Lose It! is one of America's most popular calorie counters, and it earned that spot. It's friendly, the streaks are genuinely motivating, and the food database is huge. But it was designed for an era when weight loss meant food logging and willpower. If you're one of the millions of Americans now on Zepbound, Wegovy, or one of the new GLP-1 pills, you've probably noticed the gap: there's nowhere to log a dose.

This guide covers what Lose It! does well, where it falls short in 2026, and how Healthcount compares as a free alternative.

The quick answer

What Lose It! does well

Credit where it's due. Lose It! has been around since 2008 and it shows in the polish:

• A simple, beginner-friendly interface that makes daily logging feel easy
• Streaks and challenges that help habits stick
• A large food database with barcode scanning
• Syncs with Fitbit, Apple Health, and Garmin
• A web version at loseit.com if you prefer logging from a keyboard

If all you want is a gamified calorie counter and you don't mind ads, it does that job well. Its Premium price is also lower than most rivals.

Where it falls short

The complaints you'll hear from long-time users tend to cluster around four things:

• Ads on the free tier. Banner ads sit inside your logging screens until you pay.
• The best features are paywalled. Snap It photo logging, meal planning, and the deeper insights all need Premium, about $39.99 a year as of July 2026.
• No GLP-1 medication tracking. There's no place to log a Zepbound or Wegovy dose, no dose reminders, and no side effect logging. The common workaround is running Lose It! for food plus a separate shot-tracker app for the medication. Two apps for one journey.
• No progress photos or measurement tracking built around a medication journey. Weight is only one signal, and on a GLP-1 it's often the slowest one to move week to week.

Side-by-side comparison

Here's how the two stack up, feature by feature:

One honest note on that table: Healthcount doesn't scan barcodes yet. Instead you snap a photo of the plate and the AI estimates calories and macros, or you type what you ate in plain English ("2 eggs, toast with butter"). For home-cooked meals and restaurant plates, that's usually faster than hunting for the right packaged item anyway.

What each one costs

As of July 2026, Lose It! pricing looks like this:

• Free tier: $0, ad-supported, core logging only
• Premium: about $39.99 a year, removes ads and unlocks Snap It, meal planning, and insights
• Lifetime: $299.99 one-time

To be fair, $39.99 a year is cheap next to MyFitnessPal Premium. But Healthcount's answer is simpler: everything is $0. No ads, no credit card, no feature gates. The AI photo logging that Lose It! puts behind Premium is free here, and the GLP-1 tracking doesn't exist in Lose It! at any price.

The GLP-1 gap: why this matters more in 2026

Here's the thing that changed. Weight loss in the US now often comes with a prescription, and the medication is usually the most expensive and most logistically fussy part of the whole journey:

• Zepbound (tirzepatide) runs $299 to $449 a month through LillyDirect self-pay depending on dose, against a list price around $1,086.
• Wegovy (semaglutide) is $349 a month for standard doses through NovoCare Pharmacy, with a $199 intro offer on starter doses through the end of 2026.
• The new pills arrived too: the Wegovy pill (oral semaglutide 25 mg, FDA approved in December 2025) at $149 to $299 a month, and Foundayo (orforglipron, FDA approved in April 2026) at $149 to $349. Both are taken daily, not weekly, so there's more to keep track of, not less.
• With commercial insurance and a manufacturer savings card, copays can drop to $0 to $25 a month, and since July 1, 2026 eligible Medicare Part D enrollees pay a flat $50 copay under the GLP-1 Bridge program. The savings cards legally exclude anyone on Medicare, Medicaid, or TRICARE.

There's also a detail that makes tracking worth actual dollars: LillyDirect's discounted self-pay prices require refills within a 45-day window. Miss it and the price reverts to a much higher standard rate. A tracker that counts down your remaining doses and nudges you to reorder isn't a nice-to-have at that point.

So the modern setup question is: you're paying hundreds a month for the medication, managing a weekly injection or a daily pill, watching for nausea during dose increases, and trying to keep protein up while your appetite is switched off. Should your tracker really pretend none of that is happening?

Healthcount was built around exactly this. You log doses (weekly shots or daily pills), get reminders, record side effects with severity, and see all of it on the same timeline as your food and weight. When your prescriber asks how the last month went, you have an answer that isn't reconstructed from memory. (Healthcount started in the UK, where the same tirzepatide molecule is sold as Mounjaro for weight loss; the tracking works the same either way.)

Who actually switches

The GLP-1 user running two apps

Food in Lose It!, shots in a separate tracker or a notes app. Switching puts doses, side effects, food, and weight in one place, so patterns actually show up. That week of nausea lines up with the dose increase. The stall lines up with the skipped doses.

The free-tier user tired of ads and paywalls

If you've been on free Lose It! for years, squinting past banner ads and bumping into Premium prompts, Healthcount just removes the friction. The photo logging you'd pay for is free.

The person who wants more than a scale number

Progress photos, 7-point body measurements, period tracking, and weekly trend views. On a GLP-1, the tape measure and the photos often move before the scale does.

Switching in practice

There's no import wizard, and honestly you don't need one. The whole move takes a few minutes:

• Open healthcount.app in any browser and sign up free. No app store, no download.
• Enter your current weight and goal.
• If you're on a GLP-1, set up your medication and dose schedule so reminders start working.
• Snap a photo of your next meal. That's your first log.

Your Lose It! history stays in your Lose It! account, and you can export it to CSV there if you want a copy. Going forward, everything you put into Healthcount is exportable as a full ZIP, photos included, whenever you want it.

FAQs

Is Healthcount really free?

Yes. Every feature is free, with no ads, no credit card, and no usage limits. There's no Premium tier holding features back.

Can I scan barcodes like in Lose It!?

Not yet. Healthcount uses AI meal photo analysis and natural-language logging instead. Snap the plate, or type "chicken burrito bowl", and you get calorie and macro estimates in seconds.

Does Healthcount track Zepbound and Wegovy doses?

Yes. Weekly injections like Zepbound and Wegovy, and daily oral GLP-1 doses too. You get dose reminders, refill nudges, and side effect logging with severity, all next to your food and weight.

Do I need to download an app?

No. It runs in any browser on iPhone, Android, or desktop.

Can I import my Lose It! history?

There's no direct import today. Most people start fresh with their current weight and goals, which takes about two minutes.

What if I'm not taking a GLP-1?

It works fine as a standalone food, weight, and health tracker. The medication features stay out of the way until you need them.