The system suggestions are the foods that appear at the top of the list when a food is swapped, each one already in the quantity that makes it equivalent to the food being replaced. This page explains what decides that list: which foods qualify, which are left out, in what order they appear, what quantity they come with and what the green tags mean.
Where the suggestions appear
Suggestions only appear when a food is swapped, never when a new food is added to a meal.
| Who | Where | List name |
|---|---|---|
| Professional, on the website | In a meal plan, on a food's row, Add substitution. | System suggestions |
| Professional, on the website | In a meal from the Meal Library, in the New Meal or Edit Meal window, the ⇄ button on each food's row, named Add substitution. | System suggestions |
| Client, on the website | In Nutrition, in a food's ⋮ menu, Swap, which opens the Swap food window. | System suggestions |
| Client, in the app | In a food's ⋮ menu, Replace, which opens the Replace food sheet. | Suggested |
- Match sits over the list, with Calories, Protein, Carbs and Fat. Calories is selected by default. The macros can be combined, and Calories goes back to matching calories only. The choice changes the list and the quantity of each suggestion.
- Each suggestion shows the photo, the name and brand, the quantity, the calories and up to three green tags.
- On the website, the list is hidden while you type in the search, in the Online tab and when you choose INSA in the Catalog or, for the client, the professional's button. In the app, it only appears in Catalogue, with the first source button selected, with no search or filters.
- The client gets no suggestions on a locked plan, that is, with restricted mode turned on by the professional, without an active professional and, in the app, without an internet connection. With an overdue payment, the payment notice appears in their place: see Payment overdue: what is paused and how to settle it.
Which foods can be suggested
A food only makes the list if it meets all of these conditions.
- It is in the same category as the food being replaced. These are the 13 categories of the food library: Proteins, Carbs, Dairy, Fruits, Vegetables, Fats, Seasonings, Beverages, Meals, Snacks, Desserts, Fast Food and Other. Within the category, it must also be in the same swap family, explained in the Swap families section.
- It comes from the MyFitnessClient catalog or from the professional's own foods. It never comes from another professional or from the INSA library: an INSA food can be the one being replaced, but it is never suggested.
- It has calories, protein, carbs and fat filled in.
- For the client, there are fewer candidates: the catalog and, of the professional's foods, only those already in a meal plan assigned to that client as a food, not as a substitution. A new food from the professional only enters the client's suggestions once it is in one of their plans. Foods the client created themselves are never suggested. When it is the professional correcting a client's day, all of the professional's foods qualify.
- At most 500 candidates qualify: first the professional's foods, then the catalog's, from the most used in Portuguese meal plans to the least used.
The category of the food being replaced comes from the library. If the food isn't linked to a library food, for example because it was typed by hand, the system looks for a food with the same name, also in the translations, or with a similar name. If none is found, the candidates come from all categories, with no swap families, and the suggestions are less similar.
Which foods are left out
- The food being replaced itself and any food with the same name, even from another brand. Capital letters and extra spaces don't count.
- A not-yet-renamed copy of the food being replaced, or the food it was copied from. A name ending in “(Cópia)”, “(Copy)”, “(Copia)”, “(Copie)” or “(Kopie)” counts as the food it came from. Once renamed, the copy competes like any other food.
- The substitutions the food already has.
- Rare foods, when the food being replaced is a common one: names with goose barnacle, lobster or langoustine, crab, brown crab, spider crab, scallop, limpet, snail, clam, cockle, mussel, oyster, liver or gizzard. A chicken never gets them; a lobster can get goose barnacles and also prawns.
- Foods from another swap family.
- With Calories in Match, foods with no calories, such as water. With macros selected, foods that have none of those macros.
- All of them, if the food being replaced has 0 kcal or 0 g of the selected macros: the list stays empty.
The other foods in the same meal aren't left out and can appear in the suggestions.
Swap families
Within the same category, a food from another subcategory is only suggested if both subcategories are in the same family, that is, if one is eaten in place of the other. The subcategories have the names used in the food library.
| Family | Subcategories suggested for each other |
|---|---|
| Starches | Rice, Pasta, Potatoes & Tubers, Oats & Cereals |
| Breakfast | Bread, Breakfast Cereals |
| Meat and fish | Chicken & Turkey, Beef & Pork, Fish, Seafood |
| Milk and yogurt | Milk, Yogurt, Kefir, Protein Puddings |
| Cooking fats | Olive Oil & Oils, Butters |
| Nuts and seeds | Nuts, Seeds |
| Fruit | Fresh Fruit, Citrus, Berries, Tropical, Dried Fruit |
| Sweets | Sugar & Honey, Jams |
| Sweet drinks | Soft Drinks, Iced Tea |
| Vegetables | Broccoli & Cabbage, Lettuce & Spinach, Tomato & Peppers, Carrots & Beets, Asparagus, Mushrooms, Green Beans & Peas, Sprouts, Other (in Vegetables) |
| Desserts | Cakes & Pastry, Traditional |
- A subcategory that isn't in the table only swaps with foods from the same subcategory. This is the case for Eggs, Legumes and Deli & Cured Meats, so a chicken doesn't suggest eggs or ham; for Flours, Cheese and Butter & Cream; for Onion & Garlic, Canned and Fresh Herbs, in Vegetables; for Chocolates and Ice Cream; for the Seasonings, Beverages, Meals and Snacks subcategories that aren't in the table; and for each Fast Food restaurant, which only suggests dishes from the same restaurant.
- A food with no subcategory, often created by the professional, is suggested for any food in the same category and gets suggestions from the whole category.
- Some foods count by their name and not by their subcategory. In Oats & Cereals, names with oats, bran, germ or tapioca count as Breakfast: oats suggest bread and breakfast cereals, and rice doesn't suggest oats. In Flours, pancake counts as Breakfast. Breadcrumbs, in Bread, and names with pizza, in Pasta, count as Flours. In Potatoes & Tubers, chestnut is only suggested with chestnut. Avocado, in Fresh Fruit, and coconut, in Tropical, are only suggested for each other. Hazelnut spread, in Hummus & Guacamole, counts as Sweets.
- The rules that read the name, those of these exceptions, the rare-foods rule and the cooking-state rule when the food doesn't carry the state in its data, use the catalog's Portuguese name. They don't apply to a professional's food named in another language.
In what order they appear
Each candidate gets a score and the list goes from the highest score to the lowest. The score combines six criteria, from the one that weighs most to the one that weighs least. The weight of each one can be fine-tuned, so this page describes the criteria and not the numbers.
| Criterion | What raises the score |
|---|---|
| Culinary affinity | Being in the same subcategory as the food being replaced and, after that, in the same category. Being in the same cooking state also helps: a grilled chicken prefers grilled and cooked foods to raw ones. |
| Macro profile | Having, at the suggested quantity, protein, carbs and fat close to those of the food being replaced. With macros selected in Match, the difference in calories also counts. |
| Nutritional quality | Having saturated fat, salt, sugar and fiber close to those of the food being replaced. Any difference lowers the score, but being worse, with more saturated fat, salt or sugar or less fiber, lowers it more. Only what both foods declare counts. |
| Macro ratio | Having, per 100 g or 100 ml, a ratio of protein, carbs and fat similar to that of the food being replaced. |
| Realistic portion | Being a quantity people actually eat: many portions, a tiny fraction of a portion, or a very large or very small quantity lowers the score. For a food counted in units, a quantity close to a whole number of half units raises it slightly. |
| Popularity | Being one of the catalog foods most used in Portuguese meal plans. |
- The cooking state (raw, grilled, roasted, fried, boiled, stewed or steamed) nudges the score but doesn't exclude: a raw food still appears if it's the best there is. In catalog foods and in the copies the professional made of them, the state comes from the food's data or from its name; in the ones the professional created from scratch, only from these words in the name.
- A MyFitnessClient catalog food has a tiny advantage over a professional's food, which only decides between almost equal scores. The professional's foods enter the candidates first, but that doesn't move them up the list.
- After sorting, a second pass spreads out repetitions: the same food from several brands moves down, and several foods from the same subcategory move down slightly, to make room for others. The first in the list is always the one with the highest score.
- The list keeps at most 12 foods. Then the ones far behind the first and the ones with a weak score are removed. If even the first is weak, the list stays empty: there is no good swap.
What quantity comes with each suggestion
The quantity of each suggestion is the one that makes it equivalent to the food being replaced, at the quantity that food is in. What gets matched depends on Match.
| In Match | The suggested quantity gives |
|---|---|
| Calories | The same calories as the food being replaced. |
| One macro | The same grams of that macro. The calories can change. |
| Two or three macros | The same total calories from those macros, counting 4 kcal per gram of protein and of carbs and 9 kcal per gram of fat. Only the total is exact: each macro can end up higher or lower, and the list order favors the foods where it ends up close. |
- The calculations always start from the suggested food's values per 100 g or 100 ml, never from the weight of a portion.
- In Meals, Fast Food, Snacks and Desserts counted in units, such as a burger, the quantity is rounded to the nearest half unit, at least half a unit. The calories and macros are calculated at that quantity, so they end up close to those of the food being replaced, but not equal. Other foods keep the exact quantity.
- The quantity is always in g or ml, even for a food counted in units.
- A food picked outside the suggestions, from the list or through search, comes with the quantity that gives the same calories, whatever is chosen in Match.
The green tags
Each suggestion can have up to three green tags. In the ones with a number, N is the difference between the suggestion, at the suggested quantity, and the food being replaced.
| Tag | When it appears |
|---|---|
| “Matched on Protein”, “Matched on Carbs”, “Matched on Fat” | One for each macro selected in Match, always in this order. |
| “N g less saturated fat”, “N g less sugar”, “N g less salt” | The suggestion has much less of that nutrient than the food being replaced. |
| “N g more fiber” | The suggestion has much more fiber. |
| “N g more protein” | The suggestion has much more protein and protein isn't selected in Match. |
| “N fewer kcal” | Only with macros selected in Match: the suggestion has far fewer calories. With Calories, the calories are equal and the tag doesn't appear. |
- With no macros selected, or with one, the quality tags come first and “Matched on” goes at the end; with three quality tags, it doesn't appear. With two or three, the “Matched on” tags go first and take those places.
- A tag only appears when both foods declare the nutrient and the difference isn't 0.
What changes for the client
The suggestions the client sees are calculated again, for them, from the food in their day and with their candidates. So they may not match the ones the professional saw for the same food. What the professional picks stays in the plan as a substitution for the food, and the client sees it, also on a locked plan, on the line under the food with the number of substitutions. To swap a food, see Swap a food for an equivalent one.
Questions
Why do few suggestions appear, or none?
The list has at most 12 foods and loses the ones far behind the first. It stays empty when the food being replaced doesn't have calories, protein, carbs and fat filled in or has 0 kcal, or 0 g of the macros selected in Match; when no candidate is similar enough; or when the only similar ones are rare foods. With one or more macros selected in Match and the list empty, the website shows “No equivalent swaps for this filter: this food may not have that macro. Try another, or use search.” In those cases, find the food through search.
Why are the suggestions not very similar to the food?
As a rule, the food being replaced isn't linked to a library food and its name doesn't match any: the candidates then come from all categories, with no swap families. A food chosen from the library, instead of typed by hand, gives better suggestions.
Why is a professional's food never suggested?
Check that it has calories, protein, carbs and fat filled in; that it is in the same category and the same swap family as the food being replaced; that it doesn't have the same name as the food being replaced and isn't a not-yet-renamed copy of it; and that it isn't a rare food, when the one being replaced is common. For the client, it must also be in a meal plan assigned to that client. Even so, it can be left out for having a lower score than the others.
Why doesn't rice suggest oats or breakfast cereals?
Rice is in the Starches family, with pasta, potatoes and the Oats & Cereals foods that aren't oats, bran, germ or tapioca. Oats, bread and breakfast cereals are in the Breakfast family and are only suggested for each other.
Why does the quantity come in grams and not in units?
The quantity of the suggestions is always in g or ml. Only Meals, Fast Food, Snacks and Desserts counted in units are rounded to half units, and even those are stored in g or ml. Once picked, the food is edited like any other.