The Bao Blog
Nutrition guides for the food other trackers ignore.
Honest calorie breakdowns for Asian and global dishes, plus what other calorie apps actually get wrong when you eat food they weren't built for.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in Hong Kong Iced Lemon Tea?
The same glass, logged twice: 105 calories as a medium, 148 as a large. The size was the error, not the estimate.
Nutrition Guide
7-Eleven Snack Calories: What a Barcode Scan Actually Tells You
Two snacks, scanned at the barcode. The one that got put back on the shelf had 70 fewer calories than the one that didn't.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in Thai Food?
One photo of a full Thai table, itemized: 1,103 calories across four lines — and the iced tea outscored the entire bowl of rice.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in a Poke Bowl?
Eight ingredients get a line. The sodium doesn't — and two real scans of the same 550-calorie bowl came back with wildly different amounts of it.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in 蔥抓餅 (Taiwanese Scallion Pancake)?
It looks like a light snack, but the layered, oiled dough plus common add-ins like egg or cheese can double the calorie count.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in 蘿蔔糕 (Taiwanese Radish Cake)?
The rice-and-radish base is light on its own — the frying method and the egg coating are what actually change the number.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in 豆花 (Taiwanese Tofu Pudding)?
It sounds like a light dessert because it's "just tofu" — the syrup and toppings tell a very different story.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in 雞排 (Taiwanese Fried Chicken Cutlet)?
Often confused with 鹹酥雞, but 雞排 is one giant cutlet. Batter thickness and oil freshness matter more than the chicken itself.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in 蛋餅 (Taiwanese Egg Crepe)?
Treated as the "light" breakfast option — the pan-fried wrapper and add-ins say otherwise.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in 肉圓 (Bawan)?
Steamed vs. deep-fried can swing the total by 150+ kcal — the starch wrapper, not the filling, is why.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in 蚵仔麵線 (Oyster Vermicelli)?
It's a soup, so it reads as light. The starch-thickened broth and fried-garlic finish say otherwise.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in 大腸包小腸 (Taiwanese Sausage Rice Roll)?
It looks like a hot dog. The glutinous rice wrap carries over half the calories, not the sausage.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in 牛肉麵 (Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup)?
Taiwan's national dish. 紅燒 vs. 清燉 broth style, and the noodle refill, move the number more than the beef ever does.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in 蚵仔煎 (Taiwanese Oyster Omelette)?
It reads like an omelette in English. The sweet-potato starch batter — not the egg or the oysters — is what actually drives the number.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in 鹹酥雞 (Taiwanese Fried Chicken)?
Taiwan's most common night-market snack, and the one dish other trackers can't tell apart from 雞排 — a genuinely different, higher-calorie dish.
Feature
Why Bao Shows Every Dish in Three Languages
Scan a dish and Bao names it three ways: English, Chinese, and the native script of where it's from — not a translation, the point.
Feature
Can You Scan a Whole Restaurant Menu? Most Calorie Trackers Can't
Cal AI, MyFitnessPal, and Lose It! can all scan a plate that's already in front of you. None of them, by their own App Store listings, scan a menu before you order.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in Ramen?
Toppings get the attention, but broth style — tonkotsu, shoyu, miso, or shio — changes the calorie count more than anything else in the bowl.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in Hainanese Chicken Rice?
The chicken is lean. The rice — cooked in chicken fat and stock — is doing more of the calorie work than you'd expect.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in Gua Bao (割包)?
It's also the dish this app is named after. The fat ratio of the pork slice — not the bun — is what actually swings the number.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in Brown Sugar Boba Milk Tea?
It's a drink, but it behaves like a dessert. Sweetness level only controls the syrup — not the tapioca pearls' fixed sugar load.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in Stinky Tofu (臭豆腐)?
The fermentation barely matters. It's the fryer — not the tofu — that decides almost the entire calorie count.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in Bibimbap?
Korea's mixed rice bowl looks simple but the calorie count swings hard depending on the sauce, the egg, and how much rice is under the vegetables.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in Pho?
Vietnam's beef noodle soup is often assumed to be "light." The broth is deceptively low-calorie — the noodles and cut of beef are what actually move the number.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in Pad Thai?
Restaurant pad thai and homemade pad thai are barely the same dish nutritionally. Oil, sugar in the sauce, and portion size do most of the damage.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in Butter Chicken?
The butter-and-cream gravy is the whole story. Here's the real range, how naan and rice change your total, and a lower-calorie way to still order it.
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in Xiao Long Bao (Soup Dumplings)?
Per piece, they look harmless. Per basket, they're a full meal. The broth inside each dumpling is doing more nutritional work than people expect.
From launch week
Nutrition Guide
How Many Calories Are in 滷肉飯 (Lu Rou Fan)?
The complete macro breakdown of Taiwan's most beloved comfort food — braised pork rice. Plus how portion size, toppings, and cooking method change the numbers.
Comparison
Best Calorie Tracker for Asian Food in 2026
What Cal AI, MyFitnessPal, and Lose It! actually say about Asian food and Chinese support — checked on their own App Store listings, not marketing claims.
GLP-1
GLP-1 Nutrition Guide: What to Eat on Ozempic and Wegovy
On a GLP-1 medication? Protein and muscle preservation should be your top priority. Here's what to eat, how much protein you need, and how Bao helps you stay on track.