Price: $1.99    Score: 8/10    By Sarah Parker

It’s always easy to overeat over the holiday period and let a few pounds sneak on. Instead of trying to lose the weight after gaining it, it is much easier to prevent the weight gain by exercising and paying attention to what you eat. Get a jump start on your defense against holiday weight gain with a tracking app such as Food IQ. Developed by Obsessive Code, Food IQ is a very detailed food and health tracking application. Food IQ can track a variety of personal health details, such as the nutrients of food consumed, weight, medications, blood glucose levels, and exercise.

Food IQ is packed with information; it has 6 main-screen options: Find & Enter Food, Details & Summary, Options & Settings, Exercise, Personal Health, and Weight. The Food category has a database of over 7200 foods for you to record what you are eating. You can search all foods, create a favorites list, and add your own customized foods and recipes. Details & Summary recaps the day’s foods and organizes them.  The Options & Settings category allows the user to specify units of measurement, choose the nutrients to track (there are over 40 nutrients to pick from), set meal categories (you can create and name your own meals), and choose food groups, among other settings options.

With Exercise, you can record that day’s exercise from a list of over 2000, create a favorite exercise list, and add your own custom exercises. In Personal Health, the user can record their medications and daily blood glucose levels. And finally, Weight lets you can record your weight and track it on a chart, which is viewable when the main screen is changed to landscape view. The user can even specify certain nutrient consumption (like sugar or water) that can be tracked on the chart as well. All of the information that is recorded in the app can be synced to a website created for Food IQ users: www.myfoodiq.com. You have to register, and after the initial 30 day trial period, the cost to subscribe to the website is $1.99 per month, or $19.99 per year. This backs up your info and also allows you to make changes from your computer.

There is a lot of information to sort through in Food IQ, and it takes a little time to get used to app. The interface is easy to navigate, and has easily identifiable icons. Food IQ is a good tracking app, but the developer should consider adding some personal customization options. Currently, the calorie and nutrient goals are based on USDA recommendations. But a difference in gender, body size, activity level, and weight goals for each person can affect the number of calories and nutrients needed.  Customization would help people set personal goals for calorie and nutrient consumption. Overall, Food IQ is a great tracking application that will help people who are serious about their health, or who just want to prevent holiday weight gain.

Food IQ is compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch; requires OS 3.0 or later