Practical guidance for the situations that most often raise questions.
Getting started#
How to find and save a meal template#
Search works best for finding a template the first time. Once you have saved and placed it on a tab, you can open your usual setup directly.
The sequence is: search for the template, open it, select the parts you ate, save that setup with the heart, then place it on a tab. Your choices are ready when you use it again.
Search returns templates, not preassembled versions of every named dish. A query can lead to a broader template, which opens with its own defaults. Adjust those choices to match your meal.
If a familiar food does not appear by name, try the kind of dish or its main component. The right structure may already be present under a broader template.
What to do when your exact product is missing#
Sooner or later, something you ate will not be in the catalog: a particular bar, a local cheese, the sauce from the café round the corner. The right move is to take the nearest match by composition, not to skip it.
The match will not be exact, but it preserves more information than leaving the item out altogether. Skipping removes its full contribution from the day. A close substitute keeps an estimate of its energy and nutrients in the record.
How to choose: start with the kind of food and its composition. Fat content often matters for dairy, while cooking method and added sugar or oil can matter elsewhere. A similar name helps only when the food itself is similar.
If you eat the product regularly, use the same substitute each time. That does not make the estimate exact, but it avoids introducing a different assumption on every entry and makes trends easier to compare.
If the missing item is something you eat often, tell us it is missing so it can be added.
How to log something that has no template of its own#
A template describes how a dish is assembled. It does not need to have the exact name of every dish that can be built with it.
Choose the template whose groups match the meal in front of you: a bowl for a base with toppings, a sandwich for layers, or porridge for a cooked base with additions. Select only the parts you ate.
If an addition does not fit naturally into that template, log it as a separate entry. The daily total still includes both.
Search can still lead you to a broader template. What matters is whether its ingredient groups let you describe the meal accurately enough.
If you eat the same combination regularly, save it with the heart so the template opens that way next time.
Adjusting a dish#
How template defaults and favorites work#
When you open a template, some buttons are already selected. These defaults represent a common version of the dish and make a typical entry quick to log.
The defaults are a starting point, not a recommendation. Change them to match what you ate.
To save your usual version, set up the template and press ♥. The favorite stores the current selection, including groups you deliberately left empty. The template opens in that state next time.
Simply leaving the screen does not update the favorite. Without the heart, your changes apply only to the current entry.
Size, portion and amount controls belong to their group. If the group’s food selections are cleared, the controls may be hidden, but their selected values are remembered and return when the group is used again.
How to remove selected options#
A group can have several options selected at once. When those options use averaging, two grains in a porridge describe a mixture of both.
To remove one selected option, tap it. To keep one and clear the rest of its group, press and hold the option you want.
Press and hold is the quicker route when the template starts with several selections and today’s dish used only one.
Portion and amount buttons belong to the group rather than to one ingredient. Their selection is remembered when the group’s food options are cleared, so it is still there when you select an item again.
When to average items and when to log them separately#
A mixed plate can be recorded as one entry or split across several. The right choice depends on how similar its components are.
If the items are similar in composition, select them together and enter the total amount. Calk calculates a weighted mixture from the selected options; it does not simply pick the midpoint.
Log items separately when one has a substantially different composition or preparation. That keeps a rich sauce or a fried component from being spread across the whole plate.
A practical test: if you would choose different ingredient or cooking options for one part, give that part its own entry. If the parts use the same choices and differ mainly in flavor, combining them is usually simpler.
Aim for a workable record. Split only where the extra detail changes the result meaningfully.
How to take a template off a tab#
To clear space on a tab, open arrange mode and remove the templates you do not use there.
In the same mode, you can drag a template to another tab or move frequently used ones toward the front.
Removing a template from a tab does not delete it from Calk’s catalog. You can find it again by search and add it back later.
Tabs are most useful when they contain the meals you log often. Rare templates can stay in search without taking up space in that everyday view.
Where the units come from#
Calk chooses metric or imperial units from the device region when you first use the app. You can change the choice in Settings at any time.
The setting changes the display of body weight, height and drink volumes. Energy is always shown in calories.
Changing units affects presentation only. Your stored history is converted for display, so switching back does not remove or recalculate entries.
Date formatting and 12- or 24-hour time follow the device settings. They are not controlled by the metric/imperial switch.
Days and history#
How to review a recent day#
Open Day analysis from the Today panel on the home screen. The date strip at the top contains today and the previous six days; tap any date to review it.
This screen explains where a number came from. Choose a nutrient, such as protein, fiber or salt, and Calk ranks the ingredients that contributed it. Each row shows the amount and its share of the daily target or limit.
You can review a past day, but you cannot edit it or add food to it.
Use this view when a daily total surprises you. Selecting that nutrient shows which ingredients contributed most.
For dates outside the seven-day strip, use History or the report. Day analysis is the detailed view for that rolling seven-day window, not a complete meal archive.
How to change your goal and what happens when you do#
You can change your goal — lose, maintain or gain weight — from your goal screen.
The app immediately recalculates your target range from the new goal and its current expenditure estimate. Past days keep the ranges that applied at the time, so your history remains intact.
Changing the goal does not reset the expenditure estimate. That estimate comes from food and weight history; the goal determines how Calk uses it to set future targets.
Give a new goal enough time before changing it again. Several changes close together make the resulting weight trend harder to interpret.
Each goal change starts a new goal period for measuring progress, while the earlier periods remain in your history.
What to do after a break — and what not to do#
After a break, start with today. Calk does not support filling past days from memory, and you do not need to reconstruct them.
Weigh yourself, then log today’s food. Those two fresh signals are more useful than estimates of meals from a week ago.
From there, Calk updates its estimated maintenance calories from your current food log and weight trend. It becomes more personal again as fresh history builds.
Unless your goal itself has changed, leave it alone for the first few days. Fresh entries will show whether the old goal still fits before you adjust it.
The gap does not erase your history. Calk gives more weight to what is happening now.
Reading the numbers#
Where to look at the analysis#
Calk divides analysis across four screens, each with a different time horizon.
Day analysis explains a recent daily total. Select a nutrient to see which ingredients contributed it and by how much.
Week focuses on food variety: which cells your food covered, what is missing and how the count has changed recently.
History and charts show changes over longer periods, including weight and expenditure trends and other metrics over time.
The 30-day report brings multiple patterns together once the food and weight coverage thresholds have been met.
For a surprising nutrient total in the last seven days, start with Day analysis. For direction over time, use History. Use Week specifically for variety and the report for the combined 30-day view.
What the weekly variety screen shows#
The weekly variety screen focuses on food variety. Calories and weight are shown elsewhere.
It contains variety counters for the cells recorded during the last seven days, lists of groups represented and still missing, recent trends, and a map showing coverage and gaps.
A single daily total cannot show whether the same narrow set of foods repeats across the week. The week view makes that pattern visible.
Use it as a weekly overview. Treat gaps as possibilities, not boxes to tick. If a missing group fits the way you eat, try one familiar food from it.
How to read an indicator#
Indicators are designed to be read in two parts.
First comes the observation: a repeated pattern found in your entries. The supporting days or foods are shown with it so you can inspect the evidence.
An indicator may then offer one action you could take. The suggestion is optional.
Some indicators stop after the observation because the pattern does not call for a specific response.
Indicators do not compare you with other people or promise an outcome. They describe your data and, where useful, offer a practical next step.
If an observation looks wrong, inspect its supporting entries. A meal may have been assembled differently from how you remember it.
How Calk shows that it needs more data#
Some calculations need a longer history than others. Calk indicates that in three ways.
A dash instead of a number. The required data is not available yet.
A wide interval. An estimate exists, but the uncertainty is still large. The range can narrow as more food and weight data accumulates.
A status message. It explains which stage the estimate has reached and when personalization is expected.
Progress comes from the evidence in regular weigh-ins and consistent food logs.
After a long pause, an estimate may become more cautious because the old history may no longer describe your current routine. Resume logging and it will recalibrate from fresh data.
Your data#
What Calk reads from Health Connect and Apple Health#
Health data is used in two stages.
Starting signals. On iPhone the first import can also read your birth year and biological sex from Apple Health — those two are Apple-only, and they are read so the app does not ask again for what the system already knows. On the first full import, Calk can read weight, energy expenditure, steps, height and body composition. Each permission is optional. Eligible data can improve the starting expenditure estimate; otherwise Calk falls back to the information available in your profile.
Ongoing sync. Later syncs import new weight readings. Calk then refines the estimate by comparing your weight changes with the food you record.
Food entries from other apps are not imported, because they may use a different database and calculation method. Workouts are not copied into the diary as entries either.
Imported energy helps establish the starting estimate when it meets the quality checks. It is not added on top of your daily food target. Once enough history exists, the adaptive estimate already reflects the activity expressed in your weight trend.
Health access is optional. You can enter weight manually, and Calk will begin with a wider, formula-based estimate until enough personal history accumulates.
What is included when you share a dish#
The share button creates an image of the assembled dish. It includes its composition, calories, macronutrients and template icon.
It does not include your name, weight, target, goals, other meals or history. The image is not a link and does not grant access to the app or your diary.
Calk hands the image to your device’s share sheet. You choose the app or person that receives it.
If the dish cannot be calculated because a required choice or portion is missing, Calk cannot create the image. Complete the dish first, then share it.
There is no feature for publishing the diary as a whole. Sharing is limited to the individual dish you select.