Made for the food on your plate

Who makes it

I'm Ashraya, a software engineer. I started CaloDaily after too many dinners spent trying to log home food - my mother's dal - in a big-name tracker and getting nothing useful back. It knew a burger to the gram but not a katori of toor dal. So I built the tracker I wished existed: one that speaks in katoris, not cups.

I use CaloDaily myself every day, and it keeps me honest. Spotted a wrong number or a missing dish? Email support@calodaily.com. I read everything.

Why Indian food is hard to count

A katori of dal is not a fixed thing: it depends on the dal, how thick it is cooked, and how much ghee goes into the tadka. So CaloDaily does not store a single number for each dish. It builds every dish from its recipe, ingredient by ingredient, the way it is cooked at home. Restaurant versions are counted separately, at restaurant portions and with the extra oil, butter and cream restaurants use.

Where the numbers come from

• Ingredients: USDA FoodData Central, matched to the plain, unfortified version wherever there is one, because most Indian atta, rice and milk are not fortified.
• Dishes: over 900 dishes, each worked out from its ingredients. When an ingredient figure is corrected, every dish made with it is corrected too.
• Packaged foods: what the pack's label says, from Open Food Facts, kept only where the label adds up. Our cleaned list is free to download under the same Open Database License.
• Your calorie target: the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, adjusted for your activity and your goal. The app shows the working.
• Vitamin and mineral targets: ICMR-NIN's Nutrient Requirements for Indians (2020). Where it gives no figure, the US National Academies' reference is used, and the app says so.
• Protein quality: the WHO/FAO amino acid scoring pattern.

These are careful estimates, not lab measurements of your plate. When you find a figure that looks wrong, tell us at support@calodaily.com.

What CaloDaily will not do

• Show ads, or sell or share what you log. Premium subscriptions pay for the app (privacy promise).
• Lock the daily basics. Logging food, water, weight, workouts and steps is free for good.
• Pretend to be a doctor or dietitian. It gives general guidance. For a medical condition, pregnancy or an eating disorder, talk to a qualified professional.