[malfist]

How can your AI hope to be accurate. Visually, Can you tell how much butter or oil someone used in the recipe? Visually, Can you tell if it's 73/36 ground beef or 97/3? Can you tell if that taco meet is beef or turkey? Can you tell if that glass of milk is skim or actually just heavy cream?

You can't tell if I cooked my scrambled eggs in the rendered fat from the sausage I cooked just before it, or if I used a teaspoon of olive oil

There's too many sources of calories you just can't see at all. I made jambalaya last night. If I'd sauteed the veggies in a tablespoon of oil or a cup of oil you wouldn't be able to tell.

[mminer237]

You can just assume an average amount of butter for such a recipe, 80/20 beef, beef, and 2% milk and be reasonably accurate, especially for people who otherwise wouldn't have any idea of their calorie intakes.

[malfist]

What is "an average amount of butter"?

And why can you assume any of the other things?

[hammyhavoc]

Probably because most people likely to use this app aren't going to be using it for serious self-monitoring like someone with diabetes would. The reality is that most people will use an app like this for a while, fail at their attempt to lose weight or gain muscle, and lose interest. "Good enough" is the mantra of much of what is in the health/nutrition/fitness niche and it goes beyond anything AI-adjacent.

[malfist]

Good enough isn't close to cutting it for weight loss. A 250 calorie surplus per day will add half a pound per week. That being off by two tablespoons of oil.

[hammyhavoc]

"Good enough" being that it doesn't matter because most people who use it probably aren't going to seriously stick it out to see results as they either won't put the work in or won't seriously stick to a diet for any meaningful length of time.

I do agree though, it isn't fit for purpose, like much of what's available beyond AI.