# Food log vs meal plan: what you actually ate The list on the fridge says salmon and rice. The fish smelled off, so dinner became pasta, olive oil, and the last of the salad. A meal plan is the plate you meant to cook. A food log is the plate you finished. That is the search for a food log versus a meal plan. The plan is useful on Sunday, when you are deciding what to buy. The log is useful at the table, when the day has already changed the menu. [FoodTracker](/foodtracker) is the second list. It records what you ate on the iPhone or iPad, and it does not lay out the week. ## The plan is tomorrow's shopping list A meal plan answers a different question. Which recipes, which days, which servings. It is the reason the salmon was in the fridge at all. If you only keep the plan, the day still says you ate the salmon, because that is what the calendar promised. The gap shows up in the numbers. The planned plate and the finished plate can share a protein and still differ by the oil, the extra pasta, or the serving you actually took. A log that copies the plan without a look will file the meal you did not eat. ## What a 12 November planner added Plan to Eat wrote on 12 November 2026 that its app now has a Food Logger beside the meal planner. You can log foods and recipes, search the USDA database or your own recipes, and set daily calories plus a macro split so the targets show in grams. The planner can pull in the recipes you already scheduled, you adjust the servings you actually ate, and you log them in a tap. A weekly chart compares each day's calories with the target and shows a 7-day average. Recent foods, and the foods you usually eat at a given meal, sit there for the next log. The same note separates the two screens. The planner shows the macros for meals you planned. The food log tracks what you actually ate, including foods that are not in your recipes. This page leaves Plan to Eat's price on their site. The note describes the logger. It does not print a number this article should copy. That is a real place to start when the meal was one you already planned and the only change is the serving. The useful step is still the adjustment: the servings you actually ate, not the servings the plan assumed. ## The log is the plate in front of you [FoodTracker](/foodtracker) does not keep a weekly recipe calendar, and it does not import a recipe box from another app. There is no drag-and-drop planner. You log the meal that happened. The log screen offers a camera, voice, and recents. You can also scan a barcode or search. The voice screen says: say what you ate, and the speech stays on the iPhone. A photo is a draft of the plate. The [10 November post](/blog/correct-ai-calorie-estimate-2026/) is the longer version of that correction: change the food, change the portion, then save. Calories, protein, carbs, fat, and fiber stay on the screen. You confirm every estimate. There is no social feed and no chat that coaches you. Free, on the page, and called forever: unlimited manual food logging, the barcode scanner, weight tracking and history, the fasting timer, and iCloud sync. Premium is $2.99 a month or $19.99 a year, billed through Apple, and you can cancel anytime. Premium adds everything in Free, unlimited AI photo analysis, a daily macro summary notification, CSV export, or the choice to connect your own OpenAI key. If dinner was the planned recipe and only the serving changed, a recent food and a new gram weight are enough. If dinner was a different plate, the plan cannot file it for you. Say it, scan it, or photograph it, then confirm the macros. ## Which list you open at the table Open the meal plan when you are buying food and deciding the week. Open the food log when the plate is already in front of you and the plan was only a guess. FoodTracker is that second list: the meal you finished, the numbers you confirm, and no calendar of recipes. The next step is [FoodTracker on the App Store](/go/foodtracker). ## References - [Plan to Eat, 12 November 2026 — Track macros in Plan to Eat.](https://www.plantoeat.com/blog/2026/11/track-macros-in-plan-to-eat-plus-more-new-features/)