Editorial team
Every ranking and review on Calorie Tracker Index is written by one of these named editors and reviewed by a second.
Dr. Eleanor Westhaven, PhD
Editorial Director, Calorie Tracker Index
Dr. Eleanor Westhaven directs editorial standards at the Calorie Tracker Index. Her doctoral work bridged Human-Computer Interaction and Nutrition Sciences, focusing on how mobile dietary-assessment interfaces shape logging accuracy in free-living adults. Over twelve years she has led applied research on calorie- and macro-tracking apps, including longitudinal usability work with college-age and post-bariatric populations. She owns the Index's methodology document, signs off on every flagship ranking, and chairs the internal peer-review process. Before founding the Index she contributed to dietary-assessment workgroups at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and presented at ASHA Foundation symposia on technology-mediated nutrition education. She insists that every score on the site be reproducible by a second editor from the published protocol.
Expertise: Human-Computer Interaction for nutrition apps · Mobile dietary assessment methodology · Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) measurement · Free-living adherence studies · Editorial standards for ranking journalism
Affiliations: Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (member) · ASHA Foundation (contributing researcher)
Dr. Rajiv Iyer, PhD, MS
Senior Methodology Lead, Calorie Tracker Index
Dr. Rajiv Iyer leads methodology and replicability work at the Calorie Tracker Index. His doctoral work in Biostatistics focused on measurement-error modelling in self-report dietary assessment, with subsequent applied work on photo-based food estimation accuracy. He designs and audits the statistical procedures behind every Index ranking: sample construction, MAPE/MAE pipelines, inter-rater reliability for category-coded scores, and rescore triggers when app vendors ship material updates. He is responsible for making sure a second researcher, working only from the published methodology, can recover Index scores from the raw measurement spreadsheets within tight tolerance. He maintains the Index's internal version log and writes the public methodology page.
Expertise: Biostatistics for dietary assessment · Measurement-error and bias modelling · Replicability auditing · MAPE / MAE / MAD reporting · Photo-AI calorie estimation benchmarks
Affiliations: Penn State University · Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy (collaborator)
Priya Rao, RDN, CSSD
Sports & Athletic Practice Editor, Calorie Tracker Index
Priya Rao edits sport-nutrition coverage at the Calorie Tracker Index. She holds the Board-Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics (CSSD) credential and has nine years of front-line practice with collegiate and professional athletes, including consulting roles with strength-sport and endurance programmes. She owns rankings written for high-protein tracking, muscle-building phases, contest-prep accuracy, and endurance-fuelling use cases. Her test protocol additions include real-world athlete logging burden, post-workout window logging speed, and high-fibre / high-protein meal accuracy edge cases. She is responsible for ensuring that any Index recommendation for an athletic population is consistent with current ACSM, ISSN, and SCAN practice positions.
Expertise: Sports nutrition for collegiate and professional athletes · Protein intake periodisation · Contest-prep diet tracking accuracy · Endurance fuelling logging burden
Affiliations: Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR) · Sports and Human Performance Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group (SCAN) · American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) · International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN)
Marcus Langford, RDN, CDCES, MS
Clinical Practice Editor, Calorie Tracker Index
Marcus Langford edits clinical-practice coverage at the Calorie Tracker Index. He is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and a Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist (CDCES) with an MS in Clinical Nutrition. His applied work spans outpatient weight management, type 2 diabetes nutrition therapy, and the rapidly evolving GLP-1 receptor agonist population, where logging burden, protein-adequacy verification, and micronutrient tracking carry direct clinical stakes. He owns Index rankings written for GLP-1 patients, clinical-setting use, coach-and-client tools, and serious dieters with medical context. His protocol additions cover protein-floor flagging, micronutrient gap detection, and reliability of the macronutrient subset most relevant to outpatient nutrition care.
Expertise: GLP-1 receptor agonist nutrition support · Clinical diabetes nutrition therapy · Outpatient weight-management protocols · Protein-floor and micronutrient gap detection
Affiliations: Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR) · Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) · Association of Diabetes Care and Education Specialists (ADCES)