Meal Logging
Meal logging lets a client record what they eat from the client app — either by adding the foods, or by sharing a photo or note. You get a simple meal journal in their dashboard, plus one bundled to-do when they have new meals to review.
What your client does
In the client app, the client opens Meals, chooses which meal it is, and logs it one of two ways:
- By its foods — they search for each food and set an amount. This is the main way to log, and it gives the client their own calorie and macro totals for the day.
- With a photo or note — a quick photo, a short note, or both, for when they are not sure of the exact ingredients (eating out, a friend's cooking, a dish they can't break down).
If the client has an active meal plan, the meal choices use the meals from that plan. They can also choose Outside a meal when it is not part of the plan.
Clients see their own running totals from the meals they log by foods. They never see your private AI estimates, the plan read, or the ingredient breakdown you can pull — only the reply you choose to write.
Where you review meals
You can open a client's meals in two ways:
- From Home, click the meal to-do.
- From the client's dashboard, open the Meals tab.
Meals are grouped by day so you can scan the week without opening a separate item for every one. A meal logged by its foods shows its exact calorie and macro breakdown; a photo or note shows what the client shared.
Looking at one day
Click any day on the nutrition chart, either in the client's Meals tab or in the Nutrition section of a check-in, to see that day on its own.
The day opens as one table:
- Day total comes first: the day's calories, protein, carbs, and fat, with the client's target under each and a small bar showing how close they came.
- Each meal is a row, breakfast first, with what they ate and its numbers in the same columns as the day total, so you can see which meal moved the day.
- The tick at the end of a row marks that meal reviewed.
Click a meal to open it. You'll find the numbers behind it (the foods they logged, or where an estimate came from), what they ate next to their meal plan, and the reply box, or your reply and theirs if you've already written one.
If a meal is still being estimated, the day total says it isn't counted yet, so you know the total isn't final. Use the arrows next to the date to move to the day before or after.
Replying to a meal
Use Coach reply on any meal where you want the client to see a note from you. When you save the reply, Assistant Coach sends it to the client and marks that meal reviewed.
Good replies are usually short and coaching-focused:
- "Good choice for a busy travel day."
- "Next time, add the planned protein portion here."
- "This works well before training."
The client sees only your reply under the matching meal.
Showing, not just telling
For a meal with a photo, portion size and plating are often quicker to show than to describe. Alongside your note you can add one image, in one of two ways:
- Draw on photo opens the client's meal photo so you can circle a portion, ring the vegetables they skipped, or mark the half you'd swap out. Pick a pen colour, and use undo or clear if you need to. Your marks are saved onto a copy — the client's original photo is never changed.
- Add image attaches a picture from your device — a reference plate, a portion guide, or an example of the swap you have in mind.
A reply carries one image. If you change your mind, remove it with the ✕ and add a different one before you send. Once sent, a drawing can't be reopened to tweak the lines, but you can always replace the whole image later.
Your note is still the main message — the image just makes it concrete. "Half this much rice" circled on the client's own plate lands faster than the same sentence on its own. For most replies, a line of text is all you need.
Your note and the image arrive together under the matching meal, and your client can add one short reply back.
Using AI estimates
When a client logs a meal by its foods, you already have exact calorie and macro numbers — there is nothing to estimate and no assistant action is used.
For a meal shared as a photo or note, Assistant Coach can create a coach-only draft estimate.
On the Pro plan, this happens automatically. As soon as a client's photo or note meal is finalized, the assistant reviews it on its own — no button to click, and no assistant action spent, however many clients you have.
Below Pro, click Generate AI estimate on the meal to create one yourself. This uses 1 assistant action. You can also turn estimates on for a client going forward: open the gear icon next to Meals for Meal log settings, and switch on Use AI for their photo meals. Once it's on, that client's future photo and note meals get an estimate automatically, at one assistant action each — you no longer need to click Generate on every meal.
The draft is always private to you. Your client never sees the estimate itself, the numbers, the plan read, or the ingredients — only the reply you choose to write. The same Meal log settings switch also controls whether the client sees their own estimated totals in their app; see Logging your meals for what that looks like on their side.
Reading the estimate
At the top you get a quick read:
- Plan read — a plain summary like Looks on plan or Looks different from plan.
- Calories, protein, carbs, and fat — estimates based on the available details. A reported planned portion can use the plan's nutrition values; uncertain foods or amounts need a wider range.
When the meal is tagged to one of the client's planned meals, each range also shows what that meal was planned to hit (for example, Plan 35g under protein) and a small tag telling you whether the meal came in on plan, lighter, or heavier than planned. A one-line summary underneath names which macros drifted.
This is what makes the estimate useful at a glance. One meal landing a little light on protein usually isn't worth a message. The same drift showing up across several meals in the week is a pattern worth a gentle note or a small plan tweak — that's the kind of thing the plan comparison helps you notice without doing the maths yourself.
If the meal isn't tied to a specific planned meal, you'll see the client's day target for context instead, and no per-meal tags — comparing one meal against a whole day's target wouldn't tell you much.
What's on the plate
When a client refers to their selected meal plan in the note, the estimate can use that meal's ingredients and portions. For example, “my usual breakfast, but half the oats” can keep the rest of breakfast as planned while adjusting the oats. The estimate can also use planned portions when the photo supports a match, and account for reported swaps, skipped foods, or extras.
Read the explanation to see whether an amount comes from the client's note, the plan, or an estimate from the photo. A plan-based amount is not a measured portion. Photos can still be misidentified, including as an ingredient listed in the plan, so check unexpected ingredients before relying on the estimate.
Open Show details to see the main things the estimate is built from, each with a rough amount (like ~150g or ~1 tbsp) and its own calorie and macro ranges. This is where swaps show up — a planned chicken breast that looks like tofu, or an extra topping that wasn't in the plan.
Some rows are marked Less certain. That's usually hidden oils, a dressing, or a portion size the photo can't settle. Treat those as a prompt for a quick question to the client — "was that a full or half portion?" — rather than something to guess at. Check the explanation even when a row uses a single number: a value calculated from the plan still depends on the client having eaten that portion.
Turning it into a reply
Use the estimate to spot what's worth mentioning, then write your own coach reply in your own words. Once you've replied, your note moves to the top of the meal and the AI draft tidies itself into a single line — click it any time to reopen the full estimate.
If an estimate was spot-on or off, you can tap Helpful or Needs work. That's optional feedback that helps the estimates improve over time; it changes nothing your client sees.
If the AI cannot generate a useful estimate, your assistant actions are not used. If a draft already exists for that meal, opening it again does not consume another action.
When your client replies back
Your client can add one short reply to your note — a quick bit of context like "swapped rice for potato, I was out" or "this was right after my morning session." It's capped at a single reply on purpose: it's there to give you the missing detail, not to open a back-and-forth.
When a client replies:
- Their reply appears right under your note on that meal when you open their meals.
- You get an in-app notification that opens the right meal log and takes you to the reply. Once the reply is on screen, it is marked as read automatically.
- There is no email or push notification for this reply.
You don't have to reply again. Read it, let it shape your next note or plan tweak, and move on.
Clearing the to-do
If you have looked through the current meals and do not need to reply to each one, click Mark all reviewed.
That clears the current bundle for this client. The meals stay in the journal, and a new to-do appears if the client logs more meals later.
Good to know
- A client can edit a meal — its tag and note, or the foods they added — until you review or comment on it. After that it is locked, so what you reviewed is what stays.
- A client can delete a meal they logged.
- Clients never see your AI estimates, the ingredient breakdown, or any coach-only numbers.
- Meals are included in your coach data export.