Indian meals · 7 October 2026

How to log a homemade Indian thali

By the GenieFit team · 4 min read

Start with the parts of your plate: roti, dal, rice, sabzi and any extras. A useful food log describes what you ate and how much, rather than assigning one fixed calorie number to every thali.

This is a guide to entering and checking a meal in GenieFit, not a diet plan. The quantities below are illustrative, not recommended servings or measured app results.

1. Describe the portions you actually ate

List each dish separately. If you weighed it, include the weight and say whether it was raw or cooked. If you used a bowl, describe its size or your best estimate instead of treating every katori as identical.

2. Split shared ingredients by the portion you ate

Suppose a pan of sabzi uses 20 g of oil and is divided into four equal portions. One portion contains a quarter of that oil: 5 g. If portions are unequal, use the share you ate rather than automatically dividing by four.

Include that oil either in the dish description or as a separate entry. Before saving, check that the returned dish does not already include it. Record extra ghee added at the table separately.

If you do not know the recipe, say so. Use the best portion estimate you have and review the result; a photo or AI response cannot establish the exact amount of hidden oil.

3. Try a clear description

Lunch: 2 rotis made from 60 g atta in total, no added ghee; 150 g cooked dal including its cooking oil; 100 g cooked rice; and one quarter of a pan of aloo gobi made with 400 g potato, 400 g cauliflower and 20 g oil. I ate one of four equal portions of the sabzi. Also 100 g plain curd.

Replace every amount with your own. Here, the vegetables and oil describe the whole pan, while one quarter describes the portion eaten. Check that the analysis uses that fraction rather than logging the whole recipe. No calorie total is attached to this example because ingredients and preparation must be checked first.

4. Review and save in GenieFit

1. Choose Describe when adding your meal.
2. Enter your description and tap Analyze.
3. Review the returned foods, portions, calories and macros. Check the shared-recipe fraction and whether oil or ghee has been counted twice.
4. Correct the result and choose the items you want to log before using the Add items action.
5. After saving successfully, check the entry in your nutrition diary.

The Indian-food tracking walkthrough shows where a saved meal appears. Analysis is an estimate to review, not a measurement of your plate.

Before you save: four quick checks

• Does the meal contain all the dishes and extras you ate?
• Are amounts for your portion, rather than the entire pan?
• Are raw and cooked weights labelled correctly?
• Has each addition of oil or ghee been included only once?

For another meal, keep the description format but change the dishes and amounts. You do not need to assume that today's dal or roti matches yesterday's preparation.

Related: Indian food calorie tracker · Compare GenieFit and MyFitnessPal · Macro tracking guide