Project 03
Couldn't find one. Built one.
A calorie tracker for people who meal-prep and cook from scratch, not people who eat the same weighed meals every day. Version 1 shipped in 4 days, tweaked from real feedback, and in daily use since.
Role
Solo Product Builder
Context
End-to-end build
Timeline
4 days (v1), ongoing iteration
Stack
Lovable · Supabase
4 days
Idea to shipped
4
Logging methods
Daily
Still in use
The problem
Calorie tracking works, but it usually means weighing everything, every time. That falls apart for batch-cooked food — a soup for five days, a big batch of overnight oats, mostly built from whatever was on hand.
A generic database doesn't know what's in your chicken soup, and once it's cooked together you can't weigh a portion's ingredients. Meanwhile a boiled egg or an apple never needed weighing at all.
AI photo-recognition apps solve part of this, but sit behind subscriptions and pile on features that weren't needed while missing the ones that were. So I built the one I'd actually use.
How I approached it
Personal need
Built from meal-prepping and cooking from scratch, not from a fixed daily menu.
Research
Tested existing trackers and photo AI apps, and mapped what was missing — too rigid, or too expensive.
Build
Shipped four logging methods so the input matches the moment: recipe, photo, precise weighing, or quick known-quantity entry.
Feedback
Shared it with friends; requests like recipe-to-shopping-list and a running daily overview shaped the next version.
Iteration
Built those in, added an AI nutrition assistant, then kept using it daily and removing friction.
What I shipped
- Recipe intelligence — save a custom recipe once, set servings, and get per-serving calories and macros automatically.
- Photo-based logging for meals you can't weigh, like a restaurant plate.
- Manual weighing for full precision, plus quick entry for consistent foods so you never re-weigh an apple.
- AI nutrition assistant: meal ideas, recipe adaptation, ingredient-based suggestions.
- Behavioural support: reuse previous meals, faster repeat logging, simplified daily flows.
- A daily overview showing calories and protein remaining, not just logged.
- Recipe-to-shopping-list, added directly from user feedback.
Result
Shipped, gathered feedback from friends, tweaked it, and used it daily since.
The point was never counting calories — it was making tracking sustainable enough to stick with.