Updated 24 October 2026 · 3 min read · By Danny Law, the developer of WLTB
How to track your weight without counting calories
You don't need a food diary to make progress. Here's how to track your weight on its own, what to watch, and how to switch calories off in Weight Loss Tracking Buddy.
Counting calories works for some people and wears others out. If logging every meal is what's stopped you before, you can still track your progress properly with your weight alone: a goal, regular weigh-ins and an eye on the trend.
What weight-only tracking gives you
- A clear goal and a date. Knowing where you're heading, and roughly when, keeps a slow week in perspective.
- A trend, not a verdict. Your weight moves up and down every day with water and food. Weighing in regularly and watching the line over weeks shows whether your habits are working. (More on that in why your weight changes every day.)
- Less to do. A weigh-in takes ten seconds. That's easy to keep up for months.
How to do it well
- Pick a goal and a pace. A goal you can reach at a pace you can keep up beats a dramatic one. Most people do best losing 1 to 2 lbs (0.5 to 1 kg) a week. The goal date calculator shows when that gets you there.
- Weigh in at the same time. First thing in the morning, after the loo, before breakfast.
- Look at weeks, not days. Compare this week's weigh-ins with last week's.
- Change one habit at a time. Without a food diary, your trend is your feedback. If it's flat for three or four weeks, change one thing (portions, snacks, drinks, a daily walk) and give it a few weeks.
Switching calories off in Weight Loss Tracking Buddy
Weight Loss Tracking Buddy can be a weight-only tracker. Open Settings, then Preferences, and turn off Calories under Food. If you're setting the app up for the first time, the same switch is on the What You'll Track step.
With calories off, food leaves the app on every device signed in to your iCloud account: the Overview's Today card, Log Food, the food charts, the meal reminders and the food side of Apple Health and Siri. What stays:
- Your goal, with its pace or date, and the weight you've still to lose.
- The Overview, with your latest weigh-in, the last seven days as dots and a Weigh In button when one's due.
- Your charts, including the Goal chart, which carries your trend forward to the day it reaches your goal.
- Weigh-in reminders, daily or weekly, and Siri: say "Log my weight in Weight Loss Tracking Buddy".
Nothing you've already logged is deleted. Switch Calories back on at any time and your food diary is where you left it.
All of this is free. WLTB Pro adds the full chart history, widgets and the Apple Watch app, where you can log a weigh-in on the Digital Crown.
When to add calories back
If your trend stalls for a month or more and you can't see why, a week or two of logging what you eat can show where the calories are coming from. Weight Loss Tracking Buddy Pro can read a meal from a photo to make that quicker, and you can turn calories off again afterwards.
