Accuracy and limits

Every nutrition app is estimating. The difference is whether it says so.

This page says so.

Why a range, not a number#

A bowl of noodle soup has no single correct calorie value. It depends on how much noodle you got, the cut of meat, how fatty the broth is, and whether you finished the liquid.

Kallo computes a plausible range, then collapses it to one figure for your log. The number you see is a point inside that range, not a measurement.

Useful uncertainty, not fake certainty.

The three biggest sources of error#

1. Portion size#

By far the largest. If Kallo assumes your bowl held 500ml and it actually held 350ml, every figure is 40% off — even when the ingredient recognition was perfect.

How to reduce it: answer the vessel question when Kallo asks, and give weights when you know them.

2. Oil and cooking method#

Oil in stir-fried or deep-fried dishes varies enormously between kitchens. The same plate of stir-fried greens can differ twofold in fat.

How to reduce it: set your oil habit accurately in your profile, and state the cooking method when you describe a meal.

3. Reference data coverage#

Protein, carbohydrate and fat data is reasonably complete. Micronutrients are not — many rows leave vitamin and mineral columns empty.

Consequence: a micronutrient showing low may mean you ate too little, or that the data has no figure. The Nutrition page carries a confidence reading precisely so you can tell those apart.

Where Kallo is strong#

• Vietnamese and Asian food — the reference data and the recognition were built around it.
• Multi-component dishes — exactly where ingredient-by-ingredient search in other apps becomes impractical.
• Repeated meals — re-logging gives consistent figures across days.
• Trends over time — random error cancels out across many days.

Where Kallo is weak#

• Unusual, rare or invented dishes — little reference data to lean on.
• Restaurant food with proprietary recipes — nobody knows how much butter went in.
• Micronutrients on a single day — look at longer windows.
• Any day you only partly logged — missing data is worse than rough data.

Using the numbers well#

When not to use Kallo#

Kallo is not a medical device. Some situations need accuracy an estimating app cannot provide:

• Carbohydrate counting for insulin dosing.
• A therapeutic diet prescribed by a clinician.
• Managing an allergy or intolerance — Kallo estimates nutrition, it does not verify allergens.
• Recovering from an eating disorder, where counting can do more harm than good.

In these cases, work with a health professional.

Helping Kallo improve#

If an ingredient is missing or matched wrongly, send feedback from Settings. It arrives with the technical context needed to reproduce it, and goes straight to the team.