Finally found a smart skill that automatically records diet
Honestly, I've tried too many diet recording apps before. Either the interface is so complicated it gives you a headache, or it takes five minutes to log a single meal. Later, I discovered the Diet Tracker skill, and realized that recording food can be this natural—like chatting with a friend. Just say "I ate 4 eggs and bacon," and the system automatically calculates calories, protein, fat, carbs, and fiber, complete with a progress bar showing how far you are from your goal.
Today, let's talk about how to use this Diet Tracker skill, what amazing features it has, and some precautions to keep in mind.
What can it do?
Simply put, it's a diet management module installed on the Janus agent. You don't need to download any app; just talk to the agent directly in the chat window. Its core capabilities include:
- Natural Language Recording: Just say what you ate, for example, "I had a bowl of ramen and two pan-fried dumplings for lunch." The system will automatically estimate calories and macronutrients.
- Food Photo Estimation: Take a photo of your food and send it; the system gives you a rough calorie estimate. While not 100% accurate, it's much better than guessing blindly.
- Weight and Body Fat Tracking: Every morning after weighing yourself, say "This morning I'm 72.5 kg, 15% body fat," and the system records it and shows the weekly trend.
- Daily Summary and Weekly Report: After each meal entry, the system automatically generates a DAY STATUS with progress bars; in the evening, you can request a "Day Close" for a full summary; every Monday, a weekly report is automatically sent, with a 7-day table, weight trend, and day type distribution.
- Supports Various Diet Types: Keto, low-carb, standard, Mediterranean, flexible diet, even One Meal A Day (OMAD)—it can adapt to all of them.
- Remembers Your Common Portions: If you often eat "a bowl of chicken soup," you can tell the system "one bowl of chicken soup = 250 kcal." Later, just say "had a bowl of soup," and it logs quickly.
There's also a feature I find particularly thoughtful: if you overeat one day, the system doesn't lecture you—it just silently shows the numbers. It has a safety mechanism, such as limiting the number of strict diet days per week, prohibiting two consecutive strict days, and issuing a health alert if it detects unhealthy patterns.
Installation and Setup
Installation is very simple. Run a single line in the terminal:
npx skills add https://github.com/wtokarzewski/janus-agent --skill diet-trackerAfter installation, tell the system "install diet," and it will start a conversational setup. It will ask you: What is your goal (fat loss, muscle gain, or maintenance)? Current weight, body fat? What diet type? What day types do you want (normal, fasting, OMAD, etc.)? Do you want to enable automatic heartbeat messages (morning weigh-in reminder, noon check, evening summary)?
If you have previously installed this skill (with historical data), reinstallation will only ask for missing fields, then update your profile without deleting your previous food diary. This is great—switching devices or reinstalling won't cause data loss.
Daily Usage Experience
My most common scenario is after lunch, I directly type in the chat: "For lunch I had the cafeteria tray: one serving of rice, steamed broccoli, braised pork, about 200 grams of meat." The system immediately replies with a DAY STATUS report:
🔥 Calories: 1230 / 2000 (remaining: 770)
🥩 Protein: 80g / 120g (remaining: 40g) ▓▓▓▓░░░░ 67%
🧈 Fat: 45g / 60g (remaining: 15g) ▓▓▓░░░░░ 75%
🍞 Carbs: 130g / 200g (remaining: 70g) ░░░░░░░░ 65%
🌾 Fiber: 12g / 25g (remaining: 13g) ▓░░░░░░░ 48%This progress bar is very clear, so I know what I can eat in the afternoon. Before bed, I say "close day," and the system gives a full list of meals, micronutrients, supplements, and shows the weight trend. If I eat snacks after dinner, I just add "just had a handful of almonds," and the system automatically updates the day's totals—no need to recalculate anything.
A Few Noteworthy Rules
Based on the official documentation, I've summarized some points to keep in mind during use:
- Diet Day Definition: From the first meal to sleep, not from the calendar midnight. If you eat at 2 a.m., it belongs to the previous day, not a new day.
- Estimation Principle: Better to overestimate than underestimate, to ensure calories are not underestimated.
- No Deleting Files: To correct dates or data, use the edit command. Do not delete the food diary files.
- One Event, One Report: After logging a meal, the system will only send a DAY STATUS, not a Day Close. If you need an end-of-day report, you need to trigger it manually.
- Calculate Before Reporting: Each time you add a new entry, the system recalculates all totals first, then generates the report, ensuring the numbers are up-to-date.
Practical Application Scenarios
I think this skill is especially suitable for these types of people:
- Fitness Enthusiasts: Need precise control of protein, fat, and carb ratios; need to replenish carbs after workouts; and need to pay attention to calorie surplus or deficit.
- Weight Loss Individuals: Want to record what they eat but save the trouble of manually looking up calories. The system calculates for you.
- Special Dieters: For example, keto (requires high fat, low carbs), fasting (OMAD or bone broth days), etc. The skill allows customizing various day types.
- Food Allergy or Gut Sensitivity Sufferers: Can use recording to identify which foods cause discomfort.
A Few Minor Downsides
After half a month of use, I think there are a few areas for improvement:
- Photo Estimation Accuracy Is Average: For mixed cooking dishes like Chinese cuisine, the estimation accuracy is not high. It's recommended to use natural language description instead.
- No Standalone Mobile App: It requires... (the original text cuts off here, so we stop accordingly)
