For me, AI has revolutionised dieting. Are others using it?

[LockHatter]

Every week I ask Chat GPT to produce a meal plan that is three meals a day, high protein, under 1500 calories a day, includes one glass of wine each weekend evening and sources lunch from Itsu or Pret in my “work from office” days as I’ve told it that’s all I have access to.

I ask for the dinner recipes to be drawn from websites of favourite chefs I name.

it provides me a daily meal plan with calorie and protein totals, links to recipes from my chefs, and when I prompt it I get a shopping list from my chosen supermarket.

on weeks I am financially stretched I ask it to adjust for that. On weeks I am bored of an ingredient (usually chicken) I ask it to adjust for that. It excludes things I ask it to like bread or coriander.

if one night I have two glasses of wine rather than the one it planned for I ask it to adjust the rest of the week to compensate so my weekly calories and proteins remain on target.

it is so easy. I’ve lost 6kg in 4 months as a result.

Are others using AI this way? Any other tips for refining instructions that you would recommend?

I do this. I also took a full body picture of myself front on and from the side. Uploaded and asked ChatGPT to make me look fitter/healthy weight. Now, every time I want an unhealthy snack I think about or look at the generated pictures and my end goal - it's really keeping me on track.

Put a big fat smiley over my face before uploading as didn't want to have those images identifiable.

This is a great idea! I’ve just tried it and instantly got loads of lovely new recipes to try. However one chat asked me if I’d like a weekly or daily check in, I said daily and it asked me what time but then I pressed something and lost it. So started a new chat, repeating diet goals. I asked that one for a daily check in at X time, and it told me ChatGPT can’t do check ins. So found that a bit strange! Feel like I had a really great coach willing to go the extra mile, lost it, and this one can’t really be bothered as much 😂

It can do a daily check in, but it can't remind you to check in or send you a notification. You have to go in and tell it what day it is, but if you give it a good prompt it should work fine. Something like: 'Act as a weight loss coach. Encourage me in my weight loss journey. I will check in with you each day and please ask me x, y and z'. The more detail you give it in your prompt the better it will be.

You'll then need to go to that specific chat each time rather than starting a new one.

You can create projects from the left hand side of the app and then keep all your weight loss stuff and check ins etc within that project to find them easily

So did it give you a photograph of yourself looking much better? Did it also tell you how to go about that? That sounds amazing!

It did! Very much along the lines what has been shared here already. It also suggested I'd need to lose about 12kg to look like the fitter version. I did not share my current weight. I mainly find the new image useful when I lack motivation or don't want to exercise...

I’ve just tried this, but the evening meal suggestions are a bit hit and miss. One is beef mince and mashed cauliflower. That sounds like something my Scottish granddad used to feed me 😂.

I have the same problem! I already know what it tells me, and since I have to double check all the amounts and nutritional info anyway to make sure it’s not hallucinated I find it easier to just get recipes from My Fitness Pal or Joe Wicks in the first place.

Is this an AI answer/marketing? Trying to shoe horn a link in to something not related to the thread?

Could you not ask ChatGPT to give you those psychological tools as well? A friend uses it for counselling and says it’s better than any real life counsellor she’s had. 🤷‍♀️

Yes it’s great for this. I do slimming world and it adjusts everything to fit in with the plan. Ive made some nice soup recipes and it suggests high protein, low fat snacks I haven’t thought of myself. I’ve also added in a weights programme.

It’s a big help but i do still need will power. My dc do tell me off for the energy wastage using it though.

Do your DC stream video content through Snapchat, TikTok or Netflix etc? Because if so, tell them to pipe down. AI uses the internet. An AI search uses more 'internet' than a google search therefore more resources but so does streaming and everything else people do online. Teens are online a LOT so they are in no position to lecture anyone on the use of natural resources!

That’s a real problem actually, LLMs are notorious for flattering people and telling them how right/clever they are. There have been several cases of people who had MH issues going a very bad way using LLMs as councillors, because unlike people the LLM is just predicting what the user is prompting them to say -

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c24zdel5j18o

I haven’t! Thank you OP, would never have thought to use ChatGPT like this!

I’ve been resisting AI so far but this has sparked my interest!

Me too - not to lose weight but I like the meal planning ideas.

Or maybe they don’t have time or energy to meal plan and this will help. Away with you and piss on someone else’s chips.

That makes sense, yes rather worrying. I’ll stick to meal planning!