> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vitasync.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Food

> Food items, serving sizes, calories and macros, and where your foods come from.

Food works differently from the other metrics. You log each food you eat, and VitaSync adds the calories and macros up for the day. It takes longer than a quick tap. Every part is optional, and a half-logged day is fine.

| Metric | What it is | Unit and range | How you log it | Fills itself in from |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| Food items | One food you ate, with its serving, meal and nutrition | Servings you choose. kcal, plus protein, carbs and fat in grams | Search, scan a barcode, or pick from recents or your library. Review, then confirm | Nothing. VitaSync looks a food up when you search or scan |
| Calories | The calories you ate in the day | Kilocalories (kcal), 0 to about 10,000 | Added up from your food items, or typed as a total | Your food items |
| Protein, Carbs and Fat | The macros you ate in the day | Grams (g) | Added up from your food items | Your food items |

## Logging a food

Open Add food from quick-add, or use the Food section on the Log tab.

1. Pick a food. Foods you eat often come first: your library, then recents. Search is there, but it is never the only way.
2. Tap the food to review it. Set the servings with the stepper. The calories and macros scale as you change it.
3. Check the time you ate it. It starts as now.
4. Confirm. The food joins the day.

To add one serving fast, tap the plus on a food's row. It logs one serving at the current time. Tap a logged food later to change its servings or time, or to remove it.

### Meals come from the time

You do not pick a meal. VitaSync files each food by the time you ate it. The review sheet shows which meal it counts as.

| Time eaten | Meal |
| - | - |
| Before 11:00 | Breakfast |
| 11:00 to before 15:00 | Lunch |
| 15:00 to before 21:00 | Dinner |
| 21:00 or later | Snack |

## Where foods come from

* **Open Food Facts.** This is a free, community-built food database. VitaSync searches it by name and looks up barcodes in it. Values are per serving. Where a food lists no serving, VitaSync uses 100 g.
* **Your library.** Save your own foods with a name, a portion and macros. Build recipes from several foods. A recipe logs as one item with its macros added up. Open the menu, then Settings, then Food Library.
* **Common foods.** A short built-in list works with no connection.
* **Barcode scanning.** Tap the scan icon next to search and point the camera at the code. VitaSync uses the camera only to read the barcode.

Searching sends your search term to Open Food Facts. Scanning sends the barcode. Nothing else leaves your phone. See [Privacy](/how-it-works/privacy).

The review sheet also shows fibre, sugars, saturated fat and salt for Open Food Facts items. VitaSync shows them but does not store them.

Without a connection, your library, recents and common foods still work. Search says it cannot be reached.

Food does not fill itself in from Health Connect.

## How Calories adds up

Calories is the day's total, and it depends on what you logged.

* **You logged foods.** Calories is the total of your foods. Each food counts its calories times its servings.
* **You logged no foods.** You can type a calorie total for the day instead. Quick-add and Catch up both take one.

As soon as you log a food, the day's calories are the total of your foods. A total you typed earlier no longer shows.

Protein, carbs and fat add up the same way. A food with only calories adds nothing to the macros.

Calories is what you ate. The energy you burned is [Calories Burned](/reference/sleep-and-recovery). You can set a goal on Calories, Protein, Carbs or Fat. See [Goals](/reference/money-habits-custom#goals).


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