The Complete Guide to Momentum

Logging Your Meals

The Food Diary is the heart of Momentum. It shows everything you've eaten for the selected day, organised into four meal categories: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Snacks. Tap the "+" button next to any meal to open the food search, then find your food by searching, scanning, photographing, or describing it.

Daily Overview

At the top of the diary you'll see your daily progress at a glance:

• •Calories eaten vs. your target, with remaining calories shown.
• •If you've logged exercise, your budget adjusts — the "Budget" figure includes exercise calories burned.
• •Protein, carbs, and fats progress bars show how close you are to each macro target.
• •Net calories (eaten minus exercise) helps you see your true intake.

Day Grades

At the end of each day, Momentum grades your nutrition from A+ to D based on three factors:

• •Calorie accuracy — how close you were to your target (within 5% = excellent).
• •Protein target — whether you hit your protein goal.
• •Water goal — whether you drank enough water.
• •Grades: A+ (all three nailed), A (close), B (decent), C (room for improvement), D (significantly off).
• •You can share your grade card as an image on social media directly from the app.

Day Notes

Tap the notes icon to add a journal entry for the day. Use it to record how you felt, what you craved, or any context about your eating. Notes are saved per day and visible when you navigate back to that date.

Diary Completion

When you're done logging for the day, you can mark your diary as complete. This tells Momentum to calculate your final grade and locks in your stats for the day. You can still add or edit entries after completing.

Date Navigation

Use the left and right arrows at the top to view past or future days. Tap the date label to jump back to today. Pull down to refresh and sync the latest data.

How Search Works

Momentum searches over 50 million foods across multiple databases simultaneously. When you type a search query, we run a waterfall search across up to 5 sources in parallel:

• •Community Database — foods previously logged by Momentum users, verified and fast.
• •Open Food Facts — the world's largest open food database with products from 150+ countries.
• •USDA FoodData Central — the US government's comprehensive nutrition database, excellent for generic foods.
• •CalorieNinjas — natural language nutrition lookup, great for simple queries like "chicken breast" or "banana".
• •Open Food Facts v2 — an alternative endpoint that sometimes finds products the main search misses.

Region-Aware Results

Momentum detects your region and prioritises results accordingly:

• •UK/Ireland users see UK supermarket products first (Tesco, Sainsbury's, ASDA, etc.).
• •US/Canada users get USDA results prioritised.
• •EU users get country-specific Open Food Facts results boosted to the top.
• •Supermarket own-brand products from your region are scored higher for relevance.

Serving Sizes

When you select a food, Momentum offers smart serving options:

• •If the product has a known serving size (e.g., "1 biscuit = 12g"), it's shown as a preset.
• •Smart serving presets are generated for common foods — bread (36g/slice), eggs (50g/medium), cheese (20g/slice), and dozens more.
• •Drinks are automatically detected and served in ml instead of grams, with presets like "glass (250ml)", "can (330ml)", or "pint (568ml)".
• •Alcoholic drinks get specific presets: single shot (25ml), wine glass (175ml), pint of beer (568ml).
• •You can always enter a custom amount in grams or ml.

Recent Foods & Favourites

Switch to the "Recent" tab to quickly re-log foods you eat regularly. Your most recently logged foods appear at the top, complete with the last serving size you used.

Custom Foods

Can't find your food? Tap the "+" button to create a custom food with your own nutrition values. Custom foods are saved to your account and appear in future searches.

Scanning a Barcode

Tap the red "Scan" button in your diary, or the camera icon inside the food search, to open the barcode scanner. Point your camera at any product barcode and hold steady — the scanner auto-detects and confirms the barcode when it gets a clear read (3 consistent scans within 700ms to prevent false readings).

Supported Barcode Types

The scanner supports all major barcode formats:

• •EAN-13 (standard European products)
• •EAN-8 (compact barcodes)
• •UPC-A (standard US products)
• •UPC-E (compressed US barcodes)
• •Code 128, Code 39, Code 93 (industrial barcodes)
• •ITF-14 (shipping containers)
• •QR codes

Database Lookup

When a barcode is scanned, Momentum searches across multiple sources:

• •Community Database — previously logged products (instant).
• •UK Retail Database — curated database of UK supermarket products (instant, no API call).
• •Open Food Facts v1 & v2 — global product database.
• •UPC ItemDB — gets the product name as a fallback, then searches for nutrition data.
• •If the product is found but has no nutrition data, you're prompted to search by name or add it manually.

Manual Entry

Can't get a clean scan? Tap "Enter barcode number manually" to type the digits. The app validates EAN-13 check digits in real-time and shows you which barcode format you're entering (EAN-8, UPC-A, EAN-13).

Torch

Scanning in a dark kitchen or pantry? Tap the torch icon in the top-right corner to activate your phone's flashlight. It stays on while the scanner is open.

Photo Meal Logging

Take a photo of your plate and let AI do the work:

• •Snap a photo or select one from your camera roll.
• •Momentum's AI (powered by Claude Vision) identifies every food item on your plate.
• •It estimates portion sizes from visual cues and calculates macros for each item.
• •Each food item is given a confidence level (high, medium, or low) so you know when to double-check.
• •Review the results, adjust any portions, then log everything to your diary in one tap.

Quick Add (Natural Language)

Describe your meal in plain English and let AI parse it:

• •Type something like "chicken breast with rice and broccoli" or "2 scrambled eggs on toast with butter".
• •AI identifies each food item, estimates portions, and returns full macro breakdowns.
• •Great for home-cooked meals where you don't have a barcode to scan.
• •You can adjust gram amounts before logging.

Aria — Your AI Coach

Aria is your personal AI nutritionist that lives in the "Aria" tab:

• •Ask any nutrition question: "How much protein do I need?", "Am I eating enough fibre?", "What should I eat before a workout?"
• •Aria has access to your real data — diary entries, macros, goals, weight trends — so advice is personalised, not generic.
• •Get meal suggestions that fit your remaining macro budget for the day.
• •Free users get 5 Aria messages per day. Pro users get unlimited.

Finding Nearby Restaurants

Tap the "Restaurant" button in your diary to search for restaurants and takeaway places near you. Momentum uses your location to find restaurants within 2km (or 5km for text searches).

Menu Item Lookup

Once you select a restaurant, Momentum searches multiple databases to find calorie and macro data for their menu items. Results come from CalorieNinjas, Open Food Facts, and Nutritionix. While not every item will have exact data, it's great for popular chain restaurants.

Meal Templates

If you eat the same meals regularly, save them as templates:

• •After logging a meal, you can save all items as a template (e.g., "My Usual Breakfast").
• •Next time, just tap the template to log all foods at once — no searching required.
• •Templates remember the exact foods, portions, and macros.

Recipes

When you log 2 or more foods to a single meal, you can save the combination as a recipe. Recipes are reusable templates with total nutrition calculated. Great for meals you cook from scratch regularly.

Weekly Meal Plans

Use the Meal Plan feature to plan your week:

• •Assign meals to each day of the week.
• •Generate a shopping list from your plan, organised by category (Protein, Dairy, Carbs, Vegetables, Fruit, Pantry, Drinks, Snacks).
• •Log planned meals to your diary with one tap.

Logging Workouts

The Exercise tab lets you log both cardio and strength training:

• •Cardio: select the activity (running, cycling, swimming, etc.), enter duration and intensity, and see estimated calories burned.
• •Strength: log exercises with sets, reps, and weight. Track personal records (PRs) and progressive overload.
• •Warm-up sets and drop sets can be marked separately.
• •Rest timers help you stay consistent between sets.

Calorie Burn Estimates

Calorie burn is calculated using MET (Metabolic Equivalent of Task) values adjusted for your body weight. For strength training, EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption) is factored in — you continue burning calories after your workout.

Exercise Calories in Your Diary

When you log exercise, the calories burned are added to your daily calorie budget in the diary. Your "Budget" increases so you can see your adjusted remaining calories.

Apple Health & Health Connect

Momentum can sync with Apple Health (iOS) and Health Connect (Android):

• •Read steps, active calories, and weight data from your health app.
• •Workouts logged in Momentum can be written back to Apple Health.
• •Weight entries sync both ways — log in either app and it appears in both.

Workout Templates

Save your favourite workout routines as templates. Next time you train, load the template and just update the weights/reps.

Fasting Protocols

Momentum supports 6 popular intermittent fasting protocols:

• •16:8 — 16 hours fasting, 8-hour eating window (most popular).
• •18:6 — 18 hours fasting, 6-hour eating window.
• •20:4 — 20 hours fasting, 4-hour eating window (Warrior Diet).
• •14:10 — 14 hours fasting, 10-hour eating window (beginner-friendly).
• •12:12 — 12 hours fasting, 12-hour eating window (gentle start).
• •OMAD — One Meal A Day (23:1).

Timer & Tracking

Start a fast and watch the ring timer fill up as you progress. The timer shows elapsed time, remaining time, and your current fasting stage. When your fast is complete, it's automatically recorded to your history.

Fasting Stats

Track your fasting consistency over time:

• •Current streak — how many consecutive fasts you've completed.
• •Completion rate — percentage of started fasts that were completed.
• •Average duration — your typical fasting length.
• •Longest fast — your personal record.

Daily Water Goal

Your water goal is automatically calculated based on your body weight: weight in kg x 35ml, converted to glasses (250ml each). For example, a 70kg person would have a goal of about 10 glasses per day.

Logging Water

Tap the water section in your diary to log glasses. Each tap adds one glass (250ml). Your progress is tracked as part of your day grade — hitting your water goal contributes to achieving an A or A+ grade.

Creating Habits

The Habits tab lets you create daily habits you want to build. Examples: "Take vitamins", "10,000 steps", "Read for 20 minutes", "No alcohol". Each habit has a name and optional icon.

Streaks & Completion

Check off habits each day to build streaks. Momentum tracks your current streak, longest streak, and overall completion rate. The visual streak counter is a powerful motivator — don't break the chain.

Beyond Macros

Momentum doesn't just track calories, protein, carbs, and fats — it also tracks vitamins and minerals from the foods you log. When you select a food, expand the "Micronutrients" panel to see a full breakdown.

What's Tracked

Micronutrient data is extracted from food databases when available:

• •Fat breakdown: saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol.
• •Vitamins: A, C, D, E, K, B1 (Thiamin), B2 (Riboflavin), B3 (Niacin), B6, B9 (Folate), B12.
• •Minerals: calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, manganese, selenium, copper.
• •Plus fibre, sugar, and sodium shown alongside your macros.

Daily Summary

As you log foods throughout the day, Momentum tracks your cumulative micronutrient intake. The "Daily Micronutrients" panel in your diary shows coloured progress bars against your Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA), adjusted for your gender. This makes it easy to spot if you're consistently low on iron, vitamin D, or other key nutrients.

Data Availability

Micronutrient data is most comprehensive for foods from USDA and Open Food Facts. Packaged products with detailed labels tend to have the best data. Generic or user-created foods may not have micronutrient information.

Weight Tracking

Log your weight regularly to track trends over time. The progress chart shows your weight history with a trend line, so day-to-day fluctuations don't throw you off. Weight entries sync with Apple Health if connected.

Weekly Summaries

At the end of each week, review your weekly summary: average calories, macro consistency, workout frequency, habit completion rates, and an overall week grade.

Insights

The Insights tab provides multi-view analytics across your nutrition, exercise, and habits. Spot patterns, identify areas for improvement, and track your consistency over time.

Works Without Internet

Momentum works offline. When you don't have an internet connection:

• •You can still log foods from your recent history and custom foods.
• •Water, habits, and diary entries are saved locally.
• •When you reconnect, everything syncs automatically — nothing is lost.
• •An offline queue stores pending changes and drains them when the connection returns.
• •A small banner at the top of the diary lets you know you're offline.

What Requires Internet

Some features need an internet connection: food search (beyond cached results), barcode scanning, AI features (photo logging, Quick Add, Aria), and restaurant lookup.

Account

Change your display name, update your email address, or change your password from the Settings screen.

Daily Targets

Override your auto-calculated targets with custom values for calories, protein, carbs, and fats. Use "Reset to auto-calculated" to recalculate from your profile at any time.

Bug Reports

Found something broken? Use Settings > Report a Bug to send a report directly to the development team. Device info and app version are attached automatically.

Data & Privacy

Your data is stored securely with row-level security. You can delete your account and all associated data at any time from Settings > Delete Account.

Speed Tips

• •Pull down on the diary to refresh and sync the latest data.
• •Swipe left on any food entry to delete it.
• •Use the "Recent" tab in food search — it's the fastest way to log foods you eat regularly.
• •Save common meals as templates to log your usual breakfast in one tap.
• •Use the barcode scanner inside the food search (camera icon) when you're already in a meal — it skips the "which meal?" prompt.

Accuracy Tips

• •Use a food scale when possible — eyeballing portions is the #1 source of tracking errors.
• •For complex home-cooked meals, use Photo Log or Quick Add — AI handles the heavy lifting.
• •Check the source badge on search results: "Verified" and "USDA" sources tend to be most accurate.
• •When scanning barcodes, verify the serving size matches what you actually ate.
• •Log as you eat, not at the end of the day — you'll forget less.

Motivation Tips

• •Don't aim for perfection — consistency beats perfection. A B grade every day beats an A+ followed by three days of not logging.
• •Use day notes to journal how different foods make you feel — patterns emerge over weeks.
• •Share your grade cards to stay accountable.
• •Set up daily habits for non-food goals (sleep, meditation, supplements) to build a complete wellness routine.
• •Ask Aria for help when you're stuck — "I'm hungry but only have 200 calories left, what should I eat?"