WellBalancedMeal is a web and mobile application that provides nutritional analysis, meal planning, and food journalling for everybody.
This user guide introduces the important features of the application.
The user guide is linked directly to the application. Tap the help_outline icon in the application's toolbar to be directed to the relevant section in this guide.
is a link that will jump to another slide. Your browser's back button will return you to the slide that you came from.
Bold text refers to a label or title that appears on the associated screen shot. Italicized text refers to data that appears on the screen shot.
The application supports phones, tablets, and desktop browsers. The screen shots used for this guide show the application as it appears on a phone.
This guide has slides.
If you have any other questions don't hestitate to contact us: info@wellbalancedmeal.com
Thank you!
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The nutritional information you create is stored on our servers. We need to create an account for you in order to store that information.
Select continue as guest to use the application anonymously. Not all application features are enabled and you can only access your guest data on a single device.
Account sign in accesses your permanent account. The first time you sign in an account is created automatically. A permanent account allows you to access your nutritional information from any device and enables application features that are not available to guest users.
Sign in using your existing Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, or Yahoo account.
If you don't want to use an existing account then select Sign in with email and use any email address you have to create an account.
Sign out, or access your account information, by opening the session dialog from the .
The session dialog shows the email address and name (if available) of the signed in user.
Tap anywhere outside the dialog to close it.
The application starts on the Home page by default.
The start page can be set to the Home, , or page using the .
Tap menu to open the app's menu.
Tap help_outline to open the user guide for the current page. Turn off the help icon using the .
Use the page, or the menu to navigate.
Tap account_circle Account on the menu to open the sign in where you can view your account information or sign out.
Fast guided search for all your nutrition items. Simply start typing and suggestions appear.
Select library to access a database of reliable USDA nutrition data. The database is optimized for easy search and easy measurement selection. These food items have complete nutritional information covering all 40 nutrients that are available in your nutrient .
Select favorite, labeled, recipes, meals, or plans to access your personal items.
The Browse page is used to:
Tap people_outline to browse a food libary.
Select favorite, labeled, recipes, meals, or meal plans to access the personal items that you .
Fast guided search makes it possible to locate many items with just a few letters.
Tap any search result to access the page for that item.
Enter the quantity and select a unit.
The Measure page is used to:
The nutrient summary shows actual nutrient amounts and the percentage of your personal .
The list of nutrients that appear in the nutrient summary is set in your .
The system of units used for measure values can be set to Imperial (e.g. oz, floz), or Metric (e.g. g, ml), or both using the .
Tap to expand the nutrient summary.
The expanded nutrient summary contains a larger list of nutrients. Use your to change the nutrients that appear in this list.
The nutrient summary shows actual nutrient amounts and the percentage of your personal .
Tap to collapse the nutrient summary.
The title is a link to your , , , , or . Use this link to view and edit the item.
Log food items in your daily nutrition log. Nutrition summary information is available for the day, per meal, and per item.
Visit your to change you macro nutrient target and the nutrients that appear in the nutrient summaries.
The nutrient summary shows individual nutrient amounts and the percentage of your personal .
In this example, the logged Calories total is 1433 calories and that is 97% of the daily calorie intake that is configured in your .
Tap search to add a new log entry.
Tap mode_edit to edit or delete a log entry.
Tap to expand the nutrient summary.
The expanded nutrient summary shows the full list of nutrients you chose in your .
The nutrient summary shows individual nutrient amounts and the percentage of your personal .
Tap to collapse the expanded nutrient summary.
The Create page is the starting point for creating new nutritional items to add to your personal library.
Favorite allows you to save any item that you use frequently, change it's name, and provide a preferred measure.
Tap mode_edit to edit the favorite.
The description of a favorite item can be changed. This provides an easy way to change another item's description, for example, to make it shorter or simpler.
A preferred measure for the favorite item can also be set.
In the example, the Favorite item's description is shortened to 2% Milk and the default measure is set to 1.0 cup. The quantity can be changed to something else, if necessary, when the item is logged or used in a recipe, meal, or plan.
Newly added favorite items are immediately available through the page.
A labelled item represents the nutrition label information of a packaged food product.
Tap mode_edit to edit the label.
Enter nutrition label information for a packaged food product.
The % Daily Value amounts are based on the standard 2000 calorie diet used for nutrition labeling in the United States and Canada. All nutrients that can appear on standard food labels are available.
Newly added labeled items are immediately available through the page.
Tap to select measurement units (e.g. g, oz, ml, cup).
Tap more_horiz to expose additional options.
Tap check to save your changes.
View the recipe's description, measures, ingredients and notes.
Tap mode_edit to edit the recipe.
Enter the recipe's description, serving quantity, and optionally add a weight or volume.
This recipe is for 12 muffins. A single muffin measure is created automatically. A weight or volume can be also be added and weight or volume measures will be generated automatically.
Newly added recipes are immediately available through the page.
Tap mode_edit to edit an ingredient.
Tap more_horiz to expose additional options.
Tap search to add ingredients.
Tap check to save your description and measure changes.
View the meal's description, measures, ingredients and notes.
Tap mode_edit to edit the meal.
A meal is like a but adds a preset logging category: breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack. The logging category is available for search, e.g. search for "lunch" to find all lunch meals.
Newly added meals are immediately available through the page.
Tap mode_edit to edit an ingredient.
Tap more_horiz to expose additional options.
Tap search to add ingredients.
Tap check to save your description and measure changes.
View the meal plans's description, measures, ingredients and notes.
Tap mode_edit to edit the meal plan.
A meal plan repesents one full day of nutrition. It is organized like the but is avaiable permanently via the page. A meal plan can be logged just like any other nutrition item.
Tap mode_edit to edit an entry.
Tap more_horiz to expose additional options.
Tap search to add entry.
Tap check to save your description and measure changes.
Create a copy of any item in your food library, or that of a library.
After selecting an item to copy you will be redirected to the edit page for the newly copied item where you can make what ever changes are necessary.
Tap search to select the item you want to copy.
Macro nutrient balance describes the proportions of protein, fat, and carbohydrate in a diet. The macro balance editor is a simple way to set the balance by entering the target calories, and either the target grams or percentage of individual macro nutrients.
The protein, fat, and carbohydrate targets are constrained by the calorie target. If one value goes up, another value must go down in order to stay at the calorie target. This relationship between protein, fat, and carbohydrate is shown by the macro triangle. The target in the triangle is a visual representation of the macro nutrient balance.
Tap more_horiz to expose additional options.
Tap check to save your profile changes.
The macro lock can make configuring macro nutrients easier. First set one of the macro values, then lock it to prevent it from changing when the other macro amounts are modified.
The example shows holding the carbohydrate value constant while modifying the protein and fat amounts.
Tap lock_open to lock a single macro value so that it does not change.
Tap lock to unlock the value.
Tap undo to undo changes before they are saved.
Tap check to save your profile changes.
The energy content of alcohol is accounted for by the macro balancer if a quantity is specified as a .
To specify an alcohol amount, enter the gram amount as a . The macro balancer will then account for the energy content of the alcohol.
The gram alcohol content of alcoholic drinks is available in the items. Alcohol must to be selected in the in order to see the alcohol content of an item.
Reset the nutrient profile to return all values to the default profile daily values.
The default Daily Values are based on the standard 2,000 calorie reference diet that is used for nutrition labeling in the United States and Canada.
Tap more_horiz to expose the reset button.
Tap settings_backup_restore to reset your profile back to the default daily values.
The nutrient summaries that appear throughout the application show:
The nutrient summary above shows that 633 calories is 35% of the Daily Value intake of 1800 calories that is set in the Profile.
In the same way, 552 mg of Sodium (Na) is 23% of the 2400 mg Daily Value that is set in the Profile.
The nutrients summary short form is a concise single row of nutrients.
The list of nutrients that appear in the short form nutrient summary is determined by selecting nutrients in the Short Form column of the nutrient profile.
The long form nutrient summary shows each nutrient on a separate row.
The list of nutrients that appear in the long form nutrient summary are determined by selecting nutrients in the Nutrient column of your Profile.
Connection requests that have been sent to you are found in the received section of the Connections page.
Connections are one way. When you accept a connection the other user has access to your food library. If you want to access their data then you need to send them a reciprocal connection request.
Connect request acceptance is controlled by the :
The Private is the same as Manual but protects your identity until the request is accepted. The requesting user always sees a request status of unknown until, and unless, the request is accepted by you.
Tap check_box_outline_blank to accept the request.
Tap clear reject a request.
Tap person_add to send a reciprocal connection request.
Tap sort to sort requests by status, or user name.
Tap received to refresh the list.
Tap to see connection requests that you have sent to other users.
The Connection page requested list shows the status of connection requests that you have sent.
In this case the has sent connection requests to karenwell65@gmail.com and davidwell349@gmail.com. Karen accepted the request. David has not yet accepted the request.
Tap person_add to a new connection request.
Tap sort to sort requests by status, or user name.
Tap star to mark a user as a favorite so that they appear first.
Tap clear delete a request.
Tap to see connection requests that have been sent to you by other users.
Tap requested to refresh the list.
Connect with other users by sending them a connection request. Users are identified by their email address.
The other user will see your request in the section of their Connections page. You will have access to their food library after they accept the request.
A connection only provides access to another user's favorites, labeled items, recipes, meals, and plans. Every other aspect of the connected user's data remains private.
Try it now. Connect to the by sending a connection request to: demo.wellbalancedmeal@gmail.com
The demo account is configured to accept all requests, so you'll see your request accepted immediately.
Tap check to send the connection request.
Access a connected user's food library via the page.
Tap people_outline to browse a connected user's food libary.
Select a connected user to browse their food library.
The users listed on this page are those that have accepted your .
Both Karen and David have accepted the connection request.
Tap people_outline to select the connected user whose food libary you want to access.
Tap sync to the list if you don't see a user who you know accepted your .
The Browse page provides access to a connected user's food library.
These items can be , , included in , , or , and saved as .
The connected user identifier (people_outline David Well) is displayed in the upper right corner of the page as a reminder. The same identifier is displayed beside the connected user's food items when they are included in your , used as ingredients in , , and , or saved as .
The application is synchronized automatically at start up.
Synchronization normally takes only a few seconds. The cloud_done icon appears briefly when synchronization is complete.
Tap sync at any time to manually synchronize.
If you work on one device at a time, then there is no need to manually synchronize.
Advanced: If you work on multiple devices at the same time, then you may need to synchronize the application manually to bring your current device in sync with changes that you made on another device. That includes the case where you reference a connected user's data and they have changed an item that you reference.
The application works offline.
The cloud_off icon indicates that the network is not available. This may happen because the device's network connection is turned off, or the application may have detected that the network connection is on but is very slow.
The application works normally when offline except that you are limited to cached data. Go ahead and make changes and additions to your data. Your changes are uploaded when the application comes back online. If the application closes before uploading your changes then they are uploaded the next time the application starts and is online.
The is not available when the application is offline. This is indicated by a square account_box account icon in the .
Purchase a Premium - Ad Free subscription to remove advertisements on mobile devices.
All of your data remains intact and available if the subscription expires. The application simply returns to displaying advertisements. You continue to have complete access to the application and your data.
Set Show Help to turn off the toolbar help icon if you no longer need help.
Set the Start Page to change the page the application displays when it starts. The Start Page can be set to the , , or page.
The Unit Preference setting controls the behavior of the page.
The Label Format setting controls the behavior the page.
The Log Order setting controls the display order of log groups on the page.
The Connect Policy determines how newly are handled.
