Tired of logging every meal on Eat This Much?
Eat This Much automates a meal plan, but the free tier still leans on barcode scans and daily food logs. Here is what it does well, what users say gets in the way, and how a weekly-menu app compares.
Updated September 2026
Eat This Much builds a daily or weekly meal plan from a recipe database and aims it at your calorie and macro targets, with a grocery list attached. It has a large, mostly satisfied user base — 4.7 stars across roughly 22,000 App Store ratings — and for people who also want to log what they ate day to day, that combination is genuinely useful.
This page sticks to what is publicly documented about Eat This Much: its own pricing page, its App Store listing, and what reviewers say in their own words. Then it explains what Macro Recipe does the same, what it does differently, and what it does not do. It is written by the team behind Macro Recipe, so read it with that in mind.
What Eat This Much does well
Eat This Much holds a 4.7-star rating across roughly 22,000 App Store reviews, which is a large base of people who find it useful. It generates a plan quickly, and several reviewers specifically praise how fast the app produces a day or a week once you have set your targets.
It is closer to a hybrid of a tracker and a planner than a pure meal planner: the free tier lets you scan barcodes, log food you have eaten, create custom foods and recipes, and schedule foods you eat on repeat. For someone who wants both a plan and a running log in one app, that is a real feature set, not a gimmick.
A number of reviews mention quick recipes — around 20 minutes — and describe real weight-loss progress after following the plans, which suggests the core mechanic works for people who stick with it.
Who it is for
Eat This Much fits someone who already tracks, or wants to start tracking, what they eat day to day — logging meals, scanning barcodes, adjusting a plan meal by meal — and wants the planning and the logging to live in the same app instead of two separate ones.
It also suits someone comfortable rebuilding or tweaking a generated plan by hand, since several reviewers describe doing exactly that to get a week they are happy with.
Where users say it stops
Recipe repetition on mobile is the complaint that comes up most: one reviewer counted “more like 14-18” distinct meals across a plan on the app versus 24-28 on the website — the same subscription, a noticeably narrower rotation depending on which one you use.
The grocery cost estimate is reported to run well under the real bill. One reviewer put the actual total at “almost double what it was supposed to be” — a gap wide enough to throw off anyone planning a week's budget around the number shown in the app.
The free tier is a single-day tool: no weekly planning, no grocery list, and no leftovers management without Premium, according to a third-party review of the pricing page. Someone expecting a free week's plan from the App Store listing alone will hit that wall.
More than one reviewer describes the plan as needing manual fixing before it is usable, and one called the whole loop “the most time consuming, expensive, and underwhelming experience” for an $8.99 monthly fee — the automation saves less time than expected once the editing is factored in.
A French-language reviewer reported the app suggesting 1,450 kcal a day for an adult woman around 165cm and 58kg — a target several reviewers in that thread found unrealistically low, and one more reason to treat any generated number as a starting point, not a verdict.
What Macro Recipe does the same
Like Eat This Much, Macro Recipe builds a plan around your calorie and macro targets and your goal — lose weight, maintain, or build muscle — from a database of real recipes, not a generic nutrient list.
Both attach a grocery list to the plan, and both let you set dietary rules and excluded ingredients that the plan respects rather than leaving for you to check line by line.
What it does differently
Macro Recipe builds one full week at a time as a single menu, with the grocery list already consolidated across every recipe — one bag of rice for the week, not a separate line per dish. There is nothing to scan and nothing to log: you set your profile once, cook from the menu, and swap a dish you do not fancy without rebuilding the rest.
The grocery list carries an estimated cost in your own currency, adjusted for your country's price level, and you can set a weekly grocery budget the menu is built around. It is an estimate, not a receipt, but it is there before you shop, not discovered after.
When a day cannot land exactly on target with a real recipe, the app says so — a declared, best-effort estimate rather than a number presented as exact and quietly missed at checkout.
What it does not do
Macro Recipe is not a food logger. No barcode scanning, no daily meal log, no custom-food database to browse — if the appeal of Eat This Much for you is tracking what you actually ate, that is a different job than this app is built for.
It is not free the way Eat This Much's daily plan is. Your first menu is free and there is a 3-day trial; after that it is a paid subscription, currently 9.99 €/month or 69.99 €/year.
It does not import your Eat This Much history, and it is on iPhone today.
Switching in practice
Keep from Eat This Much: your diet type, the ingredients you exclude, and the calorie and protein range that felt right for your goal — you will be asked for the same inputs on the other side.
A first week looks like this: set your goal, diet and grocery budget once, get a full week of real recipes with one consolidated grocery list, and cook from it. There is no daily plan to regenerate and nothing to log after each meal — if a week's numbers land a little short of target, the app declares the gap instead of hiding it.
Price, side by side
Eat This Much's App Store subscription lists $8.99/month, or an annual plan priced between roughly $47.99 and $59.99 depending on current promotions ($5/month is the annualized-equivalent figure shown on its own pricing page, not the monthly rate). Its free tier covers one day at a time, with weekly planning and grocery lists reserved for Premium.
Macro Recipe's first menu is free, followed by a 3-day trial, then 9.99 €/month or 69.99 €/year — every calorie, protein and grocery-budget figure shown is an estimate, adjusted to your goal and your country's prices.
What three days of a weekly menu look like
An indicative example for someone aiming at roughly 1,900 kcal and 130 g of protein a day. Estimated figures; your own menu is built from your profile, your tastes and your budget.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free Eat This Much alternative?
Macro Recipe gives you a free first weekly menu with a grocery list, then a 3-day trial before it becomes a paid subscription. Eat This Much's free tier is limited to one day at a time; a full week and a grocery list require its Premium plan.
Why does Eat This Much's grocery estimate feel wrong?
Some users report actual grocery bills running close to double the app's estimate. Macro Recipe's grocery list also shows an estimated cost, adjusted to your country's price level, but it is presented as an estimate to plan against, not a fixed number.
Does Eat This Much work outside the US?
The app is available internationally, but French-language reviewers have reported calorie targets that felt unrealistic for their profile and recipes that read as American rather than adapted to local cuisine. Macro Recipe adjusts estimated grocery costs to your country's price level and applies dietary rules such as halal or vegetarian to the dishes you are served.
Do I have to log everything I eat, like on Eat This Much?
No. Macro Recipe is not a food log — there is no barcode scanning or daily logging. You set your goal, diet and budget once, get a weekly menu of real recipes, and cook. If tracking what you actually ate is what you value about Eat This Much, that is a different tool than this one.
Is Macro Recipe cheaper than Eat This Much?
Eat This Much's App Store subscription is $8.99/month or roughly $47.99–$59.99/year. Macro Recipe is 9.99 €/month or 69.99 €/year after a free first menu and a 3-day trial — compare in your own currency, since neither price converts exactly.
First menu free · 3-day trial · on iPhone