If you have questions that are not answered in the FAQ below, please contact me. If you're just wondering what the app is for, take a look at the product page.
FAQ
Q: The percentages don’t match the other numbers on my food’s label. Nice work, mathlete!
A: Easy there, fella. If you want the percentages to match the other numbers on your food label, you need to tap the little button and choose the “Scientific” option. That will make the numbers better match what the FDA calculates for, e.g. percent of calories from fat.
Q: The percentages don’t match my diet book! Where’d you learn to do math?
A: Diet books assume that you’ll be calculating this stuff in your head, so they choose round numbers for both the target percentages and the number of calories in each source of calories. Most use four calories per gram of protein and carbohydrates (it’s actually more like 4.1 and 3.6, respectively), and nine per gram of fat (actually about 8.6). Using scientific values a 40•30•30 meal turns into something like 38•32•30, which doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as nicely. As in the previous answer, you’ll need to tap the little button but this time choose the “Standard” option (which is the default).
Q: Why are the half-gram increments reserved for the first five grams of fat? What about protein and carbs? What are they, chopped liver?
A: The US FDA requires fat to be labeled in half-gram increments for foods with fewer than five grams of fat. Protein and Carbohydrates don’t have the same requirement. If you do run into a situation where you have numbers down to the half gram, you can always double all of your numbers; since the output is a percentage it won’t change the result.
Q: What about fiber? My diet book says not to count it towards carbohydrates.
A: Here’s where you have to do just a bit of manual overriding. If your food has 23 grams of carbs including 2 grams of fiber, just dial in 23 grams on the carb dial and then click it back two notches. I considered adding a “fiber dial”, but that would force a four-column layout that I’m pretty sure would just end up being harder to use.
Q: Everyone knows low-carb diets are just a fad and they don’t work!
A: How is that a question? And my six-pack begs to differ :). But seriously, different diets almost certainly affect different people differently. 40•30•30 are numbers that seem to work for me, but there’s no limitation in this app that requires you to choose those numbers. You can do low-carb (say, 5•35•60), or low fat (say, 70•20•10), or any other sane and/or crazy diet you can dream up. Please, whatever you choose, ask your doctor if it’s likely to make you sick, and if she says it will, don’t do it.
Q: I like to add up all of my meals for the day. Can your app do this?
A: If you have an iPhone 3GS or better, the app should remember where it left off when you come back to it. Exceptions are if you’re running a lot of memory-intensive stuff in between or if you actually go in and kill the task. The only other limitation is that you’re limited to 99 grams of each nutrient. This should cover smallish and not-too-active people. Please contact me if this limitation is a limitation for you.