An ER doctor built a meal-planning app in 15 months
An ER doctor who works 18 to 24 hours a week and has a large family spent 15 months building CalorieAid without an engineering background. Most nutrition apps ask people to record food after they eat, but CalorieAid is built around deciding what to eat before meals happen. The product tries to keep the nutrition science behind the screen, so users do not need to study it just to make choices.
The founder learned product design through the and built the app with Claude Code. CalorieAid lets users import recipes from or blogs, adjust them with AI to match nutrition targets, place them into a weekly meal plan, and generate a grocery list. Calories are calculated from the nutrition plan instead of being set first, and the method uses lean body mass rather than broad generic formulas.
The app uses , Expo, Supabase, and . Early validation includes a Meta ad campaign in the GCC region with a $3.18 and an 8% to 9% , plus a Google Play closed beta that is more than 70% through its 14-day testing period while the founder measures Day 7 retention before forming an Estonian OÜ.
Key points
- A non-engineer ER doctor built CalorieAid with Claude Code over 15 months.
- The app focuses on planning meals before eating instead of logging food afterward.
- Users can import recipes, change them with AI, add them to a weekly plan, and get a grocery list.
- A Meta ad campaign showed a $3.18 and an 8% to 9% .
- The founder is measuring Day 7 retention before setting up an Estonian OÜ.