Chow.fit — Plain-Text FOSS Food Diary

Log your meals in plain text; self-host, no ads, own your data

Problem

Existing food diary apps like MyFitnessPal are ad-heavy, lock in your data, and don't give users control over their own diet data. Users want a simple, ad-free, self-hostable tool to log daily meals, with data stored in plain text for easy migration and long-term preservation.

Solution

An open-source plain-text food diary web app that can be self-hosted via Docker or used as a hosted service. Users log food in a concise text format; the app parses it and calculates nutrition. All data is stored as plain text files, making it easy to export, back up, or version control.

Users

Privacy-conscious developers and tech enthusiasts who prefer self-hosting and managing personal data in plain text.

MVP

Plain-text food logging input and parsing; built-in offline nutrition database for common foods; daily nutrition summary charts; one-click Docker deployment; data export to plain text or JSON.

Revenue

Open-source core free; paid hosting service (saves self-hosting hassle) or donation/sponsorship model.

Why now

Interest in data privacy and self-hosting continues to grow, while mainstream food apps' ad and subscription models frustrate users. Indie developers can quickly build a lightweight plain-text-first app with modern frameworks, avoiding head-on competition with giants.