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Log a meal ​

There are four ways to add food. Pick whichever is fastest for the meal you're logging.

The fastest path ​

If you've eaten this food before, the Recents and Favorites lists at the top of the food search page have it. One tap → adjust serving count → save. Most people end up logging 80% of their meals this way.

  1. Tap Quick Log → Food (or the + in any meal section on the Log page).
  2. Pick a meal: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, or Snack.
  3. Type into the search box.
  4. Pick the result that matches.
  5. Adjust the serving count (defaults to 1).
  6. Tap Add.

Search results combine three sources, in this order:

  • Your custom foods and previously logged items (highest priority).
  • USDA FoodData Central — the most reliable serving sizes and full micronutrient panels.
  • Open Food Facts — broader international and long-tail coverage.

Results with known serving sizes are surfaced above results without. Items in your Favorites or Recents outrank everything.

Method 2: Barcode scan ​

  1. Tap Quick Log → Food.
  2. Tap the barcode icon.
  3. Point at the package barcode.

The scanner tries USDA Branded data first (which has reliable label-derived nutrients), then falls back to Open Food Facts. If both miss, you'll be prompted to add a custom food.

Native vs web

On the iOS app, the system scanner handles the camera. On the web, the scanner uses ZXing — works on most modern browsers but may need a couple of seconds to load the first time.

Method 3: Photo of your plate ​

Premium feature

Photo recognition is part of the AI assistant. Free tier doesn't include it.

  1. Open the Chat drawer (the chat bubble in the bottom-right).
  2. Tap the camera icon.
  3. Snap or upload a photo of your plate.
  4. The AI identifies items, looks them up in the food databases, and adds them to today's log. Each item is logged separately.

You'll see a tool-call trail like:

Reading request
Identifying foods in image
Searching food library
Searching nutrition databases
Logging entries

If anything looks off, tap the entry to edit. The AI assistant can also fix entries — say "remove the rice from lunch" or "double the chicken portion."

Method 4: Type or speak what you ate ​

Premium feature

Natural-language meal logging uses the AI assistant.

In the chat drawer, type or dictate:

"I had a bowl of chicken curry with rice and a glass of orange juice for lunch."

The AI parses the items, picks plausible portion sizes, and logs them. Confirm or edit afterward.

Adjusting after the fact ​

Tap any food entry to edit:

  • Serving count — most common edit.
  • Meal — move from breakfast to lunch, etc.
  • Macros — overrides for that single entry only. Custom adjustments here don't change the underlying food item.

Tap and hold (or use the row menu) to:

  • Delete an entry.
  • Copy or move to another day. Multi-select works the same way.
  • Mark not consumed — see "Planning ahead" below.

Planning ahead ​

Each food entry has a Consumed checkbox. By default it's checked when you log. To plan a future day:

  1. Pick a future date in the date picker.
  2. Log foods with Consumed unchecked.
  3. As you eat each item the next day, tick the box.

Only checked entries count toward the day's calorie and macro totals and the rolling 7-day budget. Unchecked entries are visible but inert.

Backdating ​

Tap the date picker on the Log page, pick any past date, and log normally. Backdated days flip from "untracked" to "tracked" automatically — see Tracked vs untracked days.

What happens to the data ​

When you save a food entry:

  • The entry is stored against your account, the meal type (breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack), and the date.
  • The food item is cached in your library so it shows up in Recents next time.
  • The day's calorie and macro totals recompute.
  • The rolling 7-day budget updates.
  • The endogenous biomarker simulation invalidates the affected day so the next dashboard load reflects the change.

Common questions ​

"Why does the same food show different macros on different days?" You probably edited the entry's macros directly on one day (entry-level override) without changing the underlying food item. Open the food item from your library to make a permanent change.

"How precise should I be?" Within ~10% is fine for most purposes. The trend you care about is dominated by larger movements (a missed meal, a high-fat day) more than by precise gram counts.

"What's the difference between Recents, Favorites, and My foods?"

  • Recents = automatic, last things you logged.
  • Favorites = manually starred.
  • My foods / Custom foods = items you created yourself.

Next ​

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