App Showcase: Lean

What it does

Lean is an AI-powered calorie and macro tracking app for iOS. Its primary function is to help users log their daily food intake and exercise to meet specific health goals, such as weight loss. The app stands out by offering multiple ways to log food, including scanning meals with a camera, scanning barcodes, searching a database, or adding items manually.

Where it shines

Lean excels in making the tedious task of calorie counting feel accessible and modern. The onboarding process, while long, effectively builds a sense of personalization by asking detailed questions and providing motivational feedback (00:54). The main dashboard is clean and data-rich, presenting calories, macros, and recently logged items in a clear hierarchy (02:00). Its standout feature is the multi-modal logging, especially the food scanner (02:32), which simplifies tracking for complex, unpackaged meals.

UX highlights

• Multi-modal Input: The floating action button on the dashboard (02:02) neatly organizes four distinct logging methods (exercise, saved foods, database, and scanning), accommodating various user scenarios.
• Real-time Dashboard Updates: After logging a food item, the dashboard immediately updates the remaining calorie and macro counts with a smooth circular progress bar animation (03:18), providing instant feedback.
• Error Handling: The app provides clear, user-friendly error messages. For example, when a food scan fails, it says "No Food Detected! Try a different angle" (02:45), offering actionable advice.
• Saved Foods: Users can save frequently eaten meals, like Ramen (03:36), for quick one-tap logging later (05:26), a critical feature for reducing friction in daily use.
• Interactive Paywall: A toggle switch to enable a free trial (01:46) dynamically changes the subscription options and call-to-action, giving users a clear sense of control.

Monetization & growth

Lean uses a soft paywall presented after a lengthy onboarding quiz (01:44). The paywall offers a yearly and weekly subscription, but also features a prominent toggle to enable a 3-day free trial. When activated, the trial becomes the primary call-to-action. The app uses social proof (a 4.9-star rating) and highlights the value of the yearly plan by labeling it "BEST OFFER" and showing a price-per-week breakdown. The entire monetization strategy hinges on convincing the user that the personalized plan they just spent time creating is worth paying for.

Who it’s for

This app is designed for individuals actively looking to manage their weight or fitness through detailed calorie and macronutrient tracking. It caters to both beginners, who might appreciate the guided setup and simple scanning features, and more experienced trackers who need the flexibility of manual entry and detailed macro breakdowns. The inclusion of an intermittent fasting tracker (05:45) also targets users interested in that specific dietary approach.

Notes & opportunities

While the food scanning is a great hook, the app showed two failed attempts (02:45, 03:00) before a successful barcode scan. Improving the reliability of the visual food detection could significantly enhance the core value proposition. The onboarding quiz is very long; testing a shorter version might reduce user drop-off. Finally, the dashboard could benefit from more prominent gamification, like celebrating streaks directly on the main screen instead of just in a modal (04:20), to further encourage daily engagement.