Questions people ask about Platey

Close enough to be useful, and not as precise as a food label. Platey estimates the portion from the plate, the cutlery and anything else in frame, then checks the result against a table of around 145 common UK foods and pulls it back if the energy density looks implausible. It is reliable for the shape of a week — whether you are short on protein, whether the day before a long run was enough — and unreliable to the gram.

No. The AI identifies the food and estimates the portion. Every number you actually see — meal totals, day totals, what is left against your targets, weekly averages, weight trends — is plain arithmetic in tested code with no AI involved. That is why the sums can be trusted even when the estimate behind them is approximate.

Change the portion, or type exact values from the packet. The correction applies immediately and is recorded, so your usual portions can be learned later. Nothing is locked once it is logged.

Yes. Serving sizes are UK sizes throughout, the reference table is built around food sold and eaten in Britain, and it handles a supermarket meal deal, a Friday takeaway or a pub roast without complaint.

No — most logging is typing, and that is the fast path rather than a fallback. "Handful of chips and a pint" works. So does "usual breakfast" once you have saved one. You can also paste an entire day from memory in one go and Platey will separate it into meals.

No. Platey runs in the browser and can be added to your phone’s home screen, where it opens full screen like any other app. There is nothing to install and nothing to update.

Mostly on your own device. Your day, your targets, the "what should I eat next" suggestions, the weekly summaries and the training adjustments are all worked out in your browser, which is why they are instant and cost nothing. Analysing a new photo is the one step that leaves your phone.

Yes. Without an account Platey stores everything in that browser on that device, which is enough to try it properly. Creating an account is what makes your diary follow you between your phone and your laptop.

No. A session feeds through at a fraction of its estimated cost depending on your goal and how hard it was, and it is capped. Carbohydrate is what actually moves on a hard day. Nobody is told they have earned anything.

No. Typing "5 mile easy run tonight" is the product and Strava only saves the typing. Everything about training works identically without it.

No, and neither is planned. Platey uses six plain intensity categories and nothing more complicated is ever shown. Training exists to make the food advice better, not to become a second product.

Nothing at the moment. There is no payment step anywhere in Platey and no subscription to cancel.

You. Meal photos are held in a private store keyed to your account and served through short-lived links, so there are no public image addresses. Every table is locked to your user ID by the database itself rather than only by the app.

Yes, and without emailing anyone. You can delete a single meal, a single photo, a whole day, or your entire account and everything in it, from Settings inside the app.

No. It does not diagnose anything, it will not prescribe supplements, and it has no opinion on whether a food is good or bad. If something about your health or your eating is worrying you, a GP or a registered dietitian is the right person to talk to.