Caltracker

A web application used to track your calorie consumption and maintain an obese-free and healthy lifestyle.

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Inspiration

The inspiration behind my project Caltracker , is rooted in a concerning issue plaguing my community - obesity. Obesity is a growing concern that affects not only individuals but also the overall health and well-being of a community. Obesity has a genetic impact on a community thereby affecting the posterity. While it's not directly passed through genes like a genetic disorder, certain genetic traits can increase the likelihood of developing obesity. I wanted to address this problem by utilizing my technical knowledge, and computer science skills and provide an impactful solution.

What it does

The alarming statistics of the obesity rate in my community highlighted the need for an effective tool to help individuals manage their calorie intake and make informed dietary choices. This gave birth to 'Caltracker', a user-friendly calorie tracker web application that could empower my community members to take control of their health. This web app takes the food items along with its weight in grams, the user wants to eat and calculates the amount of calories that would be consumed by the user. In this way, the user can know the corresponding calorie intake for the quantity of food item they have given, thereby eating wisely.

How we built it

I built this web application using Python's web framework - Django, HTML, and CSS. This application has close to 2,000 food items. Whenever the user wants to know the calorie consumed for a particular food item, its corresponding calorie value is fetched from the backend. It took me 2 weeks to complete this amazing project and deploy it. Users across the globe have free access to my web application. They can keep track of their day-to-day calorie consumption and reduce the chances of obesity, thereby eliminating a plethora of health issues.

Challenges we ran into

Since I was solitarily working on this project, I had to gather all resources regarding calorie chart for various food items. Data pre processing was also a bit challenging, but I was able to cross that hurdle as well. Since I worked on both frontend as well as backend to deliver a high-quality responsive website, I faced small hiccups during this process. Lastly, it also took me a couple of days to deploy my website, as I was new to it. But I am proud of myself that I have built a responsive web app for my community despite I ran into various challenges throughout the process.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I am elated to launch my web app and play some part in helping my community grow better and healthier. Although this is just a starting point in my career, I am proud that I have contributed my part to the community for its well-being. I would be much more happier if my web app crosses boundaries and reaches people across the globe, benefitting not just the people from my community but each and every individual out there who wants to lead a healthy lifestyle.

What we learned

Throughout the duration of these 14 days, I have learnt that hard work always pays off. It was a wonderful experience to build my very own web app for the people of my community that solves one of the most fatal problems. Many people do not know the seriousness of obesity and how fatal it could be if one does not take control of their diet, including myself before building this application. But during the process of building my webapp, I read a lot of research papers and articles that showed how much serious obesity is and how much damage it could cause to a person. It was shocking to know that obesity, if unnoticed, over a period of time could cause catastrophic damage to an individual's health. I take this as an opportunity to sincerely thank the hosts of this hackathon as I have learnt a lot of lessons not just technically, but also related to healthcare and lifestyle.

What's next for Caltracker

Caltracker does have interesting updates in the near future. I am planning to provide add on benefits to all my users such as including a calendar that says how much calories a user has consumed on a particular day of their wish. It will also suggest customized diet plans for every user depending on their requirements. I am working on these updates and planning to add them soon. So stay tuned for Caltracker 2.0 !

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