React native calorie tracking app Calpal (opensource)
Tags: opensource, reactnative, aws, beginners
Published: 2023-10-26 02:21:27

Hello everyone,

**Introduction**

I'm Matthew, a seasoned full-stack engineer with a strong emphasis on React.js. With over six years of experience in the software industry, I've had the privilege of contributing to both significant government projects and dynamic startups. Despite my background in software development, I'm relatively new to the world of mobile applications. Recently, I've been toying with the concept of a calorie tracking app, and I'm eager to dive into this new endeavor. While I may not be a tech wizard just yet, my past experience in app development has equipped me with valuable insights, and I'm excited to learn and collaborate with all of you on this journey.

**The Problem**

As I get older the more I realize how difficult it is for me to keep weight off and millions around the world struggle with this. I have used calorie tracking apps but they all require so many steps and hurdles and are costly. I created a very simple calorie tracking app in React Native and I simply want the user to register and input what they ate and the program outputs their total calories for that day. My goal is to make this as simple as possible. 

**The App**

This app needs a few things. One, in order to accurately calculate the calories from a food a user inputs we need** data**.I tried using APIs on the market, the free ones, and unfortunately their calculations were off. We probably should use OpenAI and or any A.I. to do the calorie estimates. We also need to build a calendar within the app so that as the user is input food they ate and seeing the calories they are consuming we want the use to be able to click on any past days and see the total calories under the calendar date! Pretty cool!

**Goal/TODO**

1.) Add an A.I. API to calculate calories from food inputted by the user.
2.) Add a calendar system 
3.) I will release the app for beta testers but any developers can use this repo as boiler plate code for their specific needs. 
4.) I want to make this app free in the future and the goal is to provide value to those who want to lose weight without breaking the 

**The Tech Stack**
This is built in React Native with AWSDynamo handling the user registration/login. I am open to other technologies we could use to improve the overall experience for both developers and users. 

**The Repo **
https://github.com/maxiujin/cal-pal

**Contributions**

For those of you who want to add an app to your resume or get experience working with teams I will happy assist any of you in this. I've managed teams of engineers before so I can help you prep for your new management role. If some of you want management experience and want to lead this project that is fine as well. After this project I want everyone involved to show this on their portfolio. I want this to be something we all can be proud of. 

**Connect**

I hope to work with all of you! Feel free to message me here or join the Discord https://discord.gg/9ZzHB3ya I am a night owl and would love to work with you. My name is Matthew but I go by BitKnight. Let's build!

my Github: https://github.com/maxiujin
my Twitter:@CodeBitKnight