Show HN: Quickcal.chat – LLM powered app that simplifies calorie tracking

Show HN: Quickcal.chat – LLM powered app that simplifies calorie tracking(quickcal.chat)

3 points by conradbez 2 years ago | 3 comments

Hi HN!

As a fitness enthusiast who struggled with the tedious and confusing process of tracking calories, I thought LLMs could offer a better way.

I've developed quickcal.chat, a web app that streamlines calorie counting to a quick text description or photo — much simpler than using apps like MyFitnessPal, in my opinion.

It recognises the food from photos or a description and logs the nutritional info. This has turned what used to be a chore into a slightly more manageable chore :)

Give it a try at https://quickcal.chat (no signup required) or through ChatGPT plugin [1] or read abit more on the landing page [2].

1. https://chatgpt.com/g/g-vGHBE0HqV-quick-calorie-logging

2. https://quickcal.chat/static/features.html

thenaturalist 2 years ago |

First of all, congrats on the launch!

As it is a somewhat cornerstone of your pitch, I can't help but comment on the use case.

For the simple reason that any person's gut microbiome - which varies considerably and is the focus of intense research as too little is yet known - both consumes and modulates the processing of calories, counting calories is generally considered bad science and an entirely ineffective way to measure, guide or sustain a healthy lifestyle [1][2][3].

Personally, I think unless you're diabetic, in which case you'd anyway rely on an entirely different monitoring/ tracking system, it's just a whoefully ineffective KPI.

Most people today for example rather grossly undersupply fiber. If an app could deduce contents of calories, fiber and fat contents of a meal and track healthy composition/ supply for each, that would truly support a healthy lifestyle.

1: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/stop-counting...

2: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/science-reveals-w...

3: https://www.aims.ca/op-ed/calorie-counting-bad-science/

conradbez 2 years ago | |

I fully agree that anything to the extreme can be detrimental and therefor unsustainable and ineffective. I will say that I have seen great value in building up a rough mental model of (1) how energy dense various foods are (2) where my routines / habits are causing me to over consume energy.

I agree having a compulsion to weigh everything you eat for fear of "failing" isn't very productive. But on the other hand I think there is genuine utility in knowing roughly what percentage of your daily energy comes from your typical breakfast / lunch / drinks / dinner / snacks etc etc.

Where I feel my approach beats the typical calorie tracker is that it doesn't encourage micro-counting or even reaching a specific goal, but rather just keeps you informed. This makes it very easy to know where your energy came from and thus gives you power to increase / decrease as needed.

Definitely take your point on the other factors - but for many people, I think, it would help knowing what a maintenance day of eating looks / feels like.

thenaturalist 2 years ago | | |

Super nice to see you have first hand experience and a differentiated perspective on the topic.

My comment was a bit overzealous as I've seen the negative effects in the extreme (anorexia) in people.

Fantastic if you can incorporate that differentiation into your product.