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I use ChatGPT (4o model) to track my daily macros, specifically calories, protein, fat, and carbs. I have a prompt containing my macro targets and a list of the
by vjulian 1y ago
I use ChatGPT (4o model) to track my daily macros, specifically calories, protein, fat, and carbs. I have a prompt containing my macro targets and a list of the foods I typically eat or have at home. Throughout the day, I report my meals, for example five large eggs, two slices of sprouted wheat toast, and a cup of spinach with a pat of butter. It calculates the macros for each meal and keeps a running macros total so I can see how I’m tracking. It’s so easy—I don’t even type, I use (the overall excellent) ChatGPT’s TTS function in the iOS app.
If I eat something unexpected, I have it recalculate what I need for the rest of the day. If I were planning on 8 ounces of chicken for dinner but had an unplanned snack, it might tell me that 6 ounces will suffice now, and I now have room for more fat, so I could add some cheese. I find it quite accurate in this.
Where it loses accuracy is over time. Even when focused on just a single day, the cumulative totals can be wrong when the context window gets too large. I catch this by mentally adding up the numbers it spits out. If the numbers seem off, I open a new chat. Also, it’s not reliable for looking back over multiple days or trying to track long-term patterns.
When I take a photo of a meal (like when eating out), it performs very well. I ask it to list the contents of the plate, then I correct any assumptions. Once corrected, the resulting macros are usually within 5% accuracy. I also tell it the quality of the ingredients and restaurant overall, which can help a bit.
- cj 1y agoDo you find this easier than scanning barcodes with traditional calorie tracking apps?
- jmacd 1y agoHow much of your daily intake comes from food that has a barcode on it?
- ukFxqnLa2sBSBf6 1y agoI typically just measure ingredients and log it in Cronometer.
- cj 1y agoNearly all food in the US has barcodes. Produce, meat, etc might not always, but simply search those the same as you'd ask ChatGPt.
- Iulioh 1y agoPersonally everything that is not produce Even the meat, i usually buy packaged
- netdevphoenix 1y agoI assume a lot of fruit, fish and meat people buy has no barcode unless you only buy stuff at a supermarket
- jurgenkesker 1y agoDid you verify it sometimes how accurate it is? I would be wary of it to be honest.
- lysecret 1y agoI'm doing the exact same thing. I have built a small app for it too but I like using the plain ai too.
- echelon 1y agoI really don't get the bearish on AI folks. One company has a tool that can replace what we professionally do. This app would have taken person months to build, yet here it is, almost as an afterthought. The next ten years are going to be wild. Hope everyone has a plan for leveling up and riding this tsunami. Even if LLMs presently can't do intricate things, that doesn't matter. I know in my gut that my generous total comp job isn't going to be available in the future in its current form. In aggregate, the work we do isn't going to be as hard or as in demand as LLMs devour more of the market share and growth of the human economic field and attention economy. The LLMs are likely going to increase demand for software, but in doing so they'll eat more of the market share. ZIRP, Section 174, industry-wide layoffs, offshoring, and now this. Plan accordingly. I'm sure there are gradients with tremendous success to be had, but for many there will be a decrease in fitness.
- hooverd 1y agoIt's that extra 20%. Everybody right now can do the hardware store and rewire their house for cheaper than an electrician, yet they'll still hire one to do it. That or maybe everyone will just except things being slightly more convenient but worse.
- echelon 1y ago> That or maybe everyone will just except things being slightly more convenient but worse. This is how it will play out. You'll see it in the cost centers. You'll see it in the "I have an idea for an app" pitches. Business people will make these decisions, and consumers will too. { High convenience, High quality, Low cost } - pick two. Software engineering won't evaporate, but there's something new competing with it.
- jaynetics 1y agoYeah. I think the analogy with electrical wiring is quite illuminating. Few software errors have a similar risk profile as faulty wiring. Maybe if a calendar or messenger or such is buggy, that's enough of a nuisance to switch, but I doubt a lot of software is this critical. People already put up with plenty of bugs e.g. in games or social networks. Even with paid software, I'm sometimes surprised how much patience customers have developed when it comes to glaring deficits.
- kelstar18 1y agoIs it ironic that my AI detector is ringing alarm bells at this comment (both its overall cadence, as well as it’s particularly unnecessary use of an em dash)?
- MangoToupe 1y agoIs the em-dash ever "necessary"? It was beloved by nerds on the internet long before there was any whisper of LLMs on the internet. What do you think chatbots are imitating if not humans who also use it?
- Iulioh 1y agoI never saw a human use it in something different from literature. That's where I think the chatbots got it.
- subarctic 1y agoI use it sometimes, although I'll probably stop now that I keep hearing it's too associated with ai. It's easy to enter though on Mac it's just option shift hyphen
- vjulian 1y agoI write for a living and read literature at university. I find it odd that you’ve never encountered an em dash in common writing.
- MangoToupe 1y ago> I never saw a human use it in something different from literature. This is nuts! Do you not read much prose written by other humans?
- Iulioh 1y agoI have and had a reddit addiction since my early teens and I read a lot of whatever I can on the internet. Books and scientific papers are the only places I see it used And it makes sense that the AI is prioritizing it as these sources should weigh more
- beepbooptheory 1y agoWith stuff like this, I am always curious: ok, you send it a picture of a plate, how does it know the food was cooked in butter instead olive oil? Or either way, with 2 tbsp of fat instead of 1?
- Iulioh 1y agoOh no, it is TERRIBLY wrong Using VTT is better but still not perfet The only certain way to do it is measure everything with a scale
- pacerwpg 1y agoCool, it can replace myfitnesspal features from 10 years ago, but do them worse. Revolutionary.
- vjulian 1y agoNo, I find that app cumbersome. To respond to others’ comments, I tend to eat whole foods. I don’t eat TV dinner or shop at Costco or such places.
- vjulian 1y agoAlso, do you mind dropping the sarcasm and explaining why you believe MyFitnessPal might be superior to ChatGPT in the usage I’m suggesting?