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Show HN: An app that logs your meal's calories from a photo

btrapp.com

11–20 of 20 posts

Re: Show HN: An app that logs your meal's calories from a photo

#11

What do you do about portion size, and the calories a photo can't see like oil or dressing? Those are the parts that have always made me distrust the number these apps spit out. Curious how you're handling it. Only looked at the landing page so far.

I'm going to safely assume that everything is hallucinated

Re: Show HN: An app that logs your meal's calories from a photo

#13

the app looks same or similar to fitness apps. As myself I found the apps difficult in managing while doing exercises because you have to constantly do this in phone. I prefer not to .So build something where it would not require manual efforts or minimum manual effort.

Fair - I hate touching the phone between sets too. Right now the app keeps it minimal: photo for meals, quick-tap for workouts. But "zero effort while exercising" is the direction. What would work best for you - logging the whole workout once at the end, or voice/watch input mid-session? Asking because this decides what I build next.

Re: Show HN: An app that logs your meal's calories from a photo

#14

What do you do about portion size, and the calories a photo can't see like oil or dressing? Those are the parts that have always made me distrust the number these apps spit out. Curious how you're handling it. Only looked at the landing page so far.

I'm going to safely assume that everything is hallucinated

Fair prior. That's exactly why every number is editable - I treat the model as a quick draft, not a source of truth.

Re: Show HN: An app that logs your meal's calories from a photo

#15
post #8

another BS apps after 100 made the same thing. maybe 1000 made before

What was the phrase in the Apple developer guidelines? "Certain kinds of apps, such as dating, flashlight, sound effects, wallpaper, simple timers, and fortune telling, are well established on the App Store and we will not accept new submissions unless they offer a meaningfully different or improved experience" Arguably, this isn't a meaningfully different or improved experience (it's the same boring thing as every o…

you're right that it's never accurate. neither are we though - people under-report their own intake by 20–40% in actual studies. the photo just has to beat "didn't log anything", and it does.

Re: Show HN: An app that logs your meal's calories from a photo

#18

the app looks same or similar to fitness apps. As myself I found the apps difficult in managing while doing exercises because you have to constantly do this in phone. I prefer not to .So build something where it would not require manual efforts or minimum manual effort.

Fair - I hate touching the phone between sets too. Right now the app keeps it minimal: photo for meals, quick-tap for workouts. But "zero effort while exercising" is the direction. What would work best for you - logging the whole workout once at the end, or voice/watch input mid-session? Asking because this decides what I build next.

watch would be great because it would have notification about rest time is over and when to start next exercise . Voice would not be possible because of lots of noses in gyn.fitness centre.

Re: Show HN: An app that logs your meal's calories from a photo

#20
post #17

sigh will you nerds please stop trying to make this app idea happen, it doesn't work.

Maybe the idea doesn't work. Maybe no one has executed it well enough yet.

The problem is that A. A photo has no depth information to tell you the actual size of something, B. A photo cannot tell you what is behind something else so you can't see what's hidden, and C. Most importantly, when you're done cooking, a lot of ingredients in a food are "invisible" such as milk, butter, sugar, etc. and no camera or fancy AI can tell you what was used to make a food.

There is no "no one has executed it well enough" here. Every single attempt at this app idea has these exact same limitations. This not the same as a bird or plant identification app.

So many people have tried this exact same app. Good job making something, but I'm trying to save you a lot of wasted effort.

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