Meal ratings, which appear in the Diary view as emojis, exist to provide feedback on how close you are tracking towards your health goals. These ratings are generated by an algorithm that considers a variety of different factors: your health goals, your dietary preferences, your nutrition settings, if you are getting the right proportions of macro and micronutrients, and if you are close to achieving your calorie goal for that specific meal.

 

With food ratings, each food receives a score based on its distribution of macro- and micronutrients - carbohydrates, fat, protein, sugar, fiber, and sodium. For each meal rating, we take into account how well all the food in a meal matches your diet and daily goals. Remember, your rating is here to act as a guide and educate on how to be healthy; variation and balance is the key to a healthy diet. 

 

Meal ratings are calculated by analyzing macronutrients and micronutrients, so if a meal does not have all of this information, it cannot be rated. If you're tracking with custom calories or miss filling out nutrients when creating your own items, for example, Lifesum won't know the macro and micronutrient content of the meal and can not rate it.

 

There are a few reasons as to why this could happen. One reason may be that some food may not have all of its nutritional information listed. For example, if fiber, unsaturated fat, or sugar is missing, the rating is automatically lower since the rating index uses these values.

 

Another reason you may be receiving a lower rating is that you've eaten too few calories and your meal has imbalanced macronutrient levels. The meal rating takes into account your food choices and the amounts of each to form a meal.

 

Specifically for Ketogenic diets, even though your choices may be good, you might not be eating the right amounts according to the diet. Meal ratings for Ketogenic diets help you eat according to your macronutrient-distribution per meal and day, so you don't exceed your carbohydrate limit, . If a food gets a good rating in search, that rating is per 100 grams of the food. The meal rating, however, meals reflects the actual amount of food tracked.

 

For High Protein diets, to achieve the highest rating possible, you must have a considerable amount of protein in your meals.

 

In general, meal ratings take into account how closely your meal came to achieving your daily goals. Remember that all foods consist of "better" and "worse" nutrients in different amounts. A meal might consist of imbalanced foods; however, if the sum of the food in the meal is balanced, this will lead to a better rating. 

 

For Ketogenic diets, even though you may not have made the best food choices, amounts matter. Meal ratings for Ketogenic diets help you eat according to your macronutrient distribution per meal and day, so you don't exceed your carbohydrate limit. If a food gets a worse rating in search, that rating is per 100 grams of the food. The meal rating, however, meals reflects the actual amount of food tracked. If you ate "unhappy face" foods in moderation, you might still end up with a good rating.

 

If you track food items with ratings in your meal, the meal rating you receive should be accurate as all the information about macronutrients and micronutrients is included.

 

If you track the same kinds of food in your meal, but they are not all rated, they likely lack information about macronutrients and micronutrients. If a meal does not have food ratings for each item, Lifesum cannot accurately assess your meal.

 

We set calorie guidelines for each meal (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) to guide you to your individual goals and needs, and so you aren't hungry or overly full for any meal. If you eat a meal that is too small or too big, the meals that follow won't be affected as this would make it harder to score well on them. Instead, the calorie count for your snack is affected. If you eat fewer calories during your meals, you can have a snack to reach the goal for the day. If you've had too many calories, you may be able to skip a snack or take a walk to be able to reach your daily goal.

 

When you exercise, you get rid of or “burn” more energy. You must eat more in order to get enough energy, and refuel and restore your muscles. All the exercise calories you lose end up in the snack module so that you can "snack up" to reach your daily goal.

 

Further reading
Lifesum's default settings are based on recommendations by the World Health Organization. Read more here: https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/healthy-diet