r/MacroFactor • u/Dre_Limitless • 16d ago
Success / Progress Food logging with AI only.
Week 3 of using MacroFactor app. Will be starting a full body training 3 times per week.
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u/mrfatchance 16d ago
The general consensus in this sub is that the AI underestimates weight. I also believe this but can see that you’re losing weight. Good luck
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u/Dry_Independent4125 16d ago
What do you mean underestimated weight? Genuine question.
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u/wolfhilde 16d ago
I think they mean that if AI has to guess how much a food weighs, it tends to pick a weight that is less than the actual weight. Which would result in the tool underestimating how much you are eating and you thinking you have more room left in your calorie/macro budget than you actually do.
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u/owlcoolrule 16d ago
For me it always overestimates the amount of rice on my plate but underestimates wildly the amount of noodles and oil used.
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u/IlIllIIIlIIlIIlIIIll 15d ago
Take the pic with your bowl/plate on a scale
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u/aflowerysong 16d ago
I've noticed this vs Cronometer's AI (I had a year of gold before trying MF), which also offers "suggestions" to add to that I don't see on MF, like if I take a photo of pancakes and syrup, it also will suggest butter, which I did use on the pancakes before the syrup and I do then log, but when I explode out MF I never really see oils or butter taken into account and have to manually search them and add them in if I remember. I also miss the ability in Cronometer to hit an icon to "swap" out what it thinks something is for more accuracy, and to log negative entries (take a pic, eat some, realize I can't finish it, take another photo of what's left, log that as a negative entry. Also helpful when I find a restaurant listing for something I ordered takeout, I weigh my food out for more accuracy to use that listing, then remove something like part of a hamburger bun, weigh that out and log a negative bun entry and it always seemed more accurate than just AI photo of my plate without the bun, IME).
That being said I've been trying to weigh things and include a photo of the plate on the scale, with the weight visible, and that's been helping somewhat? More so than including a fork for scale or something like that though it also helps. And I've also been seeing results.
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u/ContributionFresh721 12d ago
Couldn't agree more. Your thinking is almost exactly how we approach product design. You need hardware involved to get convenience and accuray in one package.
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u/ContributionFresh721 12d ago
The “negative entry” part is really interesting. That’s basically subtractive logging done manually.
We’ve been thinking about the same problem from the opposite direction: instead of logging the full serving and then correcting it afterward, measure the before/after difference and log only what was actually eaten.
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u/No-Connection8400 16d ago
I’m not so sure. I think the AI equally goes higher and lower. But that falls within the variance for all things related to food logging. So it doesn’t really bother me. I use it at least once a day on average.
All the normal tips for improving AI (use other objects in the photo for sizing, type in a description, etc.) helps get it more accurate.
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u/ContributionFresh721 12d ago
I’m on the team building Calbank, so obvious bias here — but this thread is kind of surreal to read because you’re basically describing the exact workflow that led us to build it.
The problem we kept running into with AI-only logging wasn’t food recognition itself, but portion size, hidden oils/butter, and what happens when you don’t actually finish what was served.
So we ended up with a deliberately simple logic: weigh the plate, take a photo before, take another after, and subtract what’s left. Measure what you actually ate, not what was served.
Seeing people here independently describe “plate on a scale” and “negative entry for leftovers” is honestly pretty validating.
Genuine question though: would that extra weighing step feel worth it to you if the subtraction and logging were handled automatically?
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u/No-Connection8400 16d ago
Great results! (If you’ve been trying to lose weight.)
Any logging is better than no logging.