Oura's meal feature stands out in comparison to other food tracking apps I've encountered.
Diving headfirst into the latest from Oura, their AI Advisor is just one of the enticing features being rolled out: meal logging. But this ain't just another calorie-counting app. Oura Meals delivers advice on what's in your meals and when, without any nasty judgments about portion sizes.
Ready to dish the details? Here's a lowdown on Oura Ring 4's innovative meal tracking feature.
Oura Ring 4 $349.00 at Amazon $349.00 at Amazon Glucose tracking is also in the pipeline, with a partnership with Dexcom in the works to sell the Stelo continuous glucose monitor - all without a prescription. If you're rocking the Stelo monitor, you can catch a glimpse of glucose stats in the Oura app, including how your blood glucose levels respond to the meals you log.
How Oura Meals get things cooking
Excited to log those meals? Today's the day, as the feature becomes available to all users! Just tap the plus sign in the corner and pick "Log a meal."
The simplest approach is to snap a pic of your grub (no worries if you polish off your plate first), but you can also tap "Text input" to jot down a description of your dish, or recycle a recent meal if it's a repeat performance.
The AI doesn't just stare at your meal like a hungry wolf – it analyzes it, then gives you feedback. You can correct it if it's off-base. Scroll down to view the list of ingredients and make adjustments as necessary.
The app praises protein-packed, veggie-laden creations, but doesn't guilt-trip you. "Oura's guidance avoids penalizing food choices, instead presenting non-judgmental insights that help members make informed choices based on their health objectives."
A helping hand, but sometimes a bit vague
Typically, the AI's analysis of my meals has been spot-on, but it's missed an ingredient here or there, such as that elusive bit of chicken in my rice bowl. Fortunately, it's easy to correct the mistakes by tapping the bottom of the screen.
$349.00 at Amazon
The advice can be a tad too generic, like suggesting that I should include protein the next time or extolling the health benefits of specific ingredients. However, I sometimes appreciate the nudge towards more protein and veggies.
Timing is everything
I've been a hot mess when it comes to meal times recently, wolfing down snacks throughout the day and neglecting a proper dinner. But Oura Meals has my back (and my tummy) with its meal timing feature! The app records the time of meals, showing me a graphic of my day with blues and greens for sleep times, green for wind-down hours, and yellow dots for each meal I've logged.
The irregular meal times have been a painful reality check, but I can now see exactly where I've gone wrong – and make adjustments to get my body's clock back on track.
Rooms for improvement
While the function of Oura Meals works well, the app falls short when it comes to some essential features. For example, I can only view the meal timing graph after logging a meal – there's no option to check it separately. I'd love to see a summary of my nutritional performance as well, but that info only pops up when I log a meal.
Another missing feature is the lack of awareness about the amount of food I'm consuming. The app is clueless about calories or the quantity of specific ingredients. On the one hand: fabulous, another app isn't telling me to count every carb. But on the other hand, the advice would be more effective if the app knew whether I'd eaten a mountain of meat or a handful of candy.
Sources:1. Oura Meals arrive on smart rings, but their usefulness turns out to be limited, AppleInsider, April 19, 2023 [https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/04/19/oura-meals-arrive-on-smart-rings-but-their-usefulness-turns-out-to-be-limited]2. Oura continues to evolve, announces meal logging & new app features, The Wellness Intelligence, April 19, 2023 [https://thewellnessintel.com/oura-continues-to-evolve-announces-meal-logging-new-app-features/]3. Oura Ring adds meal logging and sleep stage insights, 9to5Mac, April 19, 2023 [https://9to5mac.com/2023/04/19/oura-ring-adds-meal-logging-sleep-stage-insights/]
- The Oura AI Advisor's meal tracking feature, named Oura Meals, offers more than just calorie counting for health-and-wellness enthusiasts.
- With the new Oura Ring 4, users can track their meals, glucose levels, and even partner with Dexcom's Stelo continuous glucose monitor.
- To log a meal with Oura Meals, users can either take a photo, input a description, or recycle a recent meal.
- The AI analyzes the meals and provides feedback, which users can correct if necessary, and also suggests improvements based on nutrition, protein, and ingredient analysis.
- Timely meal logging and meal timing are emphasized by the app, which visually presents meal times and helps users saw where they've gone wrong with their meal patterns.
- Although the app can miss the occasional ingredient and the advice can sometimes be too generic, it successfully motivates users to focus on protein and vegetables in their meals.
- In order to improve, Oura Meals should consider providing nutritional summaries and tracking the quantity of food consumed to offer more effective advice for users trying to maintain a balanced diet with the help of technology, gadgets, and smartphones.
