The calorie tracker built for people who hate logging

Your daily deficit,
as a burndown chart.

We borrowed a sprint-planning idea and pointed it at your calories. Eat, walk, ruck, live. At any moment of the day, CalBurndown shows you exactly how much budget you have left — and how to earn more.

Web today · iOS + Android soonOn-device firstNo ads, ever

Live demo · 5:30 PM

692 kcal left

Ahead of pace

BMR

2007

Active

309

Eaten

1220

Why other trackers fail

Manual logging is a chore.

Search, weigh, enter, repeat. Most users quit in 2–6 weeks.

Pulling out the camera ruins dinner.

Photographing your plate in front of friends? Awkward.

Bad math for big bodies.

At 6'4" and 220 lb, most apps underestimate your burn by hundreds of calories.

Built for the day you actually live.

Every feature passes one test: what if the user never opens the app? Wherever possible, we work in the background and reconstruct your day later.

Talk to it like a friend

“Had a handful of almonds and a vanilla iced latte.” That's a log.

Snap and forget

Take a normal photo of your dinner. Approve the AI estimate later, when nobody's watching.

Your day, reconstructed

Forgot to log? CalBurndown rebuilds your day from the places you stopped at.

Buy back your budget

Out of food calories at 5 PM? It tells you exactly how long a walk (or a ruck) buys you dessert.

Big bodies welcome

Mifflin–St Jeor for BMR. Pandolf for rucking. Per-step burn scaled to your real weight.

Stays on your device

Your location timeline and meals live in encrypted local storage. Cloud sync is opt-in.

Real formulas, honest output

We do the math you can't fake on a spreadsheet.

  • Mifflin–St Jeor BMR, recomputed every time your weight changes.
  • Pandolf equation for rucking and load carriage — the same model the US Army uses for soldiers with packs.
  • HR-based energy expenditure (Keytel) when your watch is on, with a per-step fallback that scales with your real body weight.
  • Per-hour projection learned from your last 14 days of activity — not a flat extrapolation.

Try the free Pandolf rucking calculator →

Worked example

6'4", 220 lb, 41 yr male · 8,156 steps · 10 lb commuter pack · 500 kcal deficit goal

BMR (Mifflin–St Jeor)2,007kcal
Active burn so far460kcal
Projected TDEE2,467kcal
Daily food budget1,967kcal
Remaining right now847kcal

Newsletter

One essay a week on the math of weight loss

Short, honest, no hype. Why your TDEE calculator is wrong, what photo calorie counters get right, how to read a burndown chart. Free.

Free, weekly. We never share your email.

Common questions.

Is this another macro tracker?

Calories first; macros optional. We focus on the daily deficit because that's what moves the scale. Protein and fat overlays are available for power users.

How do I install CalBurndown on my phone?

iPhone: open calburndown.com in Safari → tap the Share button → Add to Home Screen. Android: open calburndown.com in Chrome → tap the ⋮ menu → Install app. Once installed, it opens full-screen and supports push notifications. Step-by-step: /help/install-iphone or /help/install-android. Native iOS/Android shells with watch sync are coming separately.

Will it work on my Apple Watch / Pixel Watch?

Yes — once the iOS and Android apps ship. Watch sync is a native-OS integration, so it lives in the mobile apps (currently in development). The plan: read steps, workouts, heart rate, and body weight from Apple HealthKit and Google Health Connect. Fitbits that sync to Health Connect will be picked up on Android.

Does the AI ever see my home or kitchen?

Only the food photo you submit, with EXIF and GPS stripped. If you opt in, we can also send the name of the restaurant you're at right now — handy for getting a chain-menu-accurate calorie estimate. Your background location timeline is never uploaded.

What if I'm doing OMAD, IF, or carb cycling?

The burndown chart doesn't care. You can frontload dinner, skip breakfast, or eat once a day — the daily total is what matters.

Stop logging. Start burning down.

Free to try in your browser. Mobile apps coming soon.

Open CalBurndown →