Nutrition and macros: understand what you eat, not just how much.
Calories are one number. Fotocal also shows the protein, carbs and fat behind a meal, rates the food itself, and keeps a running total against the targets you set. What you do with that is yours to decide.
Four readings from one photo.
Two of them come with every scan on the free plan. The fourth is where the free plan stops, and the page says so rather than leaving you to find out.
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Calories and macros
Every meal is broken down into calories, protein, carbs and fat, and added to a running daily total against the targets your plan set. Free, on every scan.
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A score out of 100, for the food
Each scan carries a score from 0 to 100 rating the food itself, with the reasons behind it listed underneath. It is a reading of what is in the product, not a mark for the person eating it. Free, on every scan.
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Water, with its own screen and goal
Water is logged next to the food and has its own screen: a daily goal, the week's bars and the history, day by day. Free, with no cap.
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Vitamins and minerals: two free
Every scan reads the full micronutrient list, and the free plan shows the first two of them. The rest sit under an unlock, along with the fibre, sugar, sodium and saturated fat figures and the processing level.
Four ways to capture a meal.
Whichever is quickest in the moment. The caps below are the free plan's, and they are per day.
- Photo scan — any dish, cooked at home or put in front of you. Two a day on the free plan.
- Barcode scan — packaged products, free and uncapped.
- Voice — say what you ate. One a day on the free plan.
- Menu scan — photograph a restaurant menu. This one needs Premium.
You pick the approach. Fotocal does the arithmetic.
Fotocal has no opinion about which of these is right, and it will not put you on one. The profile keeps two lists apart: thirteen allergies, which act as hard limits, and eight ways of eating, which you tick if they apply. Four of them change the macro split the app works to.
- The diet you set shapes what Coach Kal suggests, every time
- Allergies act as a constraint, not a preference it weighs up
- Leave it all blank and the app simply works without it
- Change it whenever you like, and the targets follow
A number on its own does not tell you much.
Coach Kal reads what you have logged and answers about it in plain language. It is an assistant, not a nutritionist, and it can be wrong — the app says so behind the three dots on every answer, and so does its own page.
- Free on every plan, with no message limit
- The recommendations tab is free too, and unlimited
- The weekly report opens on the free plan; its nutrition table and its vitamins and minerals card need Premium
Fotocal counts and explains. It does not prescribe.
There is a lot of advice about what people should eat. This is not any of it.
- No way of eating is recommended over another anywhere in the app or on this site. The list above is a list, not a ranking.
- The score rates the product in front of the camera. It is not a mark for the day, the week or the person holding the phone.
- The app does not judge a meal or call it a lapse. One of the fifty tags you can put on a day is “cheat day”, but you are the one choosing it, and nothing in the app treats a day so tagged any differently.
- The figures are estimates. A portion read from a photo, a database value and the app's own arithmetic each carry error.
Fotocal is not a medical device, and this is not dietary advice
If you are pregnant, living with diabetes or another condition, taking medication, under eighteen, or have any history of an eating disorder, speak to a doctor or a registered dietitian before changing how you eat or using a calorie tracker. Their advice comes first, and a tracking app is the wrong tool for some people.
Questions about the nutrition side
What does the score out of 100 actually measure?
It rates the food itself, and the app lists its reasons under the number so you can see what drove it rather than taking it on trust. It says nothing about you, your day or your week, and a low score is not an instruction to put something back.
How many vitamins and minerals do I see on the free plan?
Two. The scan reads the whole list either way, and the free plan shows the first two with the rest dimmed under an unlock. The fibre, sugar, sodium and saturated fat figures and the processing level are in the same locked part of the screen.
Does Fotocal tell me what to eat?
No. It shows you what a meal contains and, after a scan, offers one alternative you could have instead. Coach Kal answers questions you ask it. None of that is a plan, and no way of eating is pushed over another.
Do I have to pick a diet?
No. There is an option for no diet at all, and leaving the health profile blank is fine — the app works without it. If you do set one, four of the options change the macro split the targets are built from, and all of them shape what Coach Kal suggests.
Keep reading
Longer answers than a feature page can give, written by people rather than an app.
See what is actually in your next meal.
Fotocal is free to start, with a 5-day free trial on every paid plan.
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