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Show HN: Automatic weekly meal planner, also plans your leftovers

eatthismuch.com

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Re: Show HN: Automatic weekly meal planner, also plans your leftovers

#71

Post by Jemaclus »

bstpierre wrote: post #65
Jemaclus wrote: post #51

I think the only suggestion I can think of is that the suggested meals should be as simple as possible. Part of the reason why I don't cook as often as I could is that I don't have the time (ok, I don't make it a high priority) to cook every meal. If I could simply slap together a sandwich in the morning for lunch and that would fill me up, then we'd be good, but a lot of these meals take more prep time than I'm will…

If you go into the meal options, click Meal Options in the header, and click "Can't Cook" then it gives meals that are (IMO) really low on prep time.

Ah, cool! Didn't even see that.

Re: Show HN: Automatic weekly meal planner, also plans your leftovers

#72

Post by mark_l_watson »

Nice! I especially like your UI and nutrients display.

I have been working on something (cookingspace.com) that tries to solve a different problem: how to use the ingredients you already have in your kitchen.

My email is in my profile. I would enjoy talking with you.

Re: Show HN: Automatic weekly meal planner, also plans your leftovers

#73

Post by kintamanimatt »

papa_bear wrote: post #31
kintamanimatt wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice that it's holding up so well!

It hasn't fallen yet, but I had no idea hackernews would hit my servers this hard. Fingers crossed.

What DB servers(s) are you using? Any caching? What kind of server is it running on?

I'm impressed that (from a user's perspective) is barely flinching, although it's clear that it's under load right now.

Re: Show HN: Automatic weekly meal planner, also plans your leftovers

#74

Post by tcdowney »

papa_bear wrote: post #35
eriktrans wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How long has the service been around for, and how did you get traction? You have quite a lot of Twitter and Facebook followers/fans.

It started out as Swole.me ( http://www.swole.me ) a little over two years ago, and then I rebranded it once the algorithm was good enough to suggest things a normal, well adjusted person might eat (as opposed to a meal of 2 tbsp peanut butter + 1 chicken breast). My guess is that the idea and execution was novel enough to get it a decent amount of attention.

Wow, I was just thinking about swole.me the other day while I was mirin my gainz at the gym. Cool to see it become something more!

Re: Show HN: Automatic weekly meal planner, also plans your leftovers

#75

Post by unreal37 »

papa_bear wrote: post #3
27182818284 wrote: post #2

I am surprised and delighted by this site! I cannot stress enough how well this nailed the contingencies that may come up when I was just using this. My first thought, I actually don't know how many calories I should eat--BAM there is a button that helps me generate it. What if I want to lose weight? BAM! Button for that option. Then I see the meals generated and I think, well, I'm a vegetarian so this chicken won't…

Haha awesome, thanks! I spent a lot of time trying to pander to different eating styles, and some definitely work better with my algorithm than others. Low carb is especially rocky since I have relatively few foods/recipes with absolutely no carbs.

Low carb doesn't mean no carb. If you limit meals to 5-10 grams of carbs or less, most low carbers would be happy. [1]

One of the more extreme low carb diets, the Atkins Induction Phase, allowed up to 20 grams per day. Other diets such as keto or The Zone allow 50-100 grams.

[1] http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/nutrition/how-many-carbohyd...

Re: Show HN: Automatic weekly meal planner, also plans your leftovers

#76

Post by ericd »

alexchamberlain wrote: post #44
trhaynes wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The default (33%/33%/33%) carb/protein/fat split is similar to that proposed by the Zone diet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_diet

I'm guessing most people in Europe would eat (a lot) less fat than 33%.

33% of calories from fat means less than 33% by weight, since it's more calorie dense, and I actually don't doubt that they eat that much. If you've never cooked much French cuisine, there are a lot of cream based sauces...

Re: Show HN: Automatic weekly meal planner, also plans your leftovers

#77

Post by w1ntermute »

27182818284 wrote: post #2

I am surprised and delighted by this site! I cannot stress enough how well this nailed the contingencies that may come up when I was just using this. My first thought, I actually don't know how many calories I should eat--BAM there is a button that helps me generate it. What if I want to lose weight? BAM! Button for that option. Then I see the meals generated and I think, well, I'm a vegetarian so this chicken won't…

Yeah, this is absolutely amazing.

papa_bear: if you integrated this with a service like Instacart, I can only imagine how much money you could make.

Re: Show HN: Automatic weekly meal planner, also plans your leftovers

#78

Post by physcab »

This is pretty marvelous. I have always wanted to create something like this, but the details have always seemed daunting to me. I couldn't think of a way of merging recipes I liked with nutritional facts and then assembling building blocks for meal plans automatically without a ton of manual labor in data entry. Are these recipes crowdsourced? Have you just been taking copious nutritional notes for a while? If you figured out a way to integrate something like Epicurious or AllRecipes complete with pictures and reviews, it would make using this site so much more fun. Right now it feels mechanical which is great for people who see food as just fuel intake. But for me food is more than just fuel, its an experience meant to be enjoyed and savored.

Re: Show HN: Automatic weekly meal planner, also plans your leftovers

#79

Post by papa_bear »

blocke wrote: post #58

Oh wow. Simply wow. I've wanted this without knowing I've wanted it. This probably sounds sad but the effort and potential anxiety required in trying to pick the right foods and what I might want to eat often means I just get lazy and eat out instead. A case where having an astounding number of options often leaves one wanting to pick none of the above. This is a great idea. Edit: Mobile website please!

I'm the same way with the food picking anxiety, except I'm also really stingy at the same time so I'll often be too lazy to eat anything at all. That was the main inspiration for starting on a diet generator - to make it easier for me to gain weight.

Definitely going to work on a mobile version of the site soon!

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