Where do the grams actually hide?
Not in the bread you already stopped eating. On a day built around meat, eggs and vegetables, the carbohydrate that shows up is the kind nobody calls carbohydrate: the ketchup, the marinade, the salad dressing with sugar in it, the glass of milk, the two pieces of fruit, the sauce on a takeaway. Each is small; four of them are a meal's worth of grams.
The record's answer is that each one is its own item, with a source. A label settles it, and the values are read back to you before the row is stored; a sauce nobody can look up is an estimate that says so, after the assistant asks what went into it. The variants matter here more than elsewhere: in USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy records 171265 and 169868, read 15 September 2026, whole milk is about 61 kcal per 100 g against about 35 for skimmed. A sweetened yoghurt against a plain one moves the same way, and by more, which is why "which one" is a question worth answering rather than assuming.
A Monday out of the house, with a target of 2 100 kcal and 80 g of carbohydrate, shows where that lands. You say the meals to the assistant you already use, ChatGPT, Claude or any other, and each item says where its numbers came from.
- 06:50 — "A flat white on the way in, whole milk, the regular size." The size is assumed and the assumption is stated.
- 12:40 — "A chicken caesar from the sandwich shop, the box says 14 g of carbohydrate for the whole thing."
- 15:30 — "How much carbohydrate is left?" The read answers while dinner is still a choice.
- 19:15 — "A takeaway curry, about half the container, with no rice, and I did not see a label." The assistant is asked what was in the sauce before it estimates.
- 21:30 — "A pear, a big one, and a glass of red wine."
The coffee and the pear are estimates with their sizes stated, the sandwich shop's box gives a label row, and the curry is the estimate of the day. The pear, the milk in the coffee and the wine are each a few grams, and it is their sum rather than any one of them that decides where the day lands against the target. One thing that sequence hides: the wine is recorded with its calories but almost no carbohydrate, because alcohol is not one of the four figures IZeat keeps.
What does a carbohydrate target actually give you?
An answer while dinner is still a choice. Ask in the afternoon and the read says "32g carbohydrate remaining", which is a different decision from finding out at bedtime that the dressing and the two pieces of fruit had used the day up. Past the target it says "9g over the carbohydrate target", in the same neutral words. A target can carry calories, protein, carbohydrate and fat, or any one of them alone, so it can be carbohydrate by itself.
| What you want to see | Where it is | What IZeat does not do |
|---|---|---|
| Grams of carbohydrate left today | On every receipt and every read of the day, once a carbohydrate target is set | Warn, colour or comment when the figure gets low or is passed |
| Net carbs | Nowhere: no fibre is stored, so none is computed | Subtract fibre for you, or hold a net-carb target |
| The carbohydrate in a sauce or a dressing | An item of its own, from a label where there is one, an estimate marked as one where there is not | Guess a sauce from a photo without asking |
| The share of the day's energy from fat | The ring on the day card, when interactive reports are enabled, drawn at 4, 4 and 9 kcal per gram | Judge the share, or compare it to a plan |
| Whether you are in ketosis | Not in the record at all | Record ketones, strips or meters |
Bottom line: the target tells you where you stand; the sources tell you which figures to trust.
Nothing in the product knows how you eat. There is no mode to switch on, no list of compliant foods, no warning when the grams run low and no mark on a day that went over. The carbohydrate figure is shown the way calories and protein are shown, and what to do about it is yours.
Why does the record hold declared carbohydrate rather than net carbs?
Because it holds no fibre. Each item in a meal carries calories, protein, carbohydrate and fat, and nothing else, so there is nothing to subtract from and no net-carb target to set. What IZeat stores is the carbohydrate the label or the reference table declares, with the source of that item beside it.
If you count in net carbs, the subtraction is yours or your assistant's arithmetic, done from the label in front of you, and it stays there. A subtracted figure does not belong in the carbohydrate field: that field holds the declared value on every other row, so a net figure recorded in it would make the day's carbohydrate total, and the share the card draws, mean something other than what they say everywhere else. The honest version is to keep the declared figure in the record and do the net arithmetic where you read it.
What changes on a keto day, where fat is most of the total?
The fat stops being a detail. The butter in the pan, the cream in the coffee, the oil on the salad are most of the calories and almost none of the volume, so each is said as its own item with its amount. Oil is about 884 kcal per 100 g in USDA FoodData Central, checked 15 September 2026, so 10 g is about 88 kcal, and a pour nobody measured is the difference between a day that adds up and one that does not. "Two tablespoons of olive oil in the pan, about half of it on my plate" is a line the record can hold, with the share you assumed written into it.
The rest behaves as it does on any day. A day holds six named meals, breakfast to evening, and a day of fewer, denser meals fills fewer of them with more in each; a correction is one sentence, and the earlier state stays in the meal's history; a day with nothing recorded is a gap in the week rather than a zero, and the week's average is taken over the days that have entries. When interactive reports are enabled for the account, the ring on the day card splits the day's energy between protein, carbohydrate and fat at 4, 4 and 9 kcal per gram, the factors of the European labelling regulation, read 14 September 2026. It is a picture of what you recorded, not a test of anything.
What if you follow a named plan as well?
The food goes in; the plan's own currency does not. IZeat holds no points balance, no weekly allowance, no colour categories, no list of free foods, no streak of compliant days and no score. It does not know which programme you follow and would change nothing if it did. So a programme's app and this record answer different questions: one says whether the plan was followed, the other what the food added up to.
Where it stops: IZeat neither endorses nor argues with any way of eating. It does not compute net carbs, does not know whether a day put you in ketosis, does not decide what your carbohydrate target ought to be, and cannot tell you whether a day fitted a plan's rules. If a medical reason brought you to this way of eating, the number is for the person treating you to set. And if the point of your plan is not to have calorie figures at all, nothing here is arguing you out of it.
Frequently asked questions
Short answers to the questions people type, each one sourced above.
Does IZeat track net carbs?
No. Each food in a meal carries calories, protein, carbohydrate and fat, and no fibre, so there is nothing to subtract from and no net-carb target to set. What IZeat records is the carbohydrate a label or a reference table declares. If you work in net carbs, the subtraction happens outside the record, and recording the result in the carbohydrate field would make that field mean something other than the declared value it holds everywhere else.
Can I set a carbohydrate target or limit?
You can set a carbohydrate target in grams, alone or beside the other figures, and ask for the day whenever you want to know where you stand. It is a target rather than a limit: nothing blocks a meal, nothing warns you as the grams run down, and a day that goes over says so in the same neutral words as a day that does not. Changing it is a new dated target, and earlier days keep the one they had.
Where does carbohydrate hide on a low-carb day?
In sauces, dressings, marinades and drinks, and in fruit counted as health rather than as grams. Each is small and four of them are a meal's worth. The record's answer is that each is its own item with a source: a label where you have one, read back before it is stored, and an estimate that says so where nobody can look the thing up.
How do I log cooking fat on keto?
As its own item, with an amount and a share: "two tablespoons of olive oil in the pan, about half of it on my plate". At roughly 88 kcal per 10 g, an unmeasured pour is the biggest single gap a fat-heavy day can have. The share you assumed is written into the row, and a correction later is one sentence that leaves the earlier state in the meal's history.
Do I have to log vegetables?
That is your call, and the honest version is that leaving them out makes the carbohydrate figure smaller than the day was. A handful of leaves is a few grams; 200 g of broccoli or a carrot is not nothing. Say them with a rough weight and the record holds them as estimates or reference values, which costs one clause in a sentence you were already saying.
Will IZeat tell me if I am in ketosis?
No, and nothing in it tries. Ketosis is measured with strips, breath or a blood meter, and IZeat holds none of those figures; it records food and compares it to the targets you chose. What the record can show is the carbohydrate you actually ate, day by day, with the source on each item, which is what a week that did not go as expected can be read against.
Is there a keto mode or a low-carb mode?
No, and there is nothing to switch on. It is a food record that works for a keto day as it works for any other: you say the meal, the figures land with their sources, and the targets you set are the ones it reports against. There is no net-carb field, no compliant food list and no plan to follow, only a carbohydrate figure you can read at four in the afternoon.
Can I track my plan's points here as well?
No. There is no points field, no allowance and no weekly balance; IZeat records calories, protein, carbohydrate and fat with the source on each item. If you follow a plan that counts in points, its own app keeps those and IZeat keeps the food. A food that costs nothing in the plan's own unit still shows up in the day's total here, which is one reason to keep both for a while.