How I test, and why you should trust the notes

Who's writing this

I'm Dana Reyes. I'm an independent writer who tests health and productivity apps — the kind of person who installs nine calorie trackers in a week and then can't decide which one to delete. I am not a registered dietitian, a nutritionist, or a doctor, and I don't play one on the internet. What I'm good at is using software the way a normal, slightly impatient person uses it, then reporting what actually happened.

Macro & Metric exists because most "best app" lists read like they were assembled from press kits. I'd rather tell you that the barcode scanner choked on a store-brand yogurt, that the AI guessed my stir-fry was "fried rice," or that the free tier quietly hid the one screen I cared about.

How I test

Every app on this site goes through the same rough gauntlet:

• Real meals, not demo food. I log my actual breakfasts, takeout, weird late-night snacks, and a few deliberately ambiguous dishes (mixed bowls, sauces, homemade stuff) to see where logging breaks down.
• Every logging path. Photo / AI estimate, manual search, and barcode scan — because most people switch between all three, and the weakest path is usually the one that drives you back to a spreadsheet.
• The free tier first. I live on the free version for a while before touching premium, since that's where most people actually are.
• Friction over features. A long feature list is easy to publish. What matters is whether logging a meal takes eight seconds or eighty, and whether the database fights you.
• Accuracy, described honestly. I compare app estimates against labels and known portions and describe the gaps in plain language. I don't publish fake precision — no invented benchmark percentages or made-up study counts.

How I make money

Some links may be affiliate links. They never change a rating or a ranking. If an app is annoying, I'll say so whether or not there's a referral involved. Ratings are my subjective judgment from hands-on use, full stop.