I built an AI that identifies individual ingredients from a photo to estimate calories instantly. No more manual searching.

Reddit r/artificial / 4/29/2026

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Key Points

  • The author says calorie tracking is too time-consuming because most apps require manual searching of ingredients, weighing, and logging for every meal.
  • They built an AI model that uses a photo to identify individual ingredients (not just the dish) and then estimates volume to generate a macro breakdown and calorie estimate.
  • The system is still in early stages, but the author reports it has significantly reduced the effort required to track nutrition.
  • The author is seeking power users to test the tool, especially to identify where it fails in real-world usage.
  • The post frames a broader question for readers: whether photo-based ingredient recognition will replace manual weighing for nutrition tracking or remain supplementary.

Hi everyone,

I’ve always struggled with the 'friction' of calorie tracking. Most apps require you to search for every single ingredient, weigh it, and log it manually. It usually takes me 5-10 minutes per meal, which led me to quit every single time.

As a dev, I thought: Why can't I just take a photo and let AI do the heavy lifting?

I spent the last few months training a model to not just recognize a 'Salad', but to identify the components: the cherry tomatoes, the parmesan, the croutons, etc. It then estimates the volume and gives a macro breakdown.

It’s still in the early stages, but it has completely changed how I track my nutrition. I'm looking for some 'power-users' who are tired of manual logging to help me test this and tell me where it fails.

What do you think? Is photo-recognition the future of nutrition or is manual weighing still king for you?

submitted by /u/jonas1363611
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