I Used AI-Powered Calorie Counting Apps, and They Were Even Worse Than Expected

Summary

The promise is seductive: Snap a photo of your meal, and artificial intelligence will instantly tell you exactly how many calories you're consuming. No more tedious manual logging, no more guessing at portion sizes, no more human error. Apps like Cal AI, Lose It!, and MyFitnessPal's new photo features claim to revolutionize calorie tracking by letting your smartphone's camera do the heavy lifting.But as someone with a long, complicated history with calorie counting—and admittedly, a somewhat cursed expertise in it—I can tell you that counting calories with a photo is exactly as stupid as it sounds.How AI-powered calorie counting is supposed to workCalorie counting apps promise to solve what developers claim is the biggest problem with calorie tracking: human error. The pitch is compelling—why spend time searching databases and measuring portions when your phone can instantly analyze your plate?Apps like Cal AI or SnapCalorie AI use visual cues like color, texture, and relative size to make educated guesses about what you're eating and how much of it there is.They claim that AI methods can solve the pesky problem of human accuracy in calorie estimation—which, to be fair, is easy to get wrong. Cal AI markets itself as one of the more sophisticated options in this space, so I decided to see for myself. The app was free for the first three days, then $29.99/year.The setup process is straightforward: Download the app, create an account, input basic demographic information, and set your goals. Here's where I encountered my first red flag. The app cheerfully informed me that "losing 10 lbs is a realistic target"—except that losing 10 pounds would actually push me into underweight BMI territory. This kind of blanket statement reveals a concerning lack of nuance about individual health needs.Cal AI's photo logging process follows these steps:Take a clear photo of your food, ideally against a plain background.Make sure all ingredients are visible and well-lit.Include a refere...