Should I Build It Should I Build It
05 May 2025
Cooking Food & Drink Health & Fitness

take photo on your food to check its nutrition value and manage your ...

...diet

Confidence
Engagement
Net use signal
Net buy signal

Idea type: Swamp

The market has seen several mediocre solutions that nobody loves. Unless you can offer something fundamentally different, you’ll likely struggle to stand out or make money.

Should You Build It?

Don't build it.

Your are here

Your idea of using photos to track nutrition and manage diet falls into a crowded space where many have tried and, frankly, few have truly succeeded. We found 24 similar products, indicating high competition. The average engagement for these products is low, with only 2 comments per product. There are some success stories, however accuracy of analysis, particularly for non-packaged food, seems to be a consistent concern. Many users want macronutrient breakdowns and other more detailed information. This market has seen a lot of attempts, but none of them have truly broken through, so you'll need a truly unique value proposition to stand out.

Recommendations

  1. Begin with thorough market research to understand why existing photo-based nutrition tracking solutions haven't achieved widespread adoption. Dig into user reviews, expert opinions, and industry reports to pinpoint the gaps and unmet needs in the current landscape. This will help you identify potential differentiators and avoid replicating past mistakes.
  2. Identify a niche audience within the broader health and wellness space that is particularly underserved by existing solutions. This could be individuals with specific dietary restrictions (e.g., allergies, diabetes), athletes seeking precise macronutrient tracking, or busy professionals looking for quick and convenient meal logging. Tailoring your product to a specific niche will allow you to focus your development efforts and create a more compelling value proposition.
  3. Consider partnering with existing nutrition and diet platforms or healthcare providers instead of building a standalone app. Integrating your image recognition technology into established ecosystems can provide immediate access to a large user base and leverage existing infrastructure. This approach could also open up new revenue streams through licensing or data sharing agreements.
  4. Explore adjacent problems in the food and health space that might be more promising and less competitive. For example, you could focus on developing AI-powered tools for food waste reduction, personalized meal planning based on dietary needs and preferences, or automated grocery shopping list generation. These areas offer opportunities to leverage your expertise in image recognition and nutrition analysis while avoiding the saturated market of calorie tracking apps.
  5. Given the criticisms around accuracy for non-packaged food ingredients (as seen in the Vesse and MacroScan launches), prioritize developing a robust image recognition algorithm that can accurately identify and estimate the nutritional content of complex dishes. This may involve training your AI on a vast dataset of food images, incorporating user feedback mechanisms for continuous improvement, and partnering with nutrition experts to validate your results. Without this, the idea will probably not work.

Questions

  1. What specific technical innovations will you implement to surpass the accuracy limitations that plague existing image-based nutrition trackers, particularly for complex, non-packaged meals?
  2. Beyond basic calorie and macronutrient counts, what unique insights or personalized recommendations will your app provide to users, and how will these insights drive meaningful behavior change and long-term dietary adherence?
  3. Considering the low engagement observed in similar product launches, what innovative engagement strategies will you employ to keep users actively using your app and prevent them from abandoning it after a short period?

Your are here

Your idea of using photos to track nutrition and manage diet falls into a crowded space where many have tried and, frankly, few have truly succeeded. We found 24 similar products, indicating high competition. The average engagement for these products is low, with only 2 comments per product. There are some success stories, however accuracy of analysis, particularly for non-packaged food, seems to be a consistent concern. Many users want macronutrient breakdowns and other more detailed information. This market has seen a lot of attempts, but none of them have truly broken through, so you'll need a truly unique value proposition to stand out.

Recommendations

  1. Begin with thorough market research to understand why existing photo-based nutrition tracking solutions haven't achieved widespread adoption. Dig into user reviews, expert opinions, and industry reports to pinpoint the gaps and unmet needs in the current landscape. This will help you identify potential differentiators and avoid replicating past mistakes.
  2. Identify a niche audience within the broader health and wellness space that is particularly underserved by existing solutions. This could be individuals with specific dietary restrictions (e.g., allergies, diabetes), athletes seeking precise macronutrient tracking, or busy professionals looking for quick and convenient meal logging. Tailoring your product to a specific niche will allow you to focus your development efforts and create a more compelling value proposition.
  3. Consider partnering with existing nutrition and diet platforms or healthcare providers instead of building a standalone app. Integrating your image recognition technology into established ecosystems can provide immediate access to a large user base and leverage existing infrastructure. This approach could also open up new revenue streams through licensing or data sharing agreements.
  4. Explore adjacent problems in the food and health space that might be more promising and less competitive. For example, you could focus on developing AI-powered tools for food waste reduction, personalized meal planning based on dietary needs and preferences, or automated grocery shopping list generation. These areas offer opportunities to leverage your expertise in image recognition and nutrition analysis while avoiding the saturated market of calorie tracking apps.
  5. Given the criticisms around accuracy for non-packaged food ingredients (as seen in the Vesse and MacroScan launches), prioritize developing a robust image recognition algorithm that can accurately identify and estimate the nutritional content of complex dishes. This may involve training your AI on a vast dataset of food images, incorporating user feedback mechanisms for continuous improvement, and partnering with nutrition experts to validate your results. Without this, the idea will probably not work.

Questions

  1. What specific technical innovations will you implement to surpass the accuracy limitations that plague existing image-based nutrition trackers, particularly for complex, non-packaged meals?
  2. Beyond basic calorie and macronutrient counts, what unique insights or personalized recommendations will your app provide to users, and how will these insights drive meaningful behavior change and long-term dietary adherence?
  3. Considering the low engagement observed in similar product launches, what innovative engagement strategies will you employ to keep users actively using your app and prevent them from abandoning it after a short period?

  • Confidence: High
    • Number of similar products: 24
  • Engagement: Low
    • Average number of comments: 2
  • Net use signal: 22.7%
    • Positive use signal: 22.7%
    • Negative use signal: 0.0%
  • Net buy signal: 0.0%
    • Positive buy signal: 0.0%
    • Negative buy signal: 0.0%

This chart summarizes all the similar products we found for your idea in a single plot.

The x-axis represents the overall feedback each product received. This is calculated from the net use and buy signals that were expressed in the comments. The maximum is +1, which means all comments (across all similar products) were positive, expressed a willingness to use & buy said product. The minimum is -1 and it means the exact opposite.

The y-axis captures the strength of the signal, i.e. how many people commented and how does this rank against other products in this category. The maximum is +1, which means these products were the most liked, upvoted and talked about launches recently. The minimum is 0, meaning zero engagement or feedback was received.

The sizes of the product dots are determined by the relevance to your idea, where 10 is the maximum.

Your idea is the big blueish dot, which should lie somewhere in the polygon defined by these products. It can be off-center because we use custom weighting to summarize these metrics.

Similar products

Relevance

Vesse Food Tracker - Upload your photos, let our AI analyze and reveal insights!

14 Dec 2024 Cooking Health & Fitness Analytics

Vesse makes nutrition tracking effortless. Upload meal photos, and our AI instantly analyzes them to provide detailed nutritional insights. Stay informed, track your progress, and achieve your health goals with ease—your journey to better nutrition starts here

Vesse's Product Hunt launch is being received positively, with users praising its concept and UI for nutrition tracking via photo. There are questions about the accuracy of the analysis, particularly for non-packaged food ingredients. Users suggest UI updates, including improvements to the count bar and removal options. One user offered collaboration to help Vesse go viral.

Users criticize ingredient changes affecting nutrition values and question the app's accuracy. The count bar UI is confusing, lacking a 'remove' option in history. Users also desire more nuanced insights, including portion estimates and tailored suggestions.

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FoodTrack - Calorie Tracker - AI Nutrition Scanner & Diary

31 Dec 2024 Artificial Intelligence Nutrition Health & Fitness

Track your calories more easily by simply taking a picture of your meal. Snap a photo of your meal to instantly get a full nutritional breakdown. • Instant Food Scanning • Calorie and Nutrient Tracking • Custom Meal Plans • Virtual Pet Companion

Users appreciate the app's features, particularly the instant food scanning and the engaging experience of calorie tracking with a virtual pet. One user reported weight loss using the app. A user inquired about the app's ability to scan home-cooked meals with mixed ingredients. There is also a request for more detailed calorie breakdowns, specifically including macronutrient information.

The primary criticism is that calorie breakdowns lack macronutrient information. Users expect a more detailed nutritional analysis beyond just calorie counts.

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Relevance

Cal AI - One click calorie tracking

10 Apr 2024 Food & Drink Dieting Health & Fitness

Track your calories more easily by simply taking a picture of your meal. We'll do the rest :)

The launch received positive feedback, with users congratulating Zach and praising the app's ability to save time on food lookups and calorie tracking. The app is described as amazing with great UX/UI, and solid overall. One user inquired about the accuracy of the data presented.

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Bodyful: Health & Food Tracker - Easy & visual tracking of nutrition and body health

04 Feb 2024 Food & Drink Health & Fitness Apple

Visually track nutrition, fitness & wellness in one app. Focusing on ultra-easy food logging, you can snap about anything or describe meals your way. Bodyful also uses Apple Health data for an automatic & holistic body health overview.

The Product Hunt launch received positive feedback, with users offering encouragement and congratulations. Several users explicitly stated that the tool looks amazing and useful, expressing gratitude for its creation and sharing. A deleted comment was also present in the comments.

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CalorieAI - Track your calorie intake with photos

23 Feb 2024 Artificial Intelligence Food & Drink Health & Fitness

With just a photo or a brief description of your meal, track your calorie intake effortlessly and embark on a journey toward your desired weight goal.

The product launch has been received positively, with users appreciating the core idea of automatic meal calculation via photo analysis. The product is considered easy to use, and users have expressed gratitude for its functionality.

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Relevance

Tied – Track your calories by taking a picture

06 Aug 2024 Food & Drink Health & Fitness

Hi HN,I recently wanted to track my calories consumption in order to lose some weight.Unfortunately when I use existing app, it's too cumbersome for me to enter the calories.Yes some app do allow you to take picture as well but you still need to select which meal you are eating. So you are just selecting from their database.With Tied, not only can you take a picture of the food you are eating, you can also describe it and it will give an estimation in an instant. I find that I can save my meals much faster this way compare to other apps.It's still very early in development but I do hope you guys give it a try.Any feedback are most welcome!.

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3
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EatSmart - Your personal AI nutrition guru

29 Mar 2024 Artificial Intelligence Health Fitness

EatSmart is a Telegram bot that calculates calories and nutrients from your meal photos. It also provides customized recipes and nutrition advice, taking into account your lifestyle and dietary needs.

A user envisions an AI nutritionist integrated with a store database. This AI could offer personalized dietary advice and seamlessly link to available products. The user further suggests incorporating restaurant recommendations to align healthy nutrition with dining choices, enhancing the AI's practical application.

There was no criticism provided for this Product Hunt launch.

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14
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track-calories.com - AI-powered calorie tracking from photos of your food.

09 Feb 2024 Cooking Photography Health & Fitness

📷 Track your calories ✅ Focus on simplicity: Upload photos of your meals and receive detailed calorie and nutrient information. ✅ Personalized tracking: Adjust your nutritional goals based on your individual profile.

Users praise the simplicity and ease of use of the Track-Calories.com tool, highlighting its accuracy. A suggestion was made to convert pricing to the user's location.

The primary criticism from the Product Hunt launch feedback is the need for improvement in pricing, specifically the conversion of prices to the user's location for better clarity and user experience.

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8
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Food Diary - Your AI Diet Log，AI-Driven Food Tracking for Better Results

27 Dec 2024 Cooking Health & Fitness Analytics

Log your meals, analyze intelligently, and manage a healthy lifestyle with ease! Get instant insights into food nutrition and personalized diet suggestions based on your goals.

The launch received congratulations and feature requests including Food Diary functionality. Users find calorie logging cumbersome, particularly busy parents who struggle to maintain consistent meal logs due to time constraints related to work and childcare. A suggestion was made to incorporate photo tracking as an alternative to traditional calorie logging to improve user experience.

Users feel that the Food Diary app requires gamification elements such as challenges, streaks, and achievements to improve user engagement. Furthermore, some users find the calorie logging process tedious and chore-like.

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