# Calk

> Calk is a calorie and nutrition app built around meal templates. A meal template is a ready-made meal whose protein, base, cooking method, sauce, additions and portion can be changed before it is logged. If the meal is unchanged, choose the template and tap Eat. If one part changed, change that choice and keep the rest. Calk then turns a focused period of normal food logging into a Nutrition Report and uses the weight trend as the lighter signal between food checks.

Calk is released on iOS and Android. It can be downloaded from the App Store at https://apps.apple.com/app/id6760506316 and from Google Play at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.calk.app. Calk works locally on the user's device. Food and weight can be entered without an internet connection. There are no ads. The website is published in English, Russian, Latin American Spanish, Spanish for Spain, Hebrew, German and Brazilian Portuguese. Each canonical article below is available across all seven site locales. The visible author of Calk's editorial content is Eli Petukhov.

## Start here

- [Calk — home](https://calk.me/): the product job, the meal-template workflow, the focused food-check loop and the free tier.
- [How calorie trackers compare](https://calk.me/articles/how-calorie-trackers-compare/): a sourced comparison of database search, photo estimation, barcode lookup and recipe entry with Calk's meal-template architecture.
- [How to export your MyFitnessPal recipes](https://calk.me/articles/export-transfer-myfitnesspal-recipes/): why MyFitnessPal's official export does not include saved recipe definitions and how Calk avoids rebuilding the archive before a switch.
- [What is a meal template?](https://calk.me/articles/how-the-food-constructor-works/): a direct explanation of how one meal can be reused and changed without rebuilding it.
- [How accurate is Calk?](https://calk.me/articles/how-accurate-is-calk/): the published recipe and packaged-food tests, their scope and the role of portion estimation.

## Data and evidence

- [Where Calk's food numbers come from](https://calk.me/articles/how-calk-tests-its-food-data/): how official food-composition databases, specialist publications, product labels and recipe references are combined and checked.
- [Why calorie databases disagree](https://calk.me/articles/database-lottery/): why search results for the same food can represent different recipes, preparations and serving sizes.
- [Cooking method and calories](https://calk.me/articles/cooking-method-calories/): how fat uptake, water loss and coatings or sauces change a dish.
- [Hidden calories guide](https://calk.me/articles/hidden-calories-guide/): practical checks for meat fat, cooking oil, sauces and raw-versus-cooked weights.
- [Photo calorie counting accuracy](https://calk.me/articles/photo-calorie-counting-accuracy/): what current photo systems have measured and which meal details remain unavailable from an image.
- [References](https://calk.me/references/): the studies, official guidance and primary product sources cited by the site.

## Tracking, reports and maintenance

- [Calorie tracking without the daily grind](https://calk.me/articles/calorie-tracking-without-the-grind/): the complete focused food-check protocol.
- [Why calorie counters fail after the first month](https://calk.me/articles/why-calorie-counters-fail/): why the work can remain after the useful discoveries slow down.
- [What a 30-day food audit reveals](https://calk.me/articles/what-a-30-day-food-audit-reveals/): the questions a month of ordinary logging can answer.
- [How Calk reads a month of eating](https://calk.me/articles/how-calk-reads-your-month-like-a-dietitian/): how the Nutrition Report connects repeated meals to calories, satiety, nutrient coverage and variety.
- [Maintain weight without daily tracking](https://calk.me/articles/maintain-weight-without-daily-tracking/): how to separate a focused food check from background weight-trend monitoring.
- [Understanding your weight trend](https://calk.me/articles/understanding-your-weight-trend/): why decisions use a trend rather than one weigh-in.
- [Maintainers' corner](https://calk.me/corners/maintainers/): the maintenance reading path.

## Nutrition guides

- [Insights](https://calk.me/insights/): Calk's plain-language reference for protein, fiber, fats, salt, nutrient density, variety and other report signals.
- [Eating habits for weight loss](https://calk.me/articles/eating-habits-for-weight-loss/): how repeatable meals, satiety and calorie density fit together.
- [Slow weight loss](https://calk.me/articles/slow-weight-loss/): the difference between rapid scale movement and sustained fat loss.
- [Intuitive eating and data](https://calk.me/articles/intuitive-eating-and-data/): when internal cues are enough and when a short measurement period can answer a specific question.

## Comparisons with other trackers

- [Calk vs MyFitnessPal](https://calk.me/articles/calk-vs-myfitnesspal/): how a saved set of diary rows differs from an editable meal template once the dish changes.
- [Calk vs YAZIO, Cal AI and FatSecret](https://calk.me/articles/calk-vs-yazio-cal-ai-fatsecret/): where each app starts logging, and what each asks of the reader in the second month.
- [Calk vs Cronometer](https://calk.me/articles/calk-vs-cronometer/): micronutrient depth against meal structure, and which question each answers.
- [Calk vs MacroFactor](https://calk.me/articles/calk-vs-macrofactor/): adaptive targets against a food check with an end.
- [The calorie-tracker market map](https://calk.me/articles/calorie-tracker-market-map/): the categories trackers fall into and what distinguishes them.

## Logging, accuracy and effort

- [Counting calories without weighing](https://calk.me/articles/calorie-counting-without-weighing/): what an estimate can and cannot answer, and where the error actually lands.
- [How long calorie logging takes](https://calk.me/articles/how-long-calorie-logging-takes/): the measured daily cost of a food diary and what drives it.
- [Tracking fatigue](https://calk.me/articles/tracking-fatigue-calorie-counting/): why logging stops, and which parts of it are worth keeping.
- [Why a calorie tracker does not count fiber](https://calk.me/articles/calorie-tracker-not-counting-fiber/): why an empty database field arrives in a diary as a zero.
- [Eating out and travel](https://calk.me/articles/eating-out-and-travel/): logging a meal whose recipe belongs to someone else's kitchen.
- [Calories in everyday dishes](https://calk.me/calories-in/): per-dish calculators built from the same meal templates the app uses, with the assumptions shown.

## Understanding the numbers

- [Calkpedia](https://calk.me/calkpedia/): short, plain-language answers to the questions the app raises while it is being used.
- [Methodology](https://calk.me/methodology/): how Calk's food data is assembled, tested and published.
- [Nutrition Report](https://calk.me/nutrition-report/): what a month of ordinary logging produces, page by page.
- [Variety Map](https://calk.me/variety-map/): which foods a month of logging actually covered, and which groups stayed faded.
- [Why diets do not work](https://calk.me/articles/why-diets-dont-work/): what changes when the goal moves from a diet to the meals already being eaten.
- [The maintenance problem](https://calk.me/articles/the-maintenance-problem/): why keeping weight is a different job from losing it.
- [Losing weight without counting calories](https://calk.me/articles/weight-loss-without-calorie-tracking/): what the promise leaves out.
- [Weight fluctuations and the water cycle](https://calk.me/articles/weight-fluctuations-water-cycle-trend/): why the scale moves for reasons that are not fat.
- [Tracking for weight gain](https://calk.me/articles/tracking-for-weight-gain/): the same tools pointed the other way.
- [Food variety and your gut](https://calk.me/articles/food-variety-and-your-gut/): what the evidence supports about range of foods, and what it does not.
- [Food order and steady energy](https://calk.me/articles/food-order-steady-energy/): what changing the order of a meal does and does not do.
- [Eating when appetite returns](https://calk.me/articles/eating-when-appetite-returns/): what to do when hunger comes back after a restricted period.

## Privacy and legal

- [Privacy and your data](https://calk.me/articles/privacy-and-your-data/): local processing, offline use, analytics choices and data handling.
- [Privacy policy](https://calk.me/legal/privacy-policy/)
- [Terms of service](https://calk.me/legal/tos/)

## Scope notes

- Calk does not diagnose, treat or promise health outcomes. It is not a medical device.
- The published `99.7% within 20%` accuracy claim refers to 1,803 tested recipe variants and their independent references. It is not a guarantee for every logged plate or portion.
- Calk's packaged-food results are reported separately from its recipe results.