How It Felt vs
How It Felt vs Munch.
How It Felt is a mindful eating journal — no calories, no macros, no weight, no goal — and every entry stays on your device with no account. Munch — the one by Embrace Wellness Ltd, bundle uk.embrace.munch, now listed on the App Store as “Food Diary — Stop Binge Eating” and not any of the AI calorie counters that share the name — starts from a similar refusal of the numbers: it's an intuitive eating diary where you log meals, hunger and emotions instead of macros. Where they part ways is what happens next. Munch adds teaching — bite-sized intuitive eating lessons and daily, weekly and monthly insights, framed around breaking the restrict–binge–guilt cycle. How It Felt adds depth to the moment itself and then gets out of the way. Neither app is treatment: if eating is causing you distress, please bring a clinician into it too.
What each app optimises for
Munch
Learning intuitive eating and spotting the emotional triggers behind bingeing, guided by lessons and trend insights. It's a self-guided app, not care — bingeing that distresses you is worth taking to a clinician as well.
How It Felt
Noticing a single meal in detail — emotion, hunger, fullness, senses — with no lesson plan and nothing to work toward.
Side-by-side
| Feature | Munch | How It Felt |
|---|---|---|
| Counts calories or macros | Munch No — by design | How It Felt No — by design |
| Emotion logging | Munch Yes | How It Felt Yes — 21-emotion grid every entry |
| Hunger / fullness | Munch Hunger levels | How It Felt Hunger and fullness sliders |
| Sensory notes (taste, texture, setting) | Munch Not listed | How It Felt Yes |
| Mindful eating timer | Munch Not listed | How It Felt Yes — breathing-paced |
| Lessons / guidance | Munch Yes — bite-sized intuitive eating lessons | How It Felt No curriculum |
| Trend insights | Munch Daily, weekly, monthly; deeper analysis in Premium | How It Felt Today / week / month view, free |
| Data collected | Munch App Store privacy label: contact info, user content, usage data, diagnostics — not linked to identity | How It Felt Entries and photos stay on the device; no account, no sync. The free tier's ads, analytics and crash reporting do collect identifiers, usage data and diagnostics — see our privacy page |
| Store languages | Munch English | How It Felt EN, DE, ES, FR, IT, PT |
| Platforms | Munch iOS and Android | How It Felt iOS and Android |
| Pricing | Munch Free; Munch Premium subscription (US$4.99/mo, US$19.99/yr) or US$49.99 one-off — US App Store, checked August 7, 2026; store prices vary by territory | How It Felt Free with ads; optional Supporter tier |
When to pick which
Pick Munch if…
- You want to be taught intuitive eating, not just given a blank page.
- Binge eating is the specific pattern you're trying to understand, and you want the app framed around it — alongside support from a clinician, not instead of it.
- Weekly and monthly trend analysis is what keeps you coming back.
Pick How It Felt if…
- You already know the ideas — you want a place to practise them, meal by meal.
- You want more resolution per entry: a specific emotion, hunger and fullness, what it tasted like.
- You'd rather your food and photos never leave your phone, and never make an account.
Verdict
Both apps agree that calories are the wrong unit. Munch is the better fit if you want the lessons and the longitudinal read on your patterns. How It Felt is the better fit if you want the slowest, most detailed version of a single meal — kept entirely on your own device.
Frequently asked
Which app is 'Munch'?
One specific app: the one published by Embrace Wellness Ltd with the bundle ID uk.embrace.munch — Google Play package uk.embrace.munch, App Store id1660087790. The store title changes (it currently reads 'Food Diary — Stop Binge Eating' with the subtitle 'Intuitive Eating Food Journal'), but the developer, the bundle ID and the 'Munch Premium' in-app purchases don't, so those are what this page pins the comparison to. Several unrelated apps also use the name Munch, including newer AI calorie counters — if you're looking for one of those, this isn't the right comparison.
Do both apps really avoid calories?
Yes. Munch's store listing states 'No calories. No macros. No diet rules.' How It Felt has no food database, no barcode scanner, and no portion estimator. Neither one asks you to weigh or quantify anything.
Does How It Felt teach intuitive eating the way Munch does?
Not inside the journal. There are no lessons, no coach, and no daily content — the app is deliberately quiet. The concepts live on this site's Learn pages instead, so reading is a choice you make rather than a queue the app hands you.
What's the privacy difference?
It's narrower than it might look, and it's about your entries rather than about telemetry in general. Munch's App Store privacy label declares contact info, user content, usage data and diagnostics, not linked to your identity — 'user content' is the part that covers what you write. How It Felt keeps entries in a local database on the device, with no account and no cloud sync, and you export to CSV or PDF yourself. But the free tier is ad-supported: Google AdMob, Firebase analytics and crash reporting, and RevenueCat for subscriptions all receive identifiers, approximate region, device information and usage events — under the same store taxonomy that's identifiers, usage data and diagnostics. Our privacy page lists every one of them. So: your entries stay put here, your telemetry doesn't.
Can either app help with binge eating?
Munch is explicitly framed around understanding the restrict–binge–guilt cycle. How It Felt makes no such claim: it's a reflection journal, not a treatment. Neither is a clinical tool, and neither replaces care from a qualified professional.
Sources and review date
Comparison claims are based on the public product information linked below and the How It Felt feature set on this site.
Last reviewed: April 30, 2026.
Learn the concepts
Plain-language explainers behind the comparison.
Try How It Felt
A calmer way to be with food.
Free, no account, all data on your device.