I’ve been using the Melba app for a little while and I’m not sure if it’s actually the right tool for my needs. Some features seem buggy or unclear, and I can’t tell if I’m using it wrong or if the app just has limitations. I’d really appreciate detailed feedback, pros and cons, and any tips from people who have used Melba longer so I can decide whether to stick with it or switch to another app.
I’m on Melba too, here is my honest take after a few months.
Short version. Decent for structure. Weak for depth and stability. Depends what you need.
What I use it for
- Logging meals fast
- Getting a rough calorie and macro picture
- Some accountability with streaks and checkins
Where it works ok
- Food database is fine for common stuff. Barcodes work most of the time.
- Daily overview makes trends clear. You see fast if you undereat or go way over.
- If you do simple meals, it stays manageable. Toast, eggs, yogurt, basic bowls.
Where it gets messy
- Complex meals or recipes. Portion editing feels clunky. I often end up guessing.
- Custom foods. You add them, then later search does not always find them.
- Sync between screens lags for me. I log on phone, open again, entry looks gone, then appears after a refresh.
Bugs or “is it me” things I hit
- Streak randomly broke once even though I logged. Support said “known issue”.
- Sometimes macros do not add up to total calories. The error is small but still annoying.
- Notifications: I turned some off, they came back after an update. Had to redo settings.
What it is good for
- You want a simple habit, like tracking intake and seeing weight trends.
- You do not need strict macro numbers or detailed micronutrient data.
- You feel more aware if you log, even if data is not perfect.
Where it feels limited
- If you are prepping for a meet, comp, or very tight cut or bulk.
- If you want strong recipe handling and batch cooking tracking.
- If you depend on exact macro splits and long term consistency reports.
How to test if it fits you
- Define your goal for the app in one clear sentence.
Example, “I want to lose 0.5 lb per week and keep protein high.” - For one week, see if Melba lets you:
- Log every meal in under 2 minutes
- Track protein, calories, and weight without guesswork
- Export or at least view trends in a simple way
- If any of those three feel like a fight, it is the wrong tool for your goal.
Some quick workarounds
- For complex meals, log “meal templates”. Example, “Chicken rice bowl 600 kcal”. Not perfect, but faster and less stress.
- Keep a note with your usual foods and target portions so you do not depend only on their database.
- Use a separate weight tracking app or spreadsheet if you want better graphs.
If your main pain is bugs and confusion, you are not using it wrong. The UX feels half polished in places. If your needs are simple, you can live with it. If your goals are more advanced, you might want to switch to something more stable and detailed.
Been on Melba ~6 months, on/off. I’m sorta in the same “is it me or the app?” boat.
I mostly agree with what @sognonotturno wrote, but my experience is a bit different in a few places:
Where it actually shines for me
- The checkins and streak stuff are more useful than the food logging, weirdly. I find the habit-building side decent.
- The UI is visually clean. Not perfect UX-wise, but it’s not cluttered like some older trackers. I don’t feel overwhelmed opening it.
Where it falls apart for my use
- Anything beyond “basic tracking” gets frustrating. I tried to run a lean bulk with ~specific macros and it just didn’t feel trustworthy enough.
- The food database quality is… hit or miss. The common foods are fine, but once you step into brands or international foods, it becomes a guessing game.
- Reporting is really shallow. I want to see weekly protein averages, not just a cute daily circle. You can kind of eyeball trends, but it’s not real analysis.
On the “is it buggy or am I dumb?” front
- I’ve had a few cases where entries didn’t sync properly between days. Not just lag, but straight up missing until I readded them.
- Sometimes editing a meal changes the numbers in a way that doesn’t quite match what I put in. Not huge, but it kills confidence.
- The settings resetting after updates has happened to me too. That’s borderline unforgivable for a “habit” app, tbh.
Where I actually disagree a bit with @sognonotturno
- I don’t think it’s even great for “rough macros” if you’re the type to stress about accuracy. The little inconsistencies start to add up mentally.
- For me, it’s too simplistic for anything beyond “I want to stop mindlessly eating.” If you’re the analytical type, you’ll feel boxed in pretty fast.
How I’d decide if it’s right for you (different angle)
Instead of just speed of logging, I’d ask yourself 3 questions after a week:
- When you look at your daily & weekly numbers, do you trust them enough to make decisions?
- Do you find yourself double-checking things in Google or on labels because you’re not sure Melba is right?
- Do you ever avoid logging because the app feels a bit clunky or annoying?
If you answer “yes” to 2 or 3 regularly, that’s your sign. At that point it’s not a tool, it’s friction.
Rough rule of thumb from my usage:
- Great if your goal is: “Be more mindful of what I eat, roughly stay in a range, build a logging habit.”
- Mediocre if your goal is: “Lose/gain at a specific weekly rate, keep macros relatively tight.”
- Flat-out wrong if your goal is: “Prep for something serious or track in detail over months with accurate trends.”
So no, you’re probably not “using it wrong.” It’s just not a power tool. It’s a decent starter app with some rough edges, and you’ll feel those edges more the stricter your goals get.
Your experience sounds fair. Melba suits awareness, not precise planning.
A simpler option is a fixed meal template. Pick 3 breakfasts, 3 lunches, and 5 dinners. Calculate each recipe once from package labels, then save the totals in your notes. Repeat meals instead of searching a food database daily.
Track only your morning weight, waist measurement, and weekly average. Adjust one portion by aprox 150 calories if progress stalls for two weeks. This removes sync errors, reduces logging, and keeps your decisions tied to real results.
Picture two people. One eats basically the same five meals on rotation and just wants a nudge to stay honest. The other changes meals daily, cares about hitting protein within a few grams, and wants to look back over three months and actually believe the graph. Melba works fine for the first person and quietly betrays the second. Everything in this thread lines up with that split.
The template idea from @hyperscript_86 is solid, but I’d be careful treating it as a fix for Melba specifically. Once you’ve built a notes file with your own recipe totals, the app is barely doing anything except holding a number you already calculated. At that point you’re using it as a checkbox, not a tracker, which is fine, just be honest with yourself about it. Same with the streak stuff @andarilhonoturno likes. Streaks are a retention feature first and a habit tool second. When one breaks on a logged day, that’s not a small bug, it’s the app failing at the one job it markets hardest.
For me the thing nobody flagged is the settings resetting after updates. Two of you hit it. That tells you the app isn’t tested carefully between releases, which means anything you can’t reconstruct from memory is at risk, including your history. So my practical take: don’t let Melba be your only copy of anything that matters. Pull your data out every so often, or keep the important numbers in a plain note. If you’d be annoyed to lose three months of logs to a bad update, assume you eventually will and plan around it. If your goal is just ‘eat with my eyes open,’ none of this matters and you can relax and use it.