What’s New in Zero: Accurate Calorie Counts, Updated Apple Watch App, and Three Free Meals

It’s been a minute. Eight releases have shipped since my last product update in May, so I’d say I’m overdue for this.

But before we get to the list of updates, there’s one thing I’ve been watching all year: More of you are logging meals and tracking protein than ever before, and you’re sticking with it well past the first week.

That information is so important. Fasting sets the eating window, but what goes into that window (and how much of it is protein) has a lot to do with whether you hold onto muscle while the weight comes off. You’ve clearly figured that out, so we’ve spent much of our time making that part of Zero better.

And now, eight releases later, here’s what landed.

Better Eyes on Your Plate

This is the change I’m most excited about, and it’s the one you can’t see.

Our own data told us that photo logging was sometimes overestimating calories. When someone corrected a meal we had read from a photo, they pushed the calorie count down far more often than up.

So we moved to a new model and tested it head-to-head on live traffic, with about 12,000 meals on each side. With the new model, we now see a significant reduction in calorie overestimation.

We’re always tuning these models. Part of that involves keeping up with the technology, which is improving incredibly quickly. But a big part of it is what you tell us. Your corrections and feedback showed us something that model testing alone didn’t.

Every edit, thumbs-up, thumbs-down, and note you send helps us understand where the model still needs work. In this case, your feedback directly led to a better result.

“Fix It” Meal Editing

If something looks off in your meal log, you can now tell Zero exactly what’s wrong. Simply write “No cheese,” or “That was half a serving,” or “Add a slice of toast,” and Zero updates the meal breakdown and macros for you right away. There’s no need to hunt through a food database or delete the meal and start over.

Correcting a meal should be easier than logging it again, and now it is.

Three Meals, On Us

If you’re not using Zero Plus and you’ve never tried meal logging, you now get three meals for free.

This isn’t a stripped-down demo. It’s the real thing, including “Fix It” and photo logging with the updated model as described above.

I’d rather you try it and decide for yourself than take my word for it, so go ahead and give it a spin.

Your Fasting Zones, in More Detail

Fasting is what most of you came here for, and the difference between hour 14 and hour 18 deserves more than a number on your Timer.

We expanded Fasting Zones so you can see more detail about what may be happening in your body at each stage of your fast. 

A Brand-New Apple Watch App

We use our watches every day to keep an eye on our fasts, and honestly, the Zero Apple Watch app was overdue for a refresh. So we rebuilt it from scratch.

You can now start a fast, end a fast, edit your start time, change your goal, and delete a fast you logged by accident — all from your wrist, with everything syncing back to your phone in seconds.

We also redesigned the Timer and progress ring so your fast is easier to understand at a glance (no squinting necessary). Your fast now lives on your watch face and stays current even when the app isn’t open.

This one is available to everyone.

Global Logging

The + button now follows you throughout the app.

Whatever you’re logging, it’s one tap away instead of a trip back to Today. We redesigned the logging sheet, too, so the things you use most are the things you see first.

The Small Stuff That Adds Up

We refreshed the timeline to bring your activity, sleep, mindful minutes, and weight logs together in one place. We also fixed meals getting stuck mid-upload, weight charts with nothing to show, a dark mode bug, and a widget that kept counting after a fast had already ended.

None of these are headline features, but they all affect how it feels to use Zero every day.

A Word on What’s Next

The team is already deep into the next batch of updates, and I’ll have more to share soon.

As always, if something’s great or something’s bugging you, write to me directly at mikemaser@zerolongevity.com. I read every one.

Until next time,

Mike

Founder & CEO, Zero