Nutrition
Keep planned meals separate from food you have eaten
Understand how a scheduled coach suggestion differs from a confirmed food entry in your diary.
In brief
A suggestion saved through Plan it for a day records an intention and does not add intake. When the meal happens, choose the actual food and confirm its portion and destination to update the diary. Personal recipe plans can stay in your own notes.
The planner and diary answer different questions
A meal suggestion you place in Moodwell’s week records what you intend to eat. The food diary records confirmed foods. A suggestion can help you make a decision ahead of time, but its approximate numbers are not food intake. Planning it does not create a diary entry or change today’s totals.
In Targets, the What should I eat? coach can generate suggestions using AI credits. Its suggestion cards offer Plan it for a day. Choose a displayed day and meal, then Put it on the plan. The available dates run from today through six days ahead. This schedules a suggestion, not a personal recipe or saved meal bundle.
Use the plan as a starting point for confirmation
When you eat a planned suggestion, choose a food record that matches what you actually made or bought, then review the portion. A plan stores a title and approximate suggestion, not a measured recipe. If you log from a specific planned meal, read its displayed day and meal context. In a general entry flow, choose those yourself.
A future meal belongs in planning. The food entry flow is for today or an earlier date. Keeping that boundary clear makes the diary easier to interpret later because its totals come from confirmed food entries rather than a mixture of intentions and completed meals.
Worked example: a planned lunch becomes a different meal
On Sunday you schedule a coach suggestion for a rice bowl on Wednesday lunch. On Wednesday a work meeting runs long and you buy a sandwich instead. The rice bowl describes what you intended earlier; it does not describe what you ate. Log the sandwich with its actual portion for Wednesday lunch.
If you later eat the rice bowl at dinner, log it at dinner with any changes you made. Do not confirm it at lunch merely to make the plan appear complete. You can learn that this lunch slot often changes without rewriting the diary to match the original schedule.
Ask four questions before confirming a planned meal
- Did I actually eat this meal, or is it still only an intention? Keep future decisions in the planner until the meal happens.
- Did the ingredients or portion change? Represent additions, substitutions and the amount eaten rather than accepting the planned amount automatically.
- Is the displayed date and meal correct? A suitable food match can still be assigned to the wrong part of your diary.
- Is the food already in the diary? Check before confirming again if you previously logged it through favorites, photo or another entry method.
Use the difference to improve the next plan
A week in which several planned meals changed can still provide useful information. Look for the practical reason: ingredients unavailable, too little preparation time or a different schedule. Adjust that part of the next plan. The diary is most useful when it reflects the meals that happened, while the planner remains a tool for making tomorrow easier.
Related Moodwell feature
Review the food before it reaches your diary
Capture foods by photo, voice, description or manual entry, then confirm the match and portion.
Explore food tracking