Not every food you eat will be in the Vantage Fit database -- especially if you enjoy regional cuisines, home-cooked meals, or specialty dishes. That's perfectly fine. You can log any food manually by entering the details yourself.
Using Manual Entry
When a food search comes up empty or you'd rather skip searching altogether:
- Open the food logging screen (tap Plus (+) or go through the Diary)
- Select the meal type (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, or Snack)
- Tap the Manual Entry option (usually available alongside the search bar or in the search results area)
- Fill in the details:
- Food name -- type whatever you like. This is just a label for your own records (e.g., "Mom's dal makhani," "office cafeteria thali," or "protein shake")
- Calories -- enter the total calorie count for your serving
- Protein (optional) -- grams of protein
- Carbs (optional) -- grams of carbohydrates
- Fat (optional) -- grams of fat
- Tap Save to log the entry
Tip: If you don't know the exact macro breakdown, just enter the calories. An approximate calorie log is far more useful than no log at all. You can always edit the entry later if you find more accurate numbers.
When to Use Manual Entry
Manual entry is your best option when:
- Regional or local foods -- Your grandmother's recipe for biryani or a street food snack that won't be in any standard database
- Home-cooked meals -- You know roughly what went into the dish and can estimate calories
- Packaged foods with labels -- You're holding the package and can read the nutritional info directly. Just type the values in.
- Restaurant meals -- Many restaurant chains publish nutrition info online. Look it up and enter it manually.
- Custom recipes -- If you track your own recipes and know the per-serving nutritional breakdown
Estimating Calories When You Don't Know
Not sure how many calories are in what you ate? Here are some quick estimation strategies:
- Check the packaging -- If it came in a packet, the nutrition label is your best friend
- Search online -- A quick web search for "[food name] calories" often gives good estimates
- Use rough benchmarks -- A standard meal is typically 400-700 calories. A light snack is 100-200. A heavy restaurant meal could be 800-1200+.
- Round up slightly -- People tend to underestimate portions. When in doubt, add 10-20% to your estimate.
Suggesting a Food for the Database
If you find yourself manually entering the same food repeatedly, consider submitting it for addition to the Vantage Fit food database:
- In the food search screen, look for the Suggest a Food option
- Enter the food name and any nutritional details you have
- Submit the suggestion
The Vantage Fit team reviews suggestions periodically and adds commonly requested items to the database. Once added, you'll be able to find it through regular search with pre-populated nutritional data.
Note: There's no guaranteed timeline for when a suggested food will be added. The team prioritizes based on the number of requests and data availability. In the meantime, continue using manual entry.
Editing a Manual Entry
Made a mistake or found more accurate nutritional info later? You can edit any logged food entry:
- Go to the Diary and navigate to the date of the entry
- Tap on the Meals card
- Find the entry you want to edit
- Tap to open and update the values
- Save your changes
Tips for Better Manual Logging
- Be consistent with food names -- If you log "office lunch" every day, use the same name so it's easy to track
- The Quick Tray remembers -- Foods you log frequently (even manually entered ones) appear in the Quick Tray for faster logging next time
- Log as you eat -- Entering data right after a meal is more accurate than trying to remember at night
Need more help? Contact support from Settings → Help in the app.
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