Recommendations for most accurate AI food scanner app?

jessifieldsierra
jessifieldsierra Posts: 4 Member
in Food and Nutrition
There are lots of apps that have come out lately where you can take a photo of your food and it’ll tell you all the calories in it. I’m curious if anybody has found one that works pretty accurately?
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Answers

  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,963 Member
    I can’t fathom how they can begin to be accurate. How do they know how many ounces of chicken are mixed in all my vegetables? How do they know if I used low cal honey ginger balsamic versus a heavier sauce? Does it know that I “stir fry” without using oil? That the stuff under the bottom of the pile is cauliflower rice instead of rice?

    I feel like I’d get really poor results relying on a photographic scanner. Which would in turn make meeting a calorie goal impossible, which would ruin any attempt at loss. Heck, even the barcode scanner is a joke 85% of the time (because it’s crowdsourced, like the other foods here).

    I’m not even an “elaborate” cook like some of the folks here, like @NouveauRee for example. I can see a super computer somewhere blowing a gasket looking at those plates of interesting ingredients.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 35,115 Member
    Yeah. Premium MFP has that kind of "feature".

    As a retired IT-er, I have a general idea what AI is, and I'm not sure MFP's photo-estimator fits the strict definition, but it's probably approximately close to what the general public means when they use the term AI. (It seems like people are calling any complex computer algorithm application AI these days.)

    I tried the MFP version. IMO, it's silly, and more time consuming than logging the meal by typing in the components, based on that experiment. Cynically, it's the kind of feature that gets added for marketing reasons, very gee-whiz and snappy sounding, but quite lackluster in practice, at least now.

    I don't think the technology is there yet to do this with acceptable accuracy, and there are things about the nature of the problem that make me wonder if real AI will be able to do it accurately long term. AI is already doing some interesting things, and will do more, but its success will be greater in some areas than others.

    Just my opinions, obviously. :)
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,609 Member
    As others have said, I think anything claiming to do this is still at "gimmick" stage. Sure, it might get an idea of a divided plate with a steak, a baked potato, a pile of cut carrots and some peas, but how on Earth would it know what stir-fry sauce I used, or how much oil, or how much cheese is melted through my beans etc...
  • robertw486
    robertw486 Posts: 2,452 Member
    It might have the potential to get semi close to the basics, but even then it has to "learn" proper scaling. Is that a big steak and potato or a smaller one of each on a small plate?

    But with the proper learning algorithms involved, it might reach a point of being close enough so that the user could adjust (via quick add or something similar) for oil and fat amounts in the sauces and such.

    Computers and tech for the most part are as smart as we program to be, or at least program them to learn.
  • eaglefish33
    eaglefish33 Posts: 2 Member
    I've found Lose It to be very helpful but only by typing in all of the ingredients of a recipe
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 35,115 Member
    eaglefish33 wrote: »
    I've found Lose It to be very helpful but only by typing in all of the ingredients of a recipe

    MFP will give a reasonable calorie estimate when typing in all the ingredients of a recipe, too. At least that's been my experience.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,609 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    eaglefish33 wrote: »
    I've found Lose It to be very helpful but only by typing in all of the ingredients of a recipe

    MFP will give a reasonable calorie estimate when typing in all the ingredients of a recipe, too. At least that's been my experience.

    Yup, I am quite satisfied with the MFP recipe builder, you have to be vigilant about confirming the entries you use, but it works!
  • jessifieldsierra
    jessifieldsierra Posts: 4 Member
    You guys are all so right about the inaccuracy of the AI apps. It’s just I’m doing 2 weeks in Japan soon so weighing and inputting individual ingredients is going to be possible
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 10,070 Member
    jessifieldsierra wrote: »
    You guys are all so right about the inaccuracy of the AI apps. It’s just I’m doing 2 weeks in Japan soon so weighing and inputting individual ingredients is going to be possible

    Relax. It's two weeks. How much can you possibly eat over in two weeks? Lets say you eat 500 calories above maintenance every day over 14 days, then that's 2lbs of bodyfat extra. Unless your maintenance is higher because you move more, and then it's less.
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,963 Member
    jessifieldsierra wrote: »
    You guys are all so right about the inaccuracy of the AI apps. It’s just I’m doing 2 weeks in Japan soon so weighing and inputting individual ingredients is going to be possible

    Just a reminder….. don’t flip out when you get home. Long flights cause large temporary weight “gains”. Cabin pressure, sitting still for enforced lengths of time cause water retention.

    I can easily gain 5-6 flying to Europe. Flying to Japan will be a much longer trip.

    It flushes out within days.

    It’s not “real” weight you gained on your trip.
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,944 Member
    jessifieldsierra wrote: »
    You guys are all so right about the inaccuracy of the AI apps. It’s just I’m doing 2 weeks in Japan soon so weighing and inputting individual ingredients is going to be possible
    I doubt you're going to gain much weight in Japan. I've been, and the food was quite healthy, plus tons of walking. Friends who moved there all lost weight.

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