Set a meal’s portion by weight or volume

Use the amount you measured to adjust a logged meal. Portions changes the count or multiplier of the analyzed meal. When the meal has a usable amount, you can also choose Weight or Volume. Changing the portion scales the whole meal; use Fix it to change the food itself or an individual ingredient.

Which amount option appears?

• Volume appears when the analysis recorded a volume. It takes priority over Weight when the meal has both.
• Weight appears when there is no recorded volume and every ingredient has a usable estimated weight.
• If neither amount is available, use Portions.

Volume is for drinks, liquid foods, soups and oils or sauces logged by capacity. For soup, it describes the whole bowl, solids included. Ordinary solid foods and mixed plates use weight when available. Grams and millilitres describe different measurements and are never treated as interchangeable.

Your profile’s unit system applies throughout the controls: grams (g) or ounces (oz) for weight, and millilitres (ml) or fluid ounces (fl oz) for volume. PlateLens stores the amounts in metric units.

Change the portion on iPhone or Android

In the meal detail sheet, long names fit on one line with an arrow beside them. Tap the name to expand or collapse it.

1. Open the meal in your diary and tap the Portion row or Edit Meal.
2. Choose Portions or the available Weight or Volume option.
3. Tap the number to type an amount, or use the minus and plus buttons. Review the nutrition preview as it updates.
4. Tap Save Changes when it looks right.

Edit Meal starts with Analysis error? Fix it, followed by the portion control and a compact nutrition preview. Below them, one row shows the date, time and meal type (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner or Snack). Tap it to edit all three together. Cancel and the save button stay together at the bottom while you scroll.

Saving changes the existing diary entry. Calories, protein, carbs, fat, tracked nutrients, ingredient weights, recorded volume and any drink still linked to the meal scale together. The weight and volume supplied by the analysis are estimates; entering a measured amount adjusts the meal to that amount without re-identifying its ingredients.

In an alcoholic drink, the alcohol follows the portion while the strength stays the same: 330 ml of a 5% beer has 13.0 g of alcohol. With alcohol tracking on, the preview in Edit Meal shows the alcohol too.

On the web app

Open the meal at app.platelens.app and use its portion control. The web has the same choices as mobile: Portions, plus Weight or Volume when available. Type the amount or use the minus and plus buttons, review the preview, and save. Your profile’s unit system applies here too.

On Apple Watch

Fix anything by describing it

In Edit Meal, tap Analysis error? Fix it, describe what is wrong, and send it with Fix Analysis. The meal is analyzed again from scratch with your words taken as the truth. It understands, in any language:

• Wrong food — “it was tuna, not chicken”
• Wrong amount — “the portion was bigger” or “there was more rice”
• Missing ingredient — “it also had avocado”
• Extra ingredient — “I didn’t eat the bread”
• Cooking method — “it was fried, not grilled”
• Exact total — describe the calorie total for the whole meal
• Drink strength or volume — “it was a 6.5% IPA” or “it was a 330 ml can”

Renaming the meal, adding an ingredient and changing one ingredient’s amount are all the same operation here: a logged meal has no name of its own — the name comes from the analysis — and there is no form to type an ingredient into the list or edit amounts one by one. You describe it, and the meal is analyzed again. A drink's strength changes the same way, and the correction updates its calories and alcohol together.

Two things to know before you send a correction:

• It re-runs the full analysis; wait for it to finish before adjusting the corrected meal.
• The portion multiplier goes back to 1×: the corrected meal, exactly as re-analyzed, becomes the new full portion. Its calories don’t change because of that reset, but the multiplier you had chosen before is gone. The correction also re-estimates the weights and, for foods measured by capacity, the volume.

Corrections are not captures: fixing a meal never spends your daily scans, on any plan.

Dictate a correction on iPhone

The correction editor opens with text entry. On iPhone, tap Dictate to record your explanation in the same editor. Tap Finish to turn it into text, or Discard to cancel the recording. The transcription is added to your draft, so anything you already typed stays there.

Review the words, especially quantities and ingredient names, and edit them as needed. The meal stays unchanged until you tap Fix Analysis. The Dictate control is available on iPhone; the existing correction tools on Android, web and Apple Watch keep their own input controls.

Use the close button to leave the editor. If you have a draft or dictation in progress, a system confirmation lets you keep editing or discard and leave. If you already submitted the correction, the confirmation explains that processing may still finish; you can review the meal again from History.

Microphone, limits and interruptions

The same dictation controls are used for iPhone corrections, photo hints, meal descriptions and Saved Meal adjustments. Dictation returns editable text; use the editor's main action when you are ready to continue.

• Microphone permission: PlateLens asks when you tap the dictation control. If you already allowed the microphone elsewhere in the app, that permission is reused. If access is blocked, tap Open Settings to enable it. Returning to the app does not start a recording; tap the dictation control again when ready.
• Recording and connection: record up to 60 seconds per clip. Transcription needs an internet connection and returns editable text before you apply the correction or hint.
• Errors and usage limits: a failed transcription or a shared temporary or daily dictation limit shows a message in the editor. Your typed text is preserved and you can continue by typing.
• Leaving the app: putting the app in the background stops and discards an active recording. Start another recording when you return; your written draft remains.

Recorded audio is uploaded for transcription and cleaned up afterward. If immediate cleanup cannot finish, it is retried; discarding or closing the editor does not promise immediate removal of audio that was already uploaded.

Remove an ingredient

On the phone, swipe the ingredient in the meal’s ingredient list and confirm Remove. The totals are recomputed from the remaining ingredients without re-analyzing the meal, and your portion setting stays as it was. The last remaining ingredient cannot be removed; if the whole meal is wrong, correct it with Fix it or delete the entry.

Select the ingredient by its displayed name, including when it is translated. If PlateLens says the ingredient changed, refresh the meal and review the current list before trying again.

In a mixed drink, removing the liquor, such as the gin from a gin and tonic, also removes its alcohol.

Removing an ingredient also drops the meal’s recorded volume until a correction estimates it again. Its automatic linked water contribution is also removed because the whole-meal estimate no longer describes the edited food. Manually logged or imported water stays unchanged. A correction with Fix it can estimate the meal’s water again.

Read a meal’s energy split

The energy split divides a meal’s calories, not only its macros, between protein, carbohydrates, fat, alcohol and other energy, and its percentages add up to 100. On mobile, open a meal or an ingredient and choose Show Expert Metrics; on the web, it is the meal’s nutrition bar and the split in In context. Every account sees it.

• Alcohol appears in alcoholic drinks: a beer, a glass of wine or the ingredients of a cocktail, such as the gin in a gin and tonic. A 500 ml beer at 5% with 218 kcal is about 4% protein, 33% carbohydrates and 63% alcohol, and a shot of vodka is 100% alcohol.
• Other energy is the energy that protein, carbohydrates and fat do not explain, shown from 5% and 10 kcal of a meal, an ingredient or a day. Food stays food, so a dish cooked with wine or liquor shows its unexplained energy as other energy, and a drink analyzed before PlateLens recorded alcohol shows its alcohol energy the same way.
• Alcoholic drinks keep their kcal per 100 g without calorie-density labels such as Very low calorie, and Pure carbs or Pure fat needs at least 95% of all the energy, so a cocktail is described by its real split.

The split always uses the meal’s current portion. To count a drink’s alcohol in grams, turn on alcohol tracking.

Barcode servings, weight and volume

After scanning a barcode, choose Servings or the offered Weight or Volume option before adding the meal. A declared serving size opens in servings. When no serving size is listed but the nutrition panel is per 100 g or 100 ml, the control opens in weight or volume so you can enter how much you had. Your profile’s unit system also applies here. A package size is never assumed to be a serving.

The nutrition preview scales to your amount only when the product’s own panel supports that conversion. Otherwise, it shows the panel as a reference; grams and millilitres are not treated as interchangeable. If the selected measure cannot be used to log the product, choose Servings. Once logged, the meal has the same portion and correction controls as other diary entries.

View a saved meal’s ingredients

Inspect a saved meal on iPhone, Android or the web before deciding whether to log it. Ingredient details are read-only: opening and closing them leaves your saved copy and diary unchanged.

1. On mobile, open + → Saved & Recent → Saved. On the web, open Library → Saved.
2. Open a saved meal and tap View ingredients on the item you want to inspect. In a group, each item has its own list, including items you have deselected.
3. Review each ingredient’s weight, calories, protein, carbs and fat. Tap an ingredient to open the same nutrition detail used in your diary, then go back to continue reviewing the saved meal.

The amounts start from the saved portion. When you change an item’s portion to another valid amount, its summary and ingredient nutrition scale together, including available micronutrients. Weight follows your profile’s unit preference. Your item selection and amounts remain in place when you return from ingredient detail; use Hide ingredients to collapse the list. Logging remains a separate action.

On iPhone, the list and ingredient detail also show food images when available. A loading indicator shows an image in progress; an unavailable image keeps a placeholder while the saved nutrition remains readable. Close and reopen the list to check image availability again. Images can become available later while the saved names, amounts and nutrition stay unchanged.

Details come from the saved copy, so they remain available if you edit or delete the original diary entry. Nutrients missing from that copy remain unavailable; opening the detail does not estimate them again. On mobile, use Customize this time to change an ingredient for your next meal and review its proposed version. Inspecting saved ingredients is available on the phone and web; use either surface for this detail when logging from Apple Watch.

If you clear an amount or enter a value outside the accepted range, the ingredient names remain visible while nutrition waits for a valid amount. Complete the amount field to restore the nutrition preview.

Images in Saved meals

On mobile and the web, saved meal cards and their individual items show a meal image when one is available. A group’s card uses one of its items’ images. A loading indicator means an image is still being prepared; an unavailable image keeps a placeholder. An image can appear later without changing the saved ingredients, amounts or nutrition.

When you save a meal with an available private photo, that photo can stay with the saved meal and the diary entries you log from it. Deleting one of those entries removes only that entry: a photo still needed by another saved meal or diary entry is retained. Older saved meals without a retained photo keep working. Removing a meal does not promise immediate photo deletion.

Save a group from Recent meals

Save foods you usually have together as one reusable group, such as your usual breakfast. Start with meals or products you have already logged so they appear in Recent.

1. On mobile, open + → Saved & Recent → Recent and tap Select.
2. Select the items you want to keep together, then tap Save selection. The screen shows the selection limit.
3. Review the name and tap Save for reuse. The group appears in Saved.

On the web, open Library → Recent, check the items and choose Save selection. Recent meals cover the last 30 days. A saved group can contain up to 10 items; the larger selection limit for logging does not increase that group limit.

Saving a group does not log another meal. If you reach the saved-meal limit, remove a saved template you no longer need before saving another; removing a template does not delete its past diary entries.

Repeat a saved group

Open the group in Saved, keep the items you want to log selected, and review their amounts, date, meal time and meal type. Tap Log meal when ready. You can use a group for recurring food or supplements you already record as food; these entries remain part of your meal diary and nutrition totals.

When saving a meal or a selection from Recents on mobile or web, review the proposed name. You can keep it or type your own; Save keeps the final text shown in the name field. That accepted name stays the same if you change the app language. Saving a new template does not rename your other saved meals or alter earlier Diary entries.

On mobile or web, open a saved or recent meal and adjust its portion before logging. Switch from Portions to Weight or Volume when that entry has the corresponding amount; otherwise, use portions. Saved meals let you select items and adjust each selected item separately. Ounces and fluid ounces follow your unit preference. You can also tap Customize this time and describe what changes by text or voice.

Logging creates a new diary entry for each selected item, with the chosen amounts and scaled nutrition. A group keeps its items as separate dishes. A saved item starts from its saved amount; a recent meal starts from the amount in that previous entry. The saved template and previous diary entry stay unchanged. Later edits affect only the entry you edit.

On iPhone, Customize this time opens a text editor with Dictate beside the character counter. Finish recording to add the transcription to your draft, then review or edit it before tapping Review changes. Dictation does not generate the preview automatically. Review the proposed version and tap Log this one-time version to create the diary entry.

An adjustment description can contain up to 1,000 characters. If dictation takes the draft over that limit, the complete text stays available; shorten it before reviewing changes. Closing with a draft or dictation in progress asks for confirmation. Discarding a recording or a failed transcription preserves the text you already wrote.

Meals already in your diary

Meals logged before this change keep working. You can edit them by Portions and, when they have usable ingredient weights, by Weight. For older drinks, soups and other foods measured by capacity, Volume becomes available after a Fix it correction re-analyzes the meal and records its volume.

Limits and missing amounts

Use a positive amount within the range accepted by the control. If the field is empty or the amount is rejected, review the value and unit before saving. An amount control adjusts the whole meal; it does not edit the weight of an individual ingredient.

See also: how to log a meal and set its time · hydration contributed by meals · where the nutrition data comes from · the portions announcement. Still need help? Contact PlateLens Support.