How do you say a meal for a past day?
With the day in the sentence, in your own words. "Yesterday's lunch was a chicken salad and a roll." "Dinner on Tuesday was pasta, about 200 g cooked, with a tomato sauce." "Three days ago I had two eggs and toast for breakfast." The assistant is asked to pass your word for the day, not a date it worked out, and IZeat does the arithmetic against your own today, in your time zone, rather than letting the assistant work out a date.
The day is your local one, which matters most to anyone whose meals cross midnight: an eating window that opens at noon and closes at eight leans on the same rule. What IZeat reads: today, yesterday, a number of days ago up to 31, a weekday, which means the most recent one, today included, or a full date written out. What it refuses on purpose: "last week", "the other day", "a while ago", because a guess at those puts a meal on the wrong day; IZeat answers that it could not read the day and records nothing, and the assistant is asked to find out which day you meant. The day in your time zone is the account's, so a dinner said at one in the morning still belongs to the evening it was eaten if you say so.
| What you say | What IZeat records it for | What the receipt names |
|---|---|---|
| "Yesterday's dinner was…" | The day before your today | "IZeat · Recorded for Wednesday 16 September 2026 (yesterday): dinner — … (estimated)" |
| "Tuesday lunch was…" | The most recent Tuesday, today included | "IZeat · Recorded for Tuesday 15 September 2026 (2 days ago): lunch — …" |
| "Three days ago I had breakfast…" | Three days before today | The day in words, with "(3 days ago)" |
| "On 2 September 2026 I had…" | That date, passed in full with its year | The date in words, without a relative word once it is more than six days back |
| "Last week I had a pizza" | Nothing yet | "IZeat could not read the day", and the assistant is asked which day you meant |
| "Lunch was…" with no day | Today | "IZeat · Recorded for … (today)" |
Bottom line: say the day the way you would say it to a friend, and read it back in the receipt before moving on.
What happens when that day already has a meal?
Each day has six slots: breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner and evening. A meal type recorded once for a day is not recorded twice: if Tuesday's dinner is already there and you say "Tuesday dinner was also a piece of cake", IZeat answers that dinner is already recorded, with what it contains, and names two ways on: add the cake to that dinner if it was part of it, or record it under another meal type, the evening for instance, if it was eaten at another time. Nothing is recorded until the assistant relays that and you say which you meant.
Catching up in the wrong order is fine. Say Tuesday's dinner on Thursday, then Tuesday's lunch on Friday; each lands on Tuesday, and the day total is computed from its rows whenever you read it, never stored as a figure that could drift. Ask "what did I eat on Tuesday?" and the assistant reads the day from IZeat, signed, with each row and its source.
A mistake in a late entry is corrected the same way as any other: "Tuesday's pasta was 150 g, not 200" updates the row, and the previous state stays in the meal's change history. Taking back the last write entirely, rather than correcting it, is a two-step undo within 48 hours of the write, confirmed within ten minutes of being shown, and the 48 hours count from when you said it, not from the day it was recorded for.
What is a remembered day worth?
IZeat is the calorie tracker inside ChatGPT, Claude or any other assistant. Tell the assistant you already use what you ate instead of searching for foods and entering them one by one. A day recorded from memory is a day of estimates, and the record says so: the portions you did not weigh are marked estimated, the cooking fat you have to reconstruct is asked for, and the receipt shows which rows came from a label, a reference value or an estimate.
That honesty is what makes a late day usable. A week's average over its recorded days is true for those days; the count beside it says how much of the week it covers, and a day filled in from memory raises the count while lowering the precision. Both facts are on the report, and neither is a verdict: the day is a list with a total, in the same words whether it was under or over the target you chose.
Thursday evening, two days behind: "Let me catch up. Tuesday: breakfast was oats with milk, about 40 g and 200 ml; lunch a sandwich from the bakery, chicken and salad; dinner the pasta, 200 g cooked, tomato sauce, a spoon of oil. Wednesday I only remember dinner, a pizza, about half a large one." The assistant is asked to put one bundled question about what would change the figures most, the sandwich's size, the pizza's toppings, whole or skimmed milk, then to record four meals across two days, each receipt naming its day, the sandwich and the pizza as estimates that say so. "What does the week look like?" reads the seven days back from IZeat, with the two thin ones visible as such.
The honest limit: memory shortens meals. The snack between lunch and dinner, the second slice, the oil in the pan are what a remembered day loses first, and no protocol can ask about what you did not mention. A late day is better than a hole, and the record marks it as what it is.
Frequently asked questions
Short answers to the questions people type, each one sourced above.
Can you log food for a previous day?
Yes: say the day with the meal, "yesterday's dinner", "Tuesday lunch", "three days ago" up to 31 days back, or a full date. The assistant is asked to pass your word, not a date it worked out; IZeat resolves it in your time zone, then names the day in words in the receipt so you can see it landed where you meant. A weekday means the most recent one, today included.
What if I say "last week" or "the other day"?
IZeat does not read those as a day, on purpose: a guess would put the meal on the wrong date, which is worse than a missing one. The assistant is asked to relay that and ask which day you meant. Once you name it, yesterday, a weekday, a number of days ago or a date, the meal is recorded for that day and the receipt names it.
What if that day's lunch is already recorded?
It is not stored twice. IZeat answers that lunch is already recorded for that day, with what it contains, and offers two ways on: add the new items to that lunch, or record them under another meal type if they were eaten at another time, the afternoon snack for instance. The assistant is asked to relay that and ask which you meant. A day has six meal types, breakfast to evening, each recorded once.
Can I correct a meal I logged late?
In one sentence, like any meal: "Tuesday's pasta was 150 g, not 200" updates the row and the day total follows, and the previous state stays in the meal's history. Undoing the last write entirely is separate: a two-step confirmation, given within ten minutes of the preview and within 48 hours of the moment you recorded it, whatever day the meal was for.
Does a late entry count in the weekly average?
Yes, as a recorded day, and the report shows the count of recorded days beside the average, so you can see how much of the week the figure covers. A day filled in from memory carries the same four sources as any other, a label you still have, a reference value for a weight you remember, your own figure or an estimate; what memory changes is how wide the uncertainty is, and the record still says which rows were estimated. The average is true for the days it has; it does not stand for the days that are missing.
Is it worth logging a day I half remember?
Usually, if you let it be what it is. A day with dinner only is a thin day, and the report shows it as one; that is more useful than a hole, because the week's count of recorded days stays honest. Say what you remember, let the assistant ask about the portions and the fat, and the rows are marked estimated where they are.
What time zone does the day use?
Yours, the one your account holds; never the server's and never the assistant's guess. A dinner said at one in the morning is recorded for today unless you say it was yesterday's, in which case the assistant is asked to pass "yesterday" and it lands on the evening it was eaten. The receipt names the day in words every time, which is the moment to check it.