Ever since my last doctor’s visit at the start of the year, I’ve been on a mission to get back into shape. At my age, staying in good health will only make things easier as I get older. While running over 150 miles so far this year has been the easy part, dieting, on the other hand, has been the most challenging.
That’s where Google Gemini enters the conversation, especially given how valuable I’ve found it for all sorts of other tasks. The last time I lost a significant amount of weight, I used a calorie-tracking app to keep me honest about what I ate. These apps have come a long way in the 14 years since then, adding the ability to scan barcodes to quickly gather nutritional information — but today, those premium features are locked behind expensive subscriptions.
Considering how invaluable Gemini has become to my daily routine, I wanted to see how well it could handle analyzing the foods I eat to help me on this new fitness journey.
Google Gemini calorie tracker — breakfast
I gave Gemini a picture of my breakfast, along with details explaining that the dish consisted of egg whites and steamed spinach. Since I wanted the nutritional information to be as accurate as possible, I made sure to specify egg whites rather than just "eggs."
After analyzing the photo, Gemini did a surprisingly good job of estimating the portion sizes. It estimated the meal to be between 115 and 175 calories. Personally, if I’m in a pinch and don’t have time to weigh my ingredients, I always lean toward the higher number.
What’s impressive here is that my own log of the meal was exactly 175 calories — consisting of 276 grams of egg whites and one serving of chopped, steamed spinach.
Google Gemini calorie tracker — lunch
Resisting tempting foods is much harder when I’m at work, so I did the right thing and prepped my lunch ahead of time. This low-calorie meal was pretty simple, consisting of riced cauliflower and a piece of seasoned chicken breast that I cut into bite-sized pieces.
Gemini analyzed the photo and estimated the meal to be between 255 and 305 calories. Once again, that's incredibly accurate, considering my own weighed-out log came in at 295 calories. Unlike my flat breakfast photo, this shot had a bit more depth to it because of the container, but Gemini still nailed the portion sizes.
Google Gemini calorie tracker — dinner
Finally, there’s my dinner — a bone-in chicken breast baked in the oven alongside some premade, honey-glazed carrots. This overhead photo highlighted a recurring issue for Gemini: a lack of depth perception. It ended up overestimating this meal, giving me a range of 370 to 445 calories when, in reality, it came out to just 328 calories.
While it was off this time, if I hadn't weighed everything beforehand and lacked an exact caloric breakdown, I still would have logged the higher number just to give myself a worst-case buffer.
Bottom line
Although it doesn’t always give the most precise estimates, I’d still lean on Gemini if I’m in a pinch. Where I’ve found it most helpful is with takeout orders. Most local food joints don’t disclose their ingredients or portion sizes, and the last thing I want to do is deconstruct a meal I paid for just to weigh out each ingredient — making Gemini’s photo analysis incredibly useful here.
If you’re like me and don’t want to pay for yet another subscription, Google Gemini is a surprisingly viable, free alternative. While a top-down photo can occasionally trick its depth perception, it consistently gets close enough to keep me honest.
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