Calorie Count adds new voice feature to iPhone app

The new feature lets users log meals verbally, rather than manually

Calorie Count is a site after my own heart.  It knows that as much as I want to stay on top of my calorie intake, I’m too damned lazy to actually take out my phone and log everything I eat in my Calorie Count app.  So it has proposed a compromise: I keep tracking my calories, and in exchange, Calorie Counter will make it easier for me to log meals by launching a new voice option that will let me enter food choices verbally, rather than manually.

Brilliant?  I think so.  If there’s one thing I know about myself when it comes to my weight-loss goals, it’s that I’m all talk and no substance.  So anything that appeals to my desire to feel good about doing less is an automatic win.

The new voice feature, powered by iSpeech, allows users to log multiple food choices at once in 15-second voice recordings.  You simply hit “record,” say what you ate and how much of it you ate, and the app will automatically scour the Calorie Count database of over 250,000 foods to find the matching item.  Most times, it’s pretty spot on.  Occasionally, it hangs up on certain words that it isn’t “hearing” correctly.  But overall, an awesome addition to the app.

The Calorie Count iPhone app already includes a barcode scanner for quick and painless food recording, which has the added benefit of being more specific.  For example, logging a cup of yogurt can range from an A+ food choice to a D- food choice, depending on the ratio of calories and fat to protein and carbs, so scanning the barcode allows you to instantly pull up the exact food item you indulged in and get a more exact overview of your daily eating habits.

The app also includes visual weight logs and interactive graphs, low-cal recipes from About.com, a water gauge, and more.

"The team at Calorie Count is continuously building toward innovative and unique ways to make healthy living on-the-go easier and more efficient," said Igor Lebovic, co-founder of CalorieCount.com, in a statement. "We are providing our users with a one-of-a-kind industry voice recognition software and progressive new food-logging platform, to further help members maintain their health and wellness goals on a daily basis."

Calorie Count is owned by the About Group, which also includes websites About.com and ConsumerResearch.com.