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Food Library

The food library is your searchable database of foods with nutritional data. It powers the meal plan builder — when you add a food to a meal, you're pulling from this library.

Shared library​

The food library is a shared, global database. All foods — including custom ones you create — are available to all coaches. This means the library grows as coaches add their own entries, giving everyone access to a wider selection of foods with accurate nutritional data.

Searching for foods​

In the meal plan builder, the right-side panel is your food search. Type at least 2 characters to start searching. Results appear after a brief delay and include:

  • Food name
  • Category (e.g., Protein, Carbs, Dairy)
  • Serving info (e.g., "Per 100g")
  • Nutritional breakdown — Calories, protein, carbs, and fat per serving

When the search box is empty, you'll see your most-used foods — the top 20 foods you've added to meal plans most frequently. These popular foods make it fast to add staples without typing anything.

Creating custom foods​

Can't find what you need? Click New Food in the search panel to add your own.

The creation form includes:

  • Food Name (required) — e.g., "Overnight Oats with Honey"
  • Category (optional) — e.g., "Grains", "Protein", "Dairy"
  • Serving Size — Defaults to 100
  • Unit — Choose from grams, ml, cup, piece, or serving
  • Nutrition per serving:
    • Calories
    • Protein (g)
    • Carbs (g)
    • Fat (g)

Once created, the food is immediately available in your search results and can be added to any meal plan.

tip

When creating custom foods, think about how your client will measure them. If a food is more naturally measured by the piece (like eggs) or by the cup (like rice), set the serving unit accordingly. This makes the meal plan clearer for the client.

Managing custom foods​

Custom foods you've created are marked in the library. You can:

  • Edit — Update the name, category, or nutritional values
  • Delete — Remove a custom food from your library

There's one important safeguard: you cannot delete a food that's currently used in any meal plan. You'll need to remove it from all plans first. This prevents accidentally breaking existing meal plans.

How nutritional calculations work​

When you add a food to a meal and set a quantity, the system calculates the nutritional values proportionally:

Formula: (food's nutrition per serving) × (your quantity) ÷ (food's serving size)

For example, if a food has:

  • 200 calories per 100g serving
  • You set the quantity to 150g
  • Calculated calories = 200 × 150 ÷ 100 = 300 calories

The same formula applies to protein, carbs, and fat. All values are rounded to one decimal place.

These per-food calculations roll up into meal totals (sum of all foods in that meal) and then into plan totals (sum of all meals), which are displayed in the nutritional dashboard at the top of the builder.

Search tips​

  • Search by name — "chicken breast", "brown rice", "protein shake"
  • Search by brand — If foods have brand information, you can search by that too
  • Search by category — "protein", "dairy", "snack"
  • Use popular foods — Clear the search box to see your most-used items for quick access

If a search returns no results, you'll see an option to create the food right from the search — so you never have to interrupt your workflow to add something new.