How RealFoods Works
By Dino Pohilj, Founder, RealFoods
Most apps turn food tracking into an exhausting chore of calorie counting. RealFoods uses AI to instantly reveal the metabolic impact of every meal, what the body actually does with the food, not just what the food contains.
Step 1, Download and open
No lengthy questionnaire. No weight tracker to configure. No setup marathon. Open the app, and you're one tap from your first scan.
Step 2, Log your first meal
Three ways to log, each under 5 seconds:
Photo Scanning
Point your camera, tap scan, done in 3 seconds.
Magic Text
Type "chicken salad with avocado" in plain English.
Barcode Scanning
Works on 10,000+ packaged foods. No database hunting.
Ready to stop guessing what to eat?
Step 3, Read your Weight Impact Score
You see a number from 1 to 10. That single number replaces calorie counting with something glycaemic-response research has demonstrated to predict actual fat-storage behaviour. We argue this is the right level of precision for a phone camera, not "exactly 472 calories" but a single, defensible signal per plate.
Low Impact
Supports fat loss. Your hormones stay stable. Very unlikely to make you gain weight.
Moderate Impact
Can nudge your body toward storage. Best paired with protein or a walk.
High Impact
A significant driver for building fat reserves. Likely to make you gain weight.
Very High Impact
Potent drivers for intensive weight gain. Portion size matters most here.
Step 4, Instant support from your Metabolic Coach
Your homescreen is the direct line to the AI Metabolic Coach. You receive instant, guilt-free feedback on every meal logged, plus pattern-level insights, what we have established are the highest-leverage signals when long-term adherence research is the lens. Need ideas? The coach can suggest the next meal or generate a custom low-Weight-Impact recipe on the fly.
Step 5, Build daily awareness
You do not need to scan every meal. Adherence research has demonstrated that low-friction tracking habits beat high-friction ones; most users scan 2-3 meals a day and check specific foods only when unsure.
At the end of each day, the Daily Journal summarises what worked, attributes cravings to specific meals upstream of them, and recommends one targeted adjustment for tomorrow.
A realistic day with RealFoods
☀️ 7:00 AM, Breakfast
Snap your eggs and toast. WI score: 2. Great start.
🍽️ 12:00 PM, Lunch
Type your lunch order before you collect it. Score: 5. Coach suggests adding a side salad.
🍪 3:00 PM, Snack
Scan the office biscuits. Score: 8. You grab an apple instead, not because you have to, because now you understand why.
🌙 7:00 PM, Dinner
Not sure what to cook? The Coach analyzes your day and instantly generates a custom, fat-burning salmon recipe to perfectly balance your metabolism before bed.
Ready to stop guessing what to eat?
Common questions
Does it work for restaurant meals?
Yes, type what you order or snap a photo. The AI handles the rest.
Do I need to log every meal?
No. Scan what you're unsure about. No streaks, no penalties.
How is this different from MyFitnessPal?
MyFitnessPal forces you to count calories, leaving you hungry and frustrated. RealFoods brings you an AI Metabolic Coach. Instead of giving you an exhausting daily calorie budget to starve against, your Coach tracks your biology and shows you exactly which foods drive fat storage, all without guilt or streaks.
