How to Track Macros for Free in 2026

If you’ve ever tried to get serious about your nutrition, you’ve probably hit the same wall everyone else does: the good tracking tools cost money. MyFitnessPal wants £79.99 a year. Cronometer wants £49.99. MacroFactor? £71.99.

For something as fundamental as knowing what you eat, that feels wrong.

The good news? In 2026, you genuinely don’t need to pay for macro tracking. Free tools have caught up — and in some cases, overtaken — their paid competitors. This guide covers everything you need to start tracking macros today, without spending a single penny.

What Are Macros and Why Should You Track Them?

Macronutrients — protein, carbohydrates, and fats — are the three main categories of nutrients your body needs in large quantities. They’re the building blocks of everything you eat.

• Protein builds and repairs muscle tissue, supports immune function, and keeps you feeling full
• Carbohydrates are your body’s preferred energy source, fuelling everything from your brain to your workouts
• Fats support hormone production, nutrient absorption, and cell membrane health

Calories tell you how much energy you’re consuming. Macros tell you what kind of energy. That distinction matters enormously.

Two people eating 2,000 calories a day can have radically different body compositions depending on their macro split. Someone eating 150g of protein will retain more muscle during a calorie deficit than someone eating 60g — even at the same total calories.

Who Benefits from Tracking Macros?

Macro tracking isn’t just for bodybuilders. It’s useful for anyone who wants to:

• Lose fat while preserving muscle
• Build muscle more efficiently
• Understand their eating patterns — most people drastically underestimate how much they eat
• Hit specific nutritional targets for health conditions or athletic performance
• Develop better food intuition over time

The beauty of tracking is that you don’t need to do it forever. Most people find that after 3-6 months of consistent tracking, they develop an intuitive sense for portion sizes and macro content. The tracking builds the skill; eventually, you don’t need the training wheels.

The Problem with Paid Macro Trackers

Let’s address the elephant in the room. Most popular macro tracking apps follow a freemium model that’s designed to frustrate you into paying:

• MyFitnessPal locks barcode scanning frequency, nutrient details, and meal plans behind its £79.99/year premium tier
• Cronometer restricts custom recipes, meal planning, and fasting timers to its £49.99/year Gold plan
• MacroFactor is subscription-only at £71.99/year — there’s no free tier at all
• Lose It Premium gates food insights, meal planning, and advanced tracking behind £39.99/year

The irony is that nutrition tracking is most valuable for people who are just starting their health journey — the people least likely to commit £50-80 a year to an app they’re not sure they’ll stick with.

This creates a barrier to entry that shouldn’t exist. Knowing what you eat shouldn’t be a premium feature.

Free Methods for Tracking Macros in 2026

Here’s what actually works without opening your wallet.

1. AI-Powered Photo Scanning

This is the biggest shift in macro tracking over the past two years. AI can now look at a photo of your food and estimate its nutritional content with reasonable accuracy.

Chowdown is a free AI macro tracker that works exactly like this — snap a photo or describe your meal in plain English, and it breaks down protein, carbs, fats, fibre, and calories instantly. No barcode scanning, no searching through databases, no weighing every ingredient.

The key advantage of AI scanning is speed. Traditional tracking (searching a database, selecting the right item, adjusting portions) takes 2-3 minutes per meal. AI scanning takes about 10 seconds. Over a day with 3-4 meals and snacks, that’s the difference between 10 minutes and 40 seconds of logging time.

Is it as precise as weighing every ingredient on a food scale? No. AI estimates typically land within 15-25% of actual values. But here’s the thing — consistency matters more than precision.

A person who tracks every meal at 80% accuracy will get better results than someone who tracks perfectly for two weeks and then quits because it’s too tedious. The research backs this up consistently.

2. Spreadsheet Tracking

If you prefer total control, a simple spreadsheet works surprisingly well:

1. Create columns for each macro (protein, carbs, fats) plus calories
2. Log each meal throughout the day
3. Use a free nutritional database like the USDA FoodData Central to look up values
4. Sum your daily totals

It’s manual, it’s slower, but it’s free and gives you complete ownership of your data. The main downside is that it requires more discipline and time than app-based tracking.

3. The Hand Portion Method

Not technically “tracking” in the traditional sense, but worth mentioning: you can estimate portions using your hand as a guide.

• Palm = 1 serving of protein (~25-30g protein)
• Fist = 1 serving of vegetables
• Cupped hand = 1 serving of carbs (~25-30g carbs)
• Thumb = 1 serving of fats (~10-15g fat)

This method is less precise but requires zero tools. It’s a good starting point for people who find any form of logging intimidating.

4. Free Tiers of Paid Apps

Some paid apps do offer limited free tiers. MyFitnessPal’s free version still lets you log food manually and see basic macro breakdowns. Cronometer’s free tier includes basic tracking. However, these free tiers are deliberately limited to push you towards paying — expect ads, restricted features, and constant upgrade prompts.

Setting Your Macro Targets

Before you start tracking, you need to know what you’re aiming for. Here’s a simple framework:

Step 1: Calculate Your Calories

Use the Mifflin-St Jeor equation (the most accurate for most people):

• Men: (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) − (5 × age) + 5
• Women: (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) − (5 × age) − 161

Multiply the result by your activity factor:

• Sedentary (desk job, little exercise): × 1.2
• Lightly active (exercise 1-3 days/week): × 1.375
• Moderately active (exercise 3-5 days/week): × 1.55
• Very active (exercise 6-7 days/week): × 1.725

This gives you your maintenance calories. To lose fat, subtract 300-500. To gain muscle, add 200-300.

Step 2: Set Your Protein

Protein is the most important macro to get right. Aim for 1.6-2.2g per kilogram of body weight if you exercise regularly, or 1.2-1.6g per kilogram if you’re mostly sedentary.

Step 3: Set Your Fat

Fat should make up roughly 25-35% of your total calories. Divide your fat calories by 9 (since fat has 9 calories per gram) to get your gram target.

Step 4: Fill the Rest with Carbs

Whatever calories remain after protein and fat go to carbohydrates. Divide by 4 (carbs have 4 calories per gram) to get your gram target.

Example

An 80kg man who’s moderately active and wants to lose fat:

• Maintenance: ~2,500 calories → Target: ~2,100 calories (deficit)
• Protein: 80 × 2 = 160g (640 calories)
• Fat: 2,100 × 0.3 = 630 calories ÷ 9 = 70g
• Carbs: (2,100 − 640 − 630) ÷ 4 = 208g

Tips for Consistent Macro Tracking

Regardless of which method you choose, these principles make tracking stick:

1. Track in Real Time

Log meals as you eat them, not at the end of the day. Memory-based logging is wildly inaccurate — studies show people underestimate intake by 30-50% when logging from memory.

2. Don’t Aim for Perfection

Being within 10% of your targets is excellent. Within 20% is still very good. Stressing over hitting exact numbers leads to burnout.

3. Focus on Protein First

If you can only track one macro, make it protein. It’s the hardest to overconsume and the most impactful for body composition.

4. Make It Frictionless

The easier tracking is, the longer you’ll stick with it. This is where AI-powered tools like Chowdown genuinely shine — taking a photo is faster than any manual logging method, which means you’re more likely to actually do it consistently.

5. Review Weekly, Not Daily

Day-to-day variation is normal. What matters is your weekly average. A high day followed by a low day balances out. Don’t stress if Tuesday is 200 calories over target — look at your weekly trend.

6. Track Everything (Including the Sneaky Stuff)

The handful of crisps. The milk in your coffee. The oil you cooked with. These “invisible” calories add up fast. A tablespoon of olive oil is 120 calories and 14g of fat — easy to miss, hard to ignore at scale.

The Bottom Line

Macro tracking in 2026 doesn’t need to cost you anything. Whether you use an AI-powered tool like Chowdown, a spreadsheet, or the hand portion method, the key is consistency.

The best tracker is the one you’ll actually use. For most people, that means the one that’s fastest and easiest — which increasingly points towards AI-powered solutions that remove the tedium of manual logging.

Whatever you choose, start today. Track imperfectly rather than waiting for the perfect system. Your future self will thank you for the data.

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Ready to start tracking your macros for free? Try Chowdown — snap a photo, get instant nutrition data. Free forever, no strings attached.