I built an offline-first, AI calorie tracker so I would actually stick to my diet 📸🥗

Hey everyone! 👋

I’m Haider, the founder of Cal AI Pro.

Like many of you, I want to stay healthy and keep track of my nutrition, but I hate traditional calorie-tracking apps. The process of manually searching for every ingredient, weighing portions, and typing out meals felt like a part-time job. I ended up quitting after a few days every single time.

So, I decided to build a solution that removes the friction entirely.

What is Cal AI Pro?

Cal AI Pro is a camera-first calorie and nutrition tracker. Instead of searching databases and typing, you just snap a picture of your food.

Here is what I built into the app:

• 📸 Smart Meal Scan: You take a photo of your plate, and our AI pipeline (integrating OpenAI, Google Vision, and Clarifai) instantly identifies the food items, estimates the portion size, and breaks down the macros (Calories, Protein, Carbs, Fats).

• 🪄 AI Pantry Magic: Input what's currently in your fridge, and the AI will generate healthy, custom recipes for you. It even includes a hands-free Voice Cooking Mode so you can cook without touching your phone with dirty hands.

• 🛒 Smart Inventory & Sync: Tracks what's in your kitchen, sends alerts when items are expiring, and automatically syncs ingredients from your meal plans into a shopping list.

• 🛡️ Offline-First Experience: Because kitchen and gym Wi-Fi can be notoriously spotty, I built a robust SQLite engine. Everything is saved locally instantly and syncs to Firebase securely in the background.

The Tech Stack

I wanted the app to feel buttery smooth and premium, so I built it using:

• Frontend: Flutter (Material 3 Design)

• State Management: Provider

• Database: SQLite (via sqflite) for the offline-first experience, synced with Firebase Firestore.

• Backend: Firebase (Authentication, Analytics, Cloud Messaging).

• AI: Custom multi-engine AI pipeline.

Demo Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YhLG0s61qWc

Why I'm Sharing This Today

I’ve officially set up our product page here on Indie Hackers! I’m currently polishing the final builds and would love to hear from this community:

1. What is your biggest pain point when trying to track your diet or hit your fitness goals?

2. What feature would make you actually switch from your current tracker (like MyFitnessPal) to an AI-first app?

I'll be posting regular updates here as I build in public. I'd love to have you along for the journey!