The Dietrack blog
Meal planning, pantry cooking, and honest nutrition writing.
Practical pieces about cooking from what you have, planning a week without dread, and the honest version of calorie + macro tracking. New articles every week.
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Calorie tracking
How Dietrack estimates nutrition
Nutrition in Dietrack is an estimate. This explains the different ways food gets in, why a barcode differs from a cooked meal, why quantity matters, and when a label or a professional is the better tool.
August 20, 2026 · 4 min read
Meal planning
Eat better with less effort: inside Dietrack’s redesign
A look at Dietrack’s redesign: Today and Ideas, kitchen-first meal ideas, faster logging with Nia, and a brief on Apple Health / Health Connect with a link to the full wearables guide.
August 12, 2026 · 8 min read
Food waste
What household food waste costs: the money in the bin
WRAP (2022) puts edible UK household food waste around £1,000 a year for a household of four. Here’s the money math, four waste types, and a 30-day test, estimates, with sources.
July 27, 2026 · 6 min read
Grocery lists
How to save money on groceries (without coupons or extreme couponing)
Seven rules that reliably cut a grocery bill, the 'what you have first' approach, the receipt-audit method, and an honest take on where coupons and bulk-buying actually help.
July 20, 2026 · 6 min read
Weight loss
High-volume eating: more food, fewer calories (without ultra-processed gimmicks)
The foods that add volume, the dense foods to portion, a real day of meals, and when this approach does not fit.
July 13, 2026 · 6 min read
Weight loss
What a sustainable weight-loss week of eating actually looks like
A realistic 7-day eating example for someone in a moderate calorie deficit, built from real ingredients, with calorie estimates, substitutions, and the disclaimers honesty requires.
July 6, 2026 · 9 min read
Macros
How to hit your macros from your pantry (no protein-bar bandaid)
A practical method for hitting macro targets using pantry staples instead of supplements, the 5 protein-anchor pantry items, 4 carb anchors, and real meals that come from them.
June 29, 2026 · 5 min read
Macros
High-protein meals under 500 calories (estimates, real food)
Twelve real-food meal ideas with high protein and under ~500 kcal, estimates from typical portions, not lab values. Substitutions from what you have.
June 25, 2026 · 6 min read
Calorie tracking
How to track calories without weighing every gram (a saner method)
A practical method for tracking calories without a kitchen scale, four estimation techniques, the 80/20 rule, and when weighing is actually worth it.
June 22, 2026 · 6 min read
Recipes
Free AI recipe generators: why most of them disappoint
Chatbot vs database vs kitchen-first: types of free AI recipe tools, four failure modes, and when ChatGPT is enough.
June 18, 2026 · 7 min read
Meal planning
AI meal planner vs traditional meal planning: which one actually works for you?
An honest comparison of AI meal planning vs the old paper-and-pen method. Where AI wins, where the traditional approach still wins, and the hybrid setup most people actually want.
June 15, 2026 · 6 min read
Calorie tracking
Calorie tracking for beginners (a 7-day starter that doesn't ruin food)
A practical, slow 7-day intro to calorie tracking, one new habit per day. Includes when to start, when to stop, and how to track without making every meal feel like a math problem.
June 8, 2026 · 7 min read
Food waste
Use it up: a 5-day meal plan from leftovers
A real 5-day meal plan that starts with what's in the fridge and never adds more than three new ingredients per day. Designed to use what you have, not buy a new shopping list.
June 4, 2026 · 6 min read
Food waste
How much food the average household wastes (and what to do about it)
UK households wasted about 210 kg of food and drink per household in 2022 (WRAP). High-income countries average ~81 kg per person (UNEP 2024). Seven kitchen fixes, with sources.
June 1, 2026 · 7 min read
Grocery lists
Receipt scanning apps for smarter shopping (and what they're actually for)
An honest look at receipt scanning apps in 2026, what they do well, where they fail, the four things to look for, and how Dietrack uses scanning to update your kitchen automatically.
May 28, 2026 · 5 min read
Pantry & fridge
Fridge organization for less waste: a 20-minute Sunday method
A practical 5-zone fridge organization method that cuts waste, with the 'shelf-of-doom' rule, the Sunday reset, and what to do with the spinach before it dies.
May 21, 2026 · 5 min read
Pantry & fridge
Pantry staples list (and how to track them without overthinking)
A real 30-item core staples list, a 10-item 'enables-a-week-of-meals' list, and the 10 things you thought you needed but don't. Plus how to keep track without becoming obsessive.
May 18, 2026 · 5 min read
Recipes
How to write prompts for an AI recipe generator (so it doesn't suggest beef wellington)
A practical 5-part prompt template for AI recipe generators, with side-by-side good/bad examples and what to do when the result is wrong.
May 15, 2026 · 5 min read
Meal planning
Leftover chicken recipes that don’t taste like leftovers
Eight leftover-chicken dinners, plus the USDA fridge window (3–4 days). Fast, pantry-real, not a reheat.
May 13, 2026 · 5 min read
Meal planning
What to cook with eggs and cheese (12 dinners and breakfasts)
Twelve real meals built from eggs and cheese, breakfasts, dinners, and the in-between meals nobody writes about. Each one uses what you'd actually have in the fridge.
May 11, 2026 · 5 min read
Meal planning
What to cook with chicken and rice (12 ideas that actually use what you have)
A practical list of 12 chicken-and-rice dinners, organised by what's in your fridge alongside them. Each takes 30 minutes or less.
May 6, 2026 · 6 min read
Meal planning
What to make for dinner when you have "nothing": a method, not a list
When you open the fridge and feel like you have nothing to cook, you usually have eight things. Here's the method for finding them.
May 4, 2026 · 4 min read
Meal planning
How to choose an AI meal planner (what most apps get wrong)
Kitchen-first vs calorie calendars vs chatbot plans. Five checks, honest about Dietrack, no fake star chart.
May 3, 2026 · 6 min read
Pantry & fridge
How to organize a pantry (so you actually use what's in it)
Pantry organization is mostly about visibility, what you see is what you cook. The single rule, the categories that work, and a 20-minute Sunday reset.
May 1, 2026 · 5 min read
Grocery lists
How to make a grocery list that actually works (5 rules + a template)
Most grocery lists fail for three reasons. Here are the five rules that make one work, plus a template you can copy.
April 30, 2026 · 5 min read
Calorie tracking
How accurate are calorie trackers? An honest breakdown
Photo and typed logs are estimates, not lab values. Here’s what validation studies actually show, why labels are already estimates, and when ‘close enough’ is enough.
April 29, 2026 · 6 min read
Macros
How to set your macros (without the gym-bro math)
Macros, in plain English. Calories first, protein next, the rest later. The simple math that fits a normal life, not a competition prep.
April 28, 2026 · 5 min read
Weight loss
How to plan meals in a calorie deficit (without hating it)
The four levers, what hunger actually means, and how to build meals you will still want to eat. Not medical advice.
April 27, 2026 · 5 min read
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