the week and whether I’m actually staying consistent.
One feature I genuinely like is the Life Score. It gives me a clear snapshot of my eating and exercise habits, along with personalized tips to improve my score week by week. All it takes is a short test to get started. Plus, the regular notifications about my goal weight and nutrition keep my goals at the back of my mind throughout the day without feeling pushy. That kind of nudge is exactly what I need.
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On days when I have absolutely no idea what to cook but still want to eat clean, the Recipes tab saves me. It suggests meals I can actually make, shows the calorie count, and even tells me how long it’ll take to prepare. It feels like I have an AI cook helping me plan my meals, and that makes sticking to my New Year’s resolutions feel a lot more doable. Beyond this, the app supports balanced, fasting, high-protein, keto, and low-carb diets. If you’re unsure where to start, a quick assessment helps the app recommend a meal plan aligned with your lifestyle.
Most of this sits behind a subscription
Free to try, premium to actually progress
Credit: Shimul Sood / MakeUseOf
While Lifesum offers a free version, most of its key features are locked behind a subscription. On the free tier, you’re limited to barcode scanning and manual meal tracking. The premium plan includes features such as photo-based food logging, personalized nutrition feedback, motivational guidance, macro tracking, and access to over 1000 recipes and meal plans.
Lifesum claims that users are five times more likely to achieve results with Premium, and based on my experience, I completely agree. Priced at around $24 a year, it’s easily one of the best investments I’ve made in my health so far.
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The slow build that actually lasts
Nothing fixes your life overnight. Real change comes from gradually reshaping your routines, like sleeping and waking up on time, eating well, and moving your body regularly, because that is where the real impact lies. Starting the day might seem small, but it shapes everything that follows. This alarm app makes it easy to stick to that rhythm, letting your other healthy habits fall into place naturally.
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Lifesum didn’t fix everything for me either. It didn’t ask me to overhaul my life overnight or achieve unrealistic goals. Instead, it helped me to show up every day, log my meals, stay aware of my choices, and build consistently without feeling overwhelmed. For someone who’s failed more New Year’s resolutions than they’d like to admit, that shift alone has been powerful.
If you’re looking for a quick fix, this probably isn’t it. But if you’re tired of starting over every January and want a system that quietly keeps you accountable, Lifesum makes a strong case for itself. And for the first time in a long time, this feels like progress I can sustain.
Lifesum
OS Android & iOS app Subscription Price $24
Instead of overcomplicating nutrition, the app fits into your routine however you want it to. Whether you speak, snap, scan, or type, logging meals takes seconds. Once your food is tracked, it quietly connects the dots between what you eat and how it affects your energy, focus, and progress, helping you stack small, realistic wins that add up over time.
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