Frequently asked questions

CaptainCal is an AI calorie and macro tracker for iPhone and Android, built for people in the Gulf (GCC). You log a meal by taking a photo, photographing a nutrition label, or typing or saying what you ate, and CaptainCal estimates the calories, protein, carbs and fat.

The app works fully in English and Arabic, understands Gulf and Middle Eastern dishes, and lets you review and edit every estimate before it is saved.

First, you answer a short quiz about your goal, body and activity, and CaptainCal sets a daily calorie and macro target. Then you log meals in one of three ways: a meal photo, a photo of a nutrition label, or Tell the Captain, where you type or record a short description.

CaptainCal turns that into an editable meal with calories, protein, carbs and fat. You check the items and portions, adjust anything that looks wrong, and save. Home shows what is left for the day, and Progress shows your weight trend and streak.

CaptainCal is designed for adults in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman who want to lose, maintain or gain weight and who regularly eat Gulf, Arabic and other regional food.

It suits people who find searching food databases and weighing every ingredient too slow, and who prefer a quick photo or a sentence they can correct. It is a general tracking tool, not a medical device, so anyone managing a medical condition should follow a qualified professional's advice.

Yes. CaptainCal is listed on the App Store and Google Play in all six GCC countries: the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. It is also available in many countries outside the Gulf.

Subscription prices are shown in your local currency by the App Store or Google Play.

App Store ↗Google Play ↗

Yes. CaptainCal runs on iPhone with iOS 16.4 or later and on Android phones with Android 8.0 or later. Download it from the App Store or Google Play.

There is no dedicated iPad layout; CaptainCal is designed for phones.

App Store ↗Google Play ↗

You can take the setup quiz and see your plan without an account. To log meals, you create an account with Sign in with Apple (on iPhone) or Google, so your diary is saved and available if you change phones.

Accounts created earlier with an email address can still sign in with email.

No. Logging a meal needs an internet connection, because photos and descriptions are analysed on CaptainCal's servers and your diary is saved there. While the app stays open, screens you already loaded can still be viewed with a weak connection, but new meals and edits will not save until you are back online.

CaptainCal uses metric units: kilograms for weight, centimetres for height, grams and millilitres for portions, and litres for water. Pounds, feet and ounces are not available.

No. CaptainCal is a mobile app for iPhone and Android. This website explains the app and hosts support and legal pages, but you cannot log meals from a browser.

Yes, as an estimate. When you photograph a meal, CaptainCal's AI identifies the foods it can see, estimates each portion, and calculates calories, protein, carbs and fat for each item.

A photo cannot show everything, such as the oil or ghee used in cooking or what is under the rice, so the result is a practical estimate rather than a measurement. You can correct any item or portion before saving.

How accurate is it? ↗

AI photo tracking is useful for consistent, everyday logging, but it is not exact. Independent research supports this: a preliminary study led by the US National Institutes of Health, presented in 2026, found that four popular photo-based apps underestimated meal calories by an average of roughly 250 to 345 calories, and fat by about 30 grams.

CaptainCal treats meal photos and descriptions as estimates. Printed nutrition labels are treated as facts and take priority. Accuracy improves when you check portions, add hidden extras such as oil, sauces or sugar, and correct anything that looks off before saving.

Coverage of the NIH study (HealthDay) ↗

Most errors come from things a camera cannot see: cooking oil, ghee and butter, sugar in drinks, sauces, stuffing, and food hidden under other food. Portion size is the other big source of error, because a photo has no scale and plates differ in size.

Mixed dishes such as rice with meat, stews and sweets made at home also vary a lot between recipes. You get closer results by photographing the whole plate from above in good light and by adding details in your own words, for example "cooked with a lot of ghee" or "half a plate".

Yes. Every result opens as an editable meal. You can rename an item, change the serving size or number of servings, tap any calorie or macro value to type your own, remove items and add missing ones.

Saved meals stay editable too: open a meal on Home to change it, move it to another time or date, or delete it.

Not for precision. A kitchen scale is still the most accurate way to measure a portion. A photo is faster and easier to keep up every day, which matters because consistent tracking is what most people struggle with.

A practical approach is to use photos for everyday meals and to type exact amounts when you know them, for example "200 g grilled chicken", which CaptainCal will use instead of guessing.

Usually a few seconds. After you send a photo, the camera closes and the meal appears on Home as a card while it is analysed, so you do not have to wait on the camera screen. You get a notification when the result is ready or if the photo could not be read.

Yes. CaptainCal lists each food it recognises in the photo as a separate item with its own portion and nutrition, for example rice, chicken and salad. You can adjust or remove any item, and add anything it missed by describing it.

When CaptainCal is not confident about a dish, it shows a few likely options so you can pick the right one instead of saving a wrong guess. If none fit, you can describe the meal yourself with Tell the Captain.

Yes. Tell the Captain lets you type what you ate or record a voice note of up to 30 seconds, for example "half a chicken mandi and two dates". CaptainCal turns the description into items with calories and macros, and may ask one short follow-up question if an important detail is missing.

You can write or speak in English, Arabic, Gulf dialect or a mix of them. The result stays editable before you log it.

Yes. Switch the camera to Nutrition label and photograph the nutrition facts panel straight on. CaptainCal copies the printed values and lets you set how much you ate. Because the numbers come from the label itself, they are treated as facts rather than estimates.

Label not read? ↗

Not at the moment. For packaged food, photograph the nutrition label instead; CaptainCal reads the printed values directly, which is usually as accurate as a barcode database entry.

Nutrition labels ↗

Yes. Photograph the meal or describe it, including the restaurant or brand if you know it, for example "a medium shawarma plate from a restaurant" or a named burger. CaptainCal keeps the brand and preparation you mention and estimates from there.

Restaurant food often has more oil, sauce and sugar than home cooking, so check the portion and add extras such as dips or garlic sauce. Where a restaurant publishes official nutrition information, that is the most reliable number to use.

Yes. Photograph your plate or describe it in your own words, and mention anything that changes the calories, such as "cooked with ghee", "no oil" or "extra rice". CaptainCal keeps details like homemade or grilled when it estimates.

Home recipes vary widely between families, so a quick check of the portion and cooking fat makes the biggest difference to accuracy.

Yes. Log Again shows your recent meals, with any meals you have marked as favourites pinned at the top. Tap one to log it again for today; no new photo or analysis is needed.

Yes. CaptainCal was built for food eaten in the Gulf, and we test it with common Khaleeji and Middle Eastern dishes such as machboos, kabsa, mandi, harees, saloona, balaleet, luqaimat, shawarma and karak.

Recognising a dish is the first step; the calories still depend on the portion and how it was cooked, so check those before saving. If a photo is unclear, typing the dish name in Arabic or English gives CaptainCal more to go on.

There is no single number. A plate of chicken mandi can differ by several hundred calories depending on how much rice is served, whether the chicken is a breast or a leg with skin, and how much ghee or oil went into the rice.

The quickest way to get a figure for your plate is to photograph it or describe it in CaptainCal, for example "a quarter chicken mandi with a full plate of rice", and then adjust the rice portion if it looks off. Rice is usually the largest share of the calories.

It depends on the recipe and the portion. Published recipes for a single serving of chicken machboos or kabsa differ by several hundred calories, mainly because of the amount of rice, the cut of meat, and the ghee, oil, nuts and raisins added.

For a realistic number, log your actual plate in CaptainCal and check two things: how much rice you ate and whether the dish was cooked with a lot of fat.

A shawarma's calories vary with its size, the meat (chicken or beef), and above all the sauces and extras: garlic sauce, tahini and fries inside the wrap can add a large share of the total.

In CaptainCal, describe what you had, for example "one large chicken shawarma with garlic sauce and fries", or photograph it, then check the size and sauce before saving.

Karak's calories come mostly from sugar and evaporated or condensed milk, so a small, lightly sweetened cup is very different from a large, sweet one. Cup size matters as much as the recipe.

Tell CaptainCal how you had it, for example "one karak, half sugar" or "two large karak with condensed milk". Drinks are easy to forget, and logging them is often what makes the daily total accurate.

Yes. Photograph them or describe them, for example "a bowl of harees" or "six luqaimat with date syrup". For harees, the amount of ghee on top makes a big difference. For luqaimat, frying oil and syrup do, so counting pieces and mentioning the syrup gives a better estimate.

Log only what you ate, not the whole tray. The easiest way is to describe your share with Tell the Captain, for example "two scoops of rice and a piece of lamb from a shared kabsa tray".

If you photograph a shared tray, CaptainCal estimates what is in the picture, so reduce the servings or portions to your share before saving.

Type or say it the way you would describe it, for example "three cups of Arabic coffee and four dates". CaptainCal converts cups and pieces into grams and calculates calories for each item.

Plain Arabic coffee is very low in calories, while dates add up quickly, so counting the dates is what matters most.

Yes. CaptainCal is not limited to Gulf dishes. It handles everyday food eaten across the region, such as hummus, falafel, manakish, ful, fattoush, biryani and curries, as well as international meals, snacks and drinks.

Yes. Every screen is available in Arabic with a full right-to-left layout, including onboarding, logging, Progress and Settings. CaptainCal opens in Arabic when your phone is set to Arabic, and you can switch languages in the app at any time.

Change the language ↗

Yes. Tell the Captain understands Modern Standard Arabic, Gulf dialect, English, Arabic written in Latin letters, and a mix of these, for example "أكلت نص مندي دجاج وحبتين تمر". Voice notes work the same way.

CaptainCal does not have a food database search. Instead, you type or say the food in Arabic or English with Tell the Captain, for example "صحن هريس", and CaptainCal estimates it from your description.

Log Again also lets you search your own recent and favourite meals to log them again.

Open Settings from the gear on Home, tap Language, and choose Arabic or English. The app restarts in the language you picked. You can also choose the language on the first screen when you install the app.

CaptainCal shows Western digits (1, 2, 3) in both languages so calories, grams and weights look the same everywhere, including on food labels, which in the Gulf usually use these digits. When typing, you can still enter numbers with an Arabic keyboard and CaptainCal will read them correctly.

CaptainCal estimates your resting energy use with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation from your sex, age, height and weight, multiplies it by your activity level, and then adjusts it for your goal and chosen pace (slow, standard or fast).

Safety limits apply: a weight-loss deficit is capped at 25% of your daily energy use, and targets never go below 1,200 calories a day for women or 1,500 for men. The plan is general guidance, not medical advice.

Set your own target ↗

CaptainCal tracks calories and the three macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates and fat, for each meal and for the day. It does not currently track fibre, sugar, sodium, vitamins or minerals.

It also tracks water, weight and, on iPhone with Apple Health, your activity.

Protein is set from your body weight: 2.0 g per kg when losing weight, 1.6 g per kg when maintaining and 1.8 g per kg when gaining. Fat is set at about 25% of your calories, and carbohydrates fill the rest of your calorie target.

You can change the split yourself in Settings under Goals.

Yes. Open Settings, then Goals, to set your own daily calories and macro split, for example if a dietitian has given you specific numbers. You can return to the calculated plan at any time with Recalculate.

The optional background question (for example Arab or North African, South Asian or East Asian) makes a small adjustment to your carb and fat split based on population-level research, and adjusts the BMI ranges shown on Progress. It does not change your calorie target or your protein.

It is a general heuristic, not a measurement of your individual metabolism, and you can choose "Somewhere else" if you prefer.

Weight loss generally happens when you take in fewer calories than your body uses over time, which is what a calorie deficit means. CaptainCal sets a moderate deficit for weight-loss goals and caps it so targets do not drop too low.

Progress is rarely linear: water, salt and timing make daily weight fluctuate, so the weight trend over several weeks says more than any single day. For medical conditions, pregnancy or a history of eating disorders, speak to a qualified professional before dieting.

The more consistently you log, the more useful your numbers are, but approximate logging still helps. Snacks, drinks, sauces and cooking oil are the items people most often forget, and they can add up to a meaningful share of the day.

If you miss a meal, log your best estimate later; you can set the time and date when you edit a meal.

Yes. Home has a water tracker: each tap adds a 250 ml glass toward a 3 litre daily goal, and you can remove a glass if you tap by mistake. The water goal is fixed at 3 litres for now.

No, CaptainCal does not currently have a dedicated Ramadan mode. Your daily targets, streaks and reminders work the same way all year.

You can still track normally during Ramadan by logging iftar, suhoor and anything in between; your daily totals simply add up everything you eat between sunset and dawn.

Logging iftar and suhoor ↗

During Ramadan, log iftar and suhoor like any other meal, with a photo or with Tell the Captain, for example "iftar: three dates, lentil soup and a plate of harees". CaptainCal files meals by time rather than by name, so there is no separate iftar or suhoor label; check the meal's time before logging and change it if needed.

Eating after midnight counts toward that calendar day, so a late suhoor may appear on the following day in your diary.

Yes. Calorie tracking works the same way during Ramadan: everything you eat and drink from iftar to suhoor counts toward the day's total. Many people find that drinks, sweets and fried iftar dishes are where calories add up, so logging those is especially useful.

If you have diabetes, are pregnant, take medication or have another health condition, ask your doctor how to fast and eat safely; CaptainCal does not give medical advice for fasting.

CaptainCal shows your protein target and how much you have eaten on Home, so you can see during the evening whether you are short. With fewer meals in Ramadan, spreading protein across iftar and suhoor, for example eggs, laban, chicken, fish or lentils, makes the target easier to reach.

Your protein target does not change in Ramadan. If you want a different target while fasting, you can set one in Settings under Goals.

Yes. Log your weight on the Progress screen, including for past dates. Progress shows a weight trend chart, how far you are from your goal weight, and your BMI. CaptainCal also sends a weekly reminder to weigh in.

Your streak counts the days in a row on which you logged at least one meal. Today does not break your streak until the day is over, so you still have time to log. Progress shows your streak and the days you logged this week.

Yes, on iPhone. With your permission, CaptainCal reads steps, active calories and workouts from Apple Health and shows them next to your food diary. It reads only and never writes to Apple Health.

Activity data can lead to a suggestion to change your activity level in your plan, which you can accept or ignore. You can stop syncing at any time in CaptainCal or in Apple Health settings.

No. CaptainCal does not add burned calories back to your food target. Your activity is already accounted for through the activity level in your plan, so adding workouts on top would count the same activity twice.

If Apple Health shows you are consistently more or less active than your plan assumes, CaptainCal can suggest updating your activity level.

CaptainCal can notify you when a meal photo has been analysed, remind you in the evening if you have not logged anything that day, remind you once a week to log your weight, and occasionally tell you about subscription offers.

You can turn notifications off at any time in your phone's settings for CaptainCal.

CaptainCal is free to download and includes a free 48-hour access period for eligible new accounts. After that, logging meals with the camera or Tell the Captain requires a subscription.

Without a subscription you can still open Home, Progress and Settings, log water and weight, and re-log past meals with Log Again.

How free access works ↗

New accounts can claim 48 hours of free access by tapping the claim button on Home. The 48 hours start when you tap it, not when you install the app, so you can claim it when you are ready to log a full day or two.

Free access is offered to new accounts aged 21 and over, and photo and Tell the Captain analyses have a lower daily limit during the free period.

Prices depend on your country and the plan you choose, and they are shown in your local currency in the app before you subscribe. Subscriptions are sold through the App Store or Google Play, which may offer weekly, monthly or yearly options.

The store charges your account and handles renewals, so the price you see at checkout is the price you pay.

Without a subscription you can still use Home, Progress and Settings, see your past meals, log your weight and water, edit or delete saved meals, and re-log meals with Log Again. The subscription unlocks the two AI logging tools: the camera (meal photos and nutrition labels) and Tell the Captain.

Yes, each account has a daily limit on photo analyses and Tell the Captain requests, to keep the service reliable. The limit is lower during the free access period. It resets the next day, and re-logging meals with Log Again does not count toward it.

Your subscription is managed by the store. On iPhone, open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions. On Android, open Google Play, tap your profile picture, then Payments and subscriptions.

Deleting the CaptainCal app or your account does not cancel the subscription; cancel it in the store.

Support ↗

Refunds are handled by Apple or Google, not by CaptainCal, because they process the payment. Request one from your App Store purchase history or from Google Play's order history.

Support ↗

When you analyse a meal photo, CaptainCal sends it to an AI service provider to identify the food and stores the photo with your account so it appears with your meal history.

Your photos are deleted from CaptainCal's active systems when you delete your account. The Privacy Policy explains what is stored, who processes it and your choices.

Privacy Policy ↗

CaptainCal uses AI service providers only to process your requests, under arrangements that restrict them from using your data for their own purposes. CaptainCal itself may use meal data to measure and improve the quality of its analysis, as described in the Privacy Policy.

If you have questions about a specific use of your data, email support@captaincal.app.

Privacy Policy ↗

No. When you record a voice note in Tell the Captain, the audio is sent to a transcription service to turn it into text and is not stored by CaptainCal. The text description and the meal you log are saved with your diary.

Open Settings from the gear on Home, tap your account, then Delete account, and confirm. This permanently deletes your account, meals and photos and cannot be undone.

Deleting your account does not cancel a store subscription, so cancel it in the App Store or Google Play as well.

Privacy Policy ↗

There is no export button in the app. To request a copy of your data, email support@captaincal.app from the address linked to your account.

Support ↗

Photos fail when the food is unclear: too dark, blurred, partly covered, or not food at all. Retake the photo from above with the whole plate in the frame and good light.

You can always describe the meal with Tell the Captain instead, which works well for food you have already eaten.

Support ↗

Label scans fail most often when the photo shows only part of the nutrition table, is taken at an angle, or has glare. Photograph the panel straight on with the whole table, including the serving size, inside the frame. You can correct any value before saving.

Make sure you are signed in to the same CaptainCal account you used when you subscribed, then open Settings and tap Restore purchases. If logging is still locked, email support@captaincal.app with your store receipt and account email. Never send card details.

Support ↗

Use the same sign-in method you used to create your account: Apple, Google, or email for older accounts. Signing in with a different method can create a separate, empty account. If it still fails, email support@captaincal.app with your account email and phone model.

Support ↗

Email support@captaincal.app from the address linked to your account. Include your phone model and what you were trying to do. Never send passwords or card details.

Support page ↗

There is no single best app for everyone. Widely used global trackers such as MyFitnessPal and FatSecret are available in the Gulf, along with newer apps focused on the region, including CaptainCal.

CaptainCal focuses on people who eat Gulf and Arabic food and want to log by photo or by describing a meal in Arabic or English. If you prefer searching a large food database, scanning barcodes or weighing everything, a database-first app may suit you better. The best choice depends on your language, the food you eat, how you like to log, and your budget.

How to choose ↗

It can be, depending on how you like to log. MyFitnessPal is one of the longest-established calorie trackers, built around a very large searchable food database and many integrations. CaptainCal takes a different approach: you photograph or describe a meal, in Arabic or English, and it estimates the dish, including Gulf home cooking that may not be in a database.

If you mostly eat regional dishes and find searching and weighing slow, CaptainCal may suit you. If you rely on barcode scanning, a large branded-food database, or detailed nutrients beyond calories and macros, MyFitnessPal may fit better.

FatSecret is a long-running calorie counter with a free app, a large food database and Arabic-language pages. CaptainCal is newer and narrower: it is built for Gulf users, logs meals from photos and plain-language descriptions in Arabic or English, and requires a subscription after the free access period.

Choose based on how you log. Database search and a free tier point to FatSecret; quick AI logging of regional dishes points to CaptainCal. Trying both with the meals you eat most often is the most reliable test.

Most AI photo calorie apps work in a similar way: they identify the food in a photo and estimate portions. CaptainCal's focus is the Gulf: a full Arabic interface, logging in Arabic or Gulf dialect, and testing with regional dishes such as machboos, mandi and harees.

Like any photo-based app, CaptainCal produces estimates, and it shows every item for you to review and correct before saving.

Check four things. First, whether the app knows the dishes you actually eat; test it with two or three of your usual meals. Second, whether you can use it in your language, including describing meals in Arabic. Third, how quickly you can log, because the app you keep using beats a more detailed one you abandon. Fourth, whether you can correct estimates easily.

Also compare prices and free options in your country, and read the privacy policy to see how photos and health data are handled.