Glossary index

The NutritionTerms Glossary

50 terms covering everything you see inside a calorie-tracking app — barcode scanning, photo logging, portion estimation, macros, adherence patterns, and the friction points that make or break a streak.

Tracking & Dietary Assessment

7-Day Adherence Rate The percentage of the last 7 days on which you logged your food — a short-window adherence metric for catching…
AI Food Recognition Using machine learning to automatically identify what foods appear in a photo so they can be logged without ma…
Apple Health Integration The connection between a calorie-tracking app and Apple Health, letting nutrition and activity data sync autom…
Barcode Scanning Using your phone camera to read a product's UPC barcode and pull its nutrition info directly from the app's da…
Calorie Counter App A mobile app that combines a food database, barcode scanner, portion entry, and daily calorie and macro totals…
Chain Restaurant Database The collection of chain restaurant menu items with FDA-required nutrition info that calorie apps pull from for…
Computer Vision Portion Estimation Using computer vision to estimate how much food is on a plate — typically in grams or volume — from one or mor…
Copy Meal A feature that duplicates a previous meal's entries into today's log, so you don't have to re-search every foo…
Custom Food Entry A food entry you create yourself — typically from a nutrition label — when the database doesn't have a reliabl…
Food Database The underlying library of food items — with calories, macros, and portions — that a tracking app searches when…
Food Diary A day-by-day written or digital record of everything you eat and drink, used for awareness, coaching, or medic…
Food Log A structured day-by-day record of what you eat, usually with portion size and time — the working document behi…
Gram-Based Logging Entering food portions in grams, the metric unit most nutrition databases and scientific sources use, rather t…
Kitchen Scale Logging Using a digital kitchen scale to weigh food portions directly into your tracking app, for much higher accuracy…
Logging Adherence The percentage of days (or meals) you actually log, which is the single strongest predictor of whether trackin…
Logging Friction The time, cognitive effort, and annoyance cost of logging a meal — the hidden variable that most predicts whet…
Macro Targets vs Calorie Target The choice between tracking just total calories (simpler, lower friction) or setting specific protein/carb/fat…
Manual Entry Typing a food into your tracking app by name, searching the database, and selecting an entry — as opposed to b…
Meal Builder A tool for composing a meal from multiple logged foods (not raw ingredients) and saving that combination for f…
Meal Template A saved, named preset of foods you eat together often, logged in one tap instead of re-searching each componen…
Photo Logging Logging a meal by taking a picture of it and letting the app identify the food and estimate portions, instead …
Plate Segmentation The computer vision step that draws a boundary around each distinct food on the plate, separating the chicken …
Portion Size The actual amount of food you put on your plate and eat, which is usually different from the label's standardi…
Protein-First Logging A simplified tracking approach where you hit a protein target first each day and let calories and other macros…
Quick Add A shortcut for logging a rough calorie (and sometimes macro) amount without picking a specific food — useful f…
Real-Time Logging Logging a meal as you eat it, or immediately before or after — the most accurate way to capture intake, but hi…
Recipe Builder The feature in a tracking app that lets you enter a multi-ingredient recipe once, save it, and log any portion…
Restaurant Menu Logging Logging a restaurant meal using the chain's published nutrition info, an in-app database entry, or a best-gues…
Retroactive Logging Logging your meals at the end of the day (or after the fact) instead of as you eat them — convenient, but less…
Rolling Average An average of the last N days of data (weight, calories, macros) that updates as each new day arrives — the sm…
Serving Size The standardized reference amount listed on a nutrition label, used as the basis for the calorie and nutrient …
Streak Tracking A counter of consecutive days you've logged food — a common motivational feature that helps some people and ha…
Takeout Logging Logging food delivered or picked up from a restaurant, typically relying on chain data, rough visual estimatio…
Tare Weight The weight of the empty container, which a kitchen scale subtracts (via the tare or "zero" button) so you only…
Tracking Burnout The gradual emotional and cognitive exhaustion that builds up from long-term calorie tracking, usually showing…
Tracking Gap A stretch of days or weeks where you didn't log — an inevitable part of long-term tracking that matters less t…
UPC Lookup The backend process of translating a scanned barcode number into a matching nutrition entry by querying a UPC-…
User-Submitted Entry A food database entry added by another app user — fast and broad coverage, but with widely variable accuracy u…
Verified Entry A food database entry whose nutrition values have been checked against a manufacturer label, USDA data, or an …
Voice Logging Logging a meal by speaking its description into your phone — "two eggs, one slice of toast, coffee with milk" …
Volume Estimation Measuring how much of a food you have in terms of space it occupies (cups, tablespoons, ounces) rather than it…
Weekly Review A planned weekly look at your tracking data — average calories, macros, weight trend — to adjust targets and c…
Weight-Based Logging Recording food portions by weight in grams (or ounces) rather than by volume or "servings," typically using a …
Zero Function The button on a digital kitchen scale that resets the display to zero — usually the same as "tare," though som…

Macronutrient Science

Metabolic Physiology