Medical Research Breakthrough

A recent study presented at the flagship annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition has revealed a significant discrepancy in popular AI-powered calorie-tracking applications. Researchers discovered that these photo-based applications consistently underestimate the caloric and fat content of meals by a substantial margin.

Conducted by experts from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the investigation tested four prominent applications: MyFitnessPal, LoseIt!, CalAI, and Appediet. By utilizing meals prepared in a tightly controlled metabolic kitchen, where ingredients were measured to the nearest 0.1 gram, the team established a highly accurate reference point. The findings indicated that the applications underestimated calorie totals by an average of 250 to 345 calories per meal, and fat content by approximately 30 grams.

"People using a photo-based tracking app without adjusting the portions or entering the amounts of food should take the results with a grain of salt. These apps tend to underestimate calories, especially from fats, so what they actually ate is likely higher than what the app shows."

The research further highlighted that meals adhering to a low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet posed a particular challenge for the artificial intelligence algorithms. The high fat content in these dishes appeared to cause the most unreliability in measurement, whereas carbohydrates were evaluated with greater consistency.

Experts recommend that individuals relying on these digital tools for weight management or health monitoring should combine photo-based tracking with traditional, manual portion evaluation to ensure precision. The full findings were presented during the President's Oral Session at NUTRITION 2026 in National Harbor, Maryland.

Read the full research summary: ScienceDaily - Your AI calorie-tracking app may be off by 345 calories