How to keep a food diary

A food diary is the simplest way to find out why your weight is stuck. It is rarely one “bad” food — it is the things you do not notice: grazing, drinks, cooking oil, finishing the kids' leftovers. Here is how to log so it helps rather than wears you out.

For the first few days, change nothing

Do not start with a diet. For 3–4 days, just log everything you eat and drink as usual. That gives you a real baseline: how many calories a normal day adds up to, which meals are heaviest and what you could cut without pain.

What to log

• Everything with calories: coffee with milk and sugar, juice, soda, alcohol, sauces, cooking oil, snacks.
• By meal: breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks — so you can see where the extra comes from.
• Right away, not from memory at night. By evening, half the snacks are forgotten.

How to make it stick

• Done beats perfect. A rough entry is better than none. Do not know the weight? Snap a photo and let the AI estimate it (see counting calories from a photo).
• Repeat meals. Most people rotate 15–20 dishes. Once they are in your recent foods, logging takes seconds.
• Log the bad days too. Overate? Log it and move on. One day changes nothing; the weekly average does.
• Watch trends, not days. Once a week, compare your average calories with your weight change.

Keeping your diary in Temfy Nutri

In Temfy Nutri the diary is organized by day and meal. At the top you see calories eaten and left for the day, below that protein, fat and carbs. Tap + at the bottom to add food:

• by photo — the AI breaks the meal into foods with weight, calories and macros;
• by search — by name in the food database;
• by barcode — for packaged food;
• as a custom food — create it from the label and find it later under “My food”.

The built-in food database is strongest on products and restaurant chains from Russia and Belarus. For other foods, photo recognition or a custom food from the Nutrition Facts label usually works better.

Foods from the last two weeks appear in your recents, so repeat meals take a couple of taps. Portions can be entered in grams or milliliters, and for some foods in pieces or servings. Connect the Health app on iPhone (Health Connect on Android) and the diary also shows an Activity card with calories burned, steps and workouts.

After a few days, open AI Coach and ask it to review your day or week: it sees your diary and targets and points out where most of your calories come from. The AI nutritionist is free for the first 3 days after your first diary entry, then part of Temfy Nutri Pro.