Start with one meal you eat often, such as cereal, a sandwich or beans on toast. Find each food and enter the amount you ate.
Find the food you actually have
In Food, open the meal you want to log and search for an ingredient or branded product. For example, search for “oats” for a general food or “Coco Pops” for a packaged cereal. For branded results, check the product name and current packet; the first result is not automatically the right match.
The diary combines UK reference foods from CoFID with products from Open Food Facts. CoFID describes foods in the UK food supply; it is not a live catalogue of every supermarket product. Read the preparation description, such as raw, cooked or drained. Official CoFID dataset.
Match the portion and the unit
Nutrition labels usually express information per 100 g or 100 ml and may also show a portion. The packet's suggested portion may differ from yours. Check which column you are using before copying any numbers. NHS food-label guidance.
For example, if a cereal label says 400 kcal per 100 g and you eat 35 g, its contribution is 400 × 35 ÷ 100 = 140 kcal. Apply the same proportion to the label's protein, carbohydrate and fat values when you need them.
For a matched database food, choose Grams or an available serving unit and enter your amount. Check the amount before saving. The default value is not a portion recommendation. Grams and millilitres are different units; do not use a per-100-ml value as if it were per 100 g.
Build the meal in parts
For beans on toast, add the bread, beans and any spread separately, using the portions you ate. For a bowl of porridge, consider the oats, milk and toppings. Use your own portions for each ingredient.
Match the food's preparation to the point at which you measured it. A dry pasta entry with a cooked pasta weight will describe the wrong amount. Similarly, check whether a tin's figure refers to the drained food. If the label says “as prepared”, read what preparation it assumes before adding other ingredients that might already be included.
Add food when search has no match
If name search misses a product, try Barcode or Add a custom food. Branded coverage and nutrition data can be incomplete, and search can sometimes be unavailable. Check the current packaging, including allergens, rather than relying on the diary for those decisions.
Custom food entry asks for nutrition for one portion, followed by the number of portions. You could name a portion “My cereal (35 g)”, enter its calculated kcal, protein, carbs and fat, then set the amount to one. For a drink, define the portion in millilitres using the matching label column; do not invent a weight conversion.
If you lack the four nutrition values, use just describe your meal in an empty editor. This saves the description without adding nutrition totals. Leave missing values out instead of entering zero.
Reuse a saved meal
Save a logged meal as a favourite, then adjust its foods and amounts next time. Reopen your first saved meal once to check the record. Food logging is optional; choose the level of detail that helps you.
Explore the food tracker. Fit With a Plan includes 14 days free from registration, no card required, then £7.99/month only if you choose to subscribe.