Help and support
Help from people, not an app.
CalorieCounter counts calories. It cannot tell how you are doing. If tracking food has started to take up more room in your day than you want it to, or things are hard in a way that is bigger than a number, the people below do this every day, they are free, and they are used to hearing from someone who is not sure they need help yet.
If you are in danger right now, or you are thinking about hurting yourself: call or text 988 in the United States, any hour of any day, or call 911. You do not have to be in a crisis to call 988. Not being sure is a good enough reason.
Someone to talk to, any hour
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
Call or text 988, or chat online at 988lifeline.org. Free, confidential, 24 hours a day, every day, across the United States. Trained counselors handle suicidal thoughts, but also anxiety, grief, substance use, and days that simply got too heavy. Text and chat are available in Spanish, and there is a line for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Crisis Text Line
Text HOME to 741741. Free, confidential, 24 hours a day, with trained volunteers, over text rather than a phone call. There is also web chat and WhatsApp at crisistextline.org. If a phone call feels like too much right now, start here.
Eating, food, and body worries
National Alliance for Eating Disorders
Call 1-866-662-1235, Monday to Friday, 9 am to 7 pm Eastern time. The helpline is answered by licensed therapists who specialize in eating disorders, and it is free. They will talk through what is going on, help you find treatment at any budget, and point you to free weekly therapist-led support groups. More at allianceforeatingdisorders.com.
ANAD, the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders
Call 1-888-375-7767, Monday to Friday, 9 am to 9 pm Central time. Messages left outside those hours are returned. ANAD offers free peer support: a helpline, free virtual support groups, one-to-one recovery mentorship, and a treatment directory. You do not need a diagnosis to use any of it. More at anad.org.
National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA)
NEDA no longer runs a phone helpline, so if you need to speak to someone now, use one of the two above, or text HOME to 741741. NEDA’s site is still one of the best places to read up and to find care: a free, confidential screening tool that takes a few minutes, a searchable treatment directory of clinicians and centers, and a list of free and low-cost support, including groups that cost nothing.
Mental health and substance use
SAMHSA National Helpline
Call 1-800-662-4357, 24 hours a day, every day of the year. The phone line is free and confidential, answered in English and Spanish, and run by the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. They do not ask for your name; they refer you to local treatment, support groups, and community organizations, including options if you have no insurance. There is a separate text service too: send your ZIP code to 435748 and it replies with treatment referrals, in English. More at samhsa.gov.
Outside the United States
findahelpline.com, run by ThroughLine, lists free, confidential helplines in more than 175 countries, by country and by topic, with the ones that are open now at the top. Phone, text, and chat.
What CalorieCounter is not
CalorieCounter is a food diary with a camera attached. It is not a treatment tool, not a therapist, and not a clinician. It cannot tell whether your relationship with food is healthy, it does not diagnose anything, and nothing in the app is medical advice. A daily target is arithmetic from numbers you typed in, not a judgment about you, and an estimate from a photo is a guess that can land well away from what you actually ate.
If using the app is making things worse, stop using it. That is a reasonable thing to do and nothing in the app will argue with you about it.
Worth mentioning to someone
None of this is a diagnosis, and a hard week is just a hard week. But if you recognize a few of these, it is worth telling a doctor, a dietitian, a therapist, or one of the lines above:
- Counting or checking numbers more often than you meant to, or feeling unsettled until a meal is logged.
- Eating less to make up for something you already ate, or exercising to cancel it out.
- Skipping meals with other people because they are hard to log.
- Feeling worse about yourself after you open the app, most days.
- Thoughts about food and weight crowding out the rest of the day.
- Cutting further and further down, even when the target says you do not need to.
Asking about any of these early is easier than asking later, and none of it makes you difficult or dramatic.
How to step away, with nothing lost
- Take your history first if you want it: Settings › Privacy and data › Export my data builds a file with everything you logged.
- Delete the account in Settings › Privacy and data › Delete account and data, or just delete the app. Nothing chases you afterwards, and there is no reminder asking where you went.
- Deleting the app or the account does not cancel a subscription. Cancel that in Settings › Apple Account › Subscriptions.
- If you are under 18, the app never puts you in a calorie deficit, whatever goal you choose. It keeps your target at maintenance.
Writing to us
We are the people who make the app. We are not clinicians and we cannot give health advice, but if something in CalorieCounter is making your day harder, or a link on this page has stopped working, write to support@thecaloriecounterapp.com and a person will answer.