How It Felt vs

See How You Eat vs Eating Buddy: which journal fits?

Choose See How You Eat if a visual meal diary, reminders or sharing feel supportive. Choose Eating Buddy if meal notes, body cues and wider context feel useful. Choose How It Felt if you want a feeling-first journal without reminders or assigned practices. Entries stay in a local database on your phone; optional backup goes to your own iCloud or Google Drive, while anonymous usage events and crash reports exclude photos, notes and entry contents. You can pause or stop whenever recording feels like pressure.

Mindful eating journal comparison

What each app optimises for

See How You Eat vs Eating Buddy

See How You Eat focuses on a visual record with reminders and sharing. Eating Buddy focuses on body cues, surrounding context and optional practices. Those features are optional, and you do not have to log.

How It Felt

A pause around one meal, with entries stored in a local database on your phone and optional backup to your own iCloud or Google Drive.

Side-by-side

Feature	See How You Eat	Eating Buddy	How It Felt
Starting point	See How You Eat A photo-based meal diary with a visual day view.	Eating Buddy Meal and body-cue logging with context around the meal.	How It Felt How the meal felt, with space for hunger, fullness, emotion and senses.
Guidance	See How You Eat Reminders, planning and challenges are described in the current public materials; you can choose not to use them.	Eating Buddy Optional challenges or practices can be chosen from patterns in your journal, though you never need to create those patterns.	How It Felt No assigned lesson, challenge or practice; you can leave the journal unused.
Looking back	See How You Eat A visual diary and progress views help you review logged meals if you choose to record them.	Eating Buddy Patterns over time connect meals with the context you record, if reviewing feels useful.	How It Felt Review your own entries without an automated interpretation, or do not make entries.
Body cues	See How You Eat Body-cue sliders are not described as a core per-meal field in the current listing.	Eating Buddy Hunger and fullness are core tracking features.	How It Felt Hunger before and fullness after each entry.
Notes and context	See How You Eat Photos, notes and meal planning are described by the publisher.	Eating Buddy Mood, sleep, workouts, drinks, notes and tags can add context.	How It Felt A named emotion plus optional taste, texture and setting notes.
Sharing and privacy	See How You Eat The product materials describe exporting or sharing a diary with a professional; review the current privacy policy for data handling.	Eating Buddy The policy describes on-device journaling with optional sharing of logged data for advanced insights; the store privacy label has its own disclosures.	How It Felt No account. Entries stay in a local phone database; optional backup uses your own iCloud or Google Drive. Anonymous usage events and crash reports do not include photos, notes or entry contents.
Platforms	See How You Eat iOS and Android are listed in the current product materials.	Eating Buddy iPhone and Apple Watch are listed by Apple.	How It Felt iOS and Android.
Pricing	See How You Eat Free to download with optional paid features; check the current store for regional pricing.	Eating Buddy Free to download; optional practices use subscription plans in the current App Store listing.	How It Felt The free tier shows Google AdMob ads; Supporter removes them. Subscriptions are verified by RevenueCat with an app-generated ID; How It Felt never sees payment details.

When to pick which

Pick See How You Eat vs Eating Buddy if…

Choose See How You Eat only if a visual record or its optional reminders and sharing would genuinely feel supportive.
Choose Eating Buddy only if notes about wider meal context feel useful; you do not need to take on its practices.
Read each app's current store and privacy details before recording sensitive information.

Pick How It Felt if…

You want entries stored on your phone, with backup optional and controlled by you.
You want to notice the meal without reminders, challenges or pattern interpretation—or you want permission to pause and not record it.
You want sensory notes and a specific emotion in a quiet, open-ended entry.

Verdict

See How You Eat fits a visual day with planning and sharing. Eating Buddy fits a meal journal with surrounding context and optional practices. How It Felt fits noticing your experience without assigned next steps: entries stay on your phone, backup is optional, and exports or deletion are available inside the app. If recording starts to feel like pressure, you can pause or stop.

Frequently asked

What is the difference between See How You Eat and Eating Buddy?

See How You Eat centers a visual meal diary with reminders, planning and sharing. Eating Buddy centers body cues, context around meals and optional practices. Check their current official pages for plan and platform details.

How is How It Felt different?

How It Felt is a non-clinical journal without reminders, challenges or automated pattern interpretation. Entries are stored locally on your phone; optional backup uses your own iCloud or Google Drive. Anonymous usage events and crash reports do not include photos, notes or entry contents.

Can these apps replace professional care?

No. These are consumer journaling tools, not diagnosis or treatment. If eating or body image is causing distress, talk with an eating-disorder-informed clinician rather than relying on an app for care.

What if journaling makes eating feel harder?

You can pause or stop; you do not have to log meals, hunger or patterns. If logging, reminders or pattern views increase pressure, consider discussing app use with a qualified health professional.

Sources and review date

The official product, store and privacy pages linked above are the source of truth for current features and data handling. Details can change by plan, platform or region.

The listing describes photo meal logging, reminders, planning, challenges and sharing; these are optional product features, not a reason you need to record food. [See How You Eat App Store listing]
The product page describes a visual food diary, progress views, planning, reminders, notes and sharing; these are publisher-described features, not evidence of clinical benefit or a requirement to track. [See How You Eat mindful eating features]
The privacy policy is the source for current account, content and analytics details; review it before recording sensitive information. [See How You Eat privacy policy]
Eating Buddy describes hunger and fullness tracking, food journaling, trigger reflection and optional challenges; you can choose not to use these features. [Eating Buddy product page]
The listing describes meal and body-cue logging, surrounding context, patterns and optional subscription practices; none makes tracking necessary. [Eating Buddy App Store listing]
The policy describes on-device journaling and optional sharing of logged information for advanced insights; read it alongside store disclosures. [Eating Buddy privacy policy]
How It Felt's policy says entries stay in a local phone database, with optional backup to the user's own iCloud or Google Drive. Release builds send anonymous usage events and crash reports, not photos, notes or entry contents; the free tier shows AdMob ads, and entries can be exported or deleted in the app. [How It Felt privacy policy]

Last reviewed: October 29, 2026.

Learn the concepts

Plain-language explainers behind the comparison.

Try How It Felt

A calmer way to be with food.

How It Felt gives you a place to notice how a meal felt, with optional backup and no assigned next step.