Comment by hombre_fatal
10 months ago
Everyone keeps using this example, but you have the exact same problem calorie counting any food that might be lathered in fat. It's why people underestimate their calorie intake by 30%+.
You could level the same criticism at Cronometer and MacroFactor when you try to log food you received at a restaurant. Yet those apps are still useful (and I think requisite) for knowing what you're eating. And you should probably 1.5x the calorie estimation when you eat out.
What's interesting is whether this app can accurately estimate food at all. If it can, then that's a huge win and you can add your own buffer zone for oils like you already have to do when you count calories. ...Or chill on the butter and restaurant food when you're supposedly trying to lose weight.
> Everyone keeps using this example, but you have the exact same problem calorie counting any food that might be lathered in fat.
Not really. In practice you need to know the ingredients to estimate the caloric value. Either because you prepared the meal, or because someone who wrote the recipe of it calculated and wrote it on the packaging/menu.
> If it can, then that's a huge win
But that's the point of the example. That it can't. If it could, that would be good. But it can't do it, and not because the app is deficient in some way, but because the necessary information is not available in the image.
> Or chill on the butter and restaurant food when you're supposedly trying to lose weight.
Yes of course. And that is one of the things you learn when you do calorie counting. The practice drives home that message, and many others. But you are not going to learn that if the app hides the signal from you.
> What's interesting is whether this app can accurately estimate food at all.
Spoiler: It can't. It is physically impossible to determine calories from pictures of food.