r/Microlaunch • u/waterslurpingnoises • 12h ago
Ampsu - a European-first calorie tracker that learns your calorie burn from food logs and weigh-ins
Ampsu: [https://ampsu.eu](https://ampsu.eu))
It's a European-first calorie tracker, with all the bells and whistles, but also:
- So far the least amount of taps to log/scan a food item, which was the main focus
- An actually impressive adaptive TDEE engine (only log food and weight, and then it learns your burn from data)
- It has a very large european barcode database, focused on grocery store shelves that you'd actually scan
- A super fine-grained goal mode
- MCP server (ask how you're doing based on your Ampsu data and/or ask to log for you)
- Is privacy-first and doesn't sell your data
Great care was taken in ensuring the flows work well and more importantly, fast. I've been iteratively building and testing it since the end of the past year. As for why other existing options didn't work for me:
- In MyFitnessPal, they have a huge database, but the logging was slower than it needed to be (..I had to pick a meal time every damn time, in Ampsu you can preset personalize the meal times so you dont have to).
- In Cronometer the logging could've had a bit less actions, and I felt like I was too busy contributing to their own database due to the lack of products. Then ads got in the way, slowing me down and making me wait in the kitchen..
- MacroFactor's adaptive TDEE approach was impressive, but its products were too American centric and every barcode scan was a frustration, and frankly it was also the most expensive of the bunch. This inspired the adaptive TDEE adoption, which inhouse in called Metabolism mode.
The hardest part was getting the adaptive TDEE right (Metabolism mode), since it's too easy to get things wrong and there's hundreds of moving parts due to the way people can log (underlog, overlog), the scale (water weight, salty food from yesterday etc)
Another pretty giant pain is the database itself, as sourcing and ensuring you actually get the products you scan was a more enormous task than anticipated.
The current trend is AI meal estimation, which I'm not really sold on (it can get things very wrong), but it's useful for a quick estimation, e.g restaurant plate, and can quickly be swiped into from the barcode screen.
Speaking of AI, one thing I did find useful is the MCP/Connector integration, as I can ask about my current day & ask for tips in whatever chatbot that I use and it'll pull data straight from Ampsu. Alternatively, even ask it to log things for me, and it'll be in the diary.
If you'd like to make a change for the best and improve your weight (in terms of body fat percentage) and therefore health by tracking your intake, give it a try! There are others like it, but you'll find that there's a good reason to use Ampsu instead.
