If your question isn’t answered below, or you’d like to offer feedback, don’t hesitate to get in touch via email (support@meetCARROT.com) or Twitter (@CARROT_app).

Isn't being a human fun?

If you don't consume enough food, you won't be giving your body the energy it needs to survive. And if you consume too much food, you'll start experiencing weight gain and other health problems.

Luckily, CARROT has scienced up an app that will help you walk the deadly tightrope between anorexia and morbid obesity.

From the main screen, you can tap CARROT’s ocular sensor to log some calories, or you can check out the menu to see what’s going on in there.

The platform your avatar is standing on displays the remaining calories for the day; the sludge that builds up as you eat acts as a progress bar of sorts. You can tap on the platform to get a more detailed summary of your day.

But whatever you do, do not poke your avatar - they’re sensitive creatures.

Simply tap CARROT’s ocular sensor to bring up the calorie submission panel. For your convenience, CARROT has generously allowed you to submit a food in four different ways:

1) Start typing to search for a food. Recently logged foods will pop up first; you can also search CARROT’s entire database.  Tapping a search result will allow you to modify the servings consumed before you submit it.

2) Open the Barcode Scanner to scan a UPC label. Your device’s camera will attempt to autofocus once you aim it at a barcode; you can also tap the screen to manually focus on a particular point. CARROT will automatically activate your device’s flash if she detects she’s in a dark environment.

3) Tap a food item in the Recents Bar. The Recents Bar lists all your most recently consumed items; if you haven’t consumed any foods yet, the Recents Bar will list some delicious suggestions instead. (Note: The Recents Bar requires purchase of the Ruthless Efficiency Collection.)

4) Tap the calories textfield, then just type in the calories and press submit to quick-add them to your diary. You don’t need to enter a name to log a food!

And if you get sick of submitting foods one at a time, you can purchase the Ruthless Efficiency Collection to unlock the Multi-Add Button. After you perform any of the above actions (but before you hit submit), you can tap the green Multi-Add Button to add that food to your meal queue. When you’re done, you can submit the whole queue at once.

CARROT uses the Mifflin-St. Jeor equation to calculate your basal metabolic rate, then factors in your activity level to get your calorie goal. 

This goal is further modified if you’ve set a weight loss or weight gain goal. The human body typically needs to burn an extra 3,500 calories to lose 1 pound per week, so that means each day you’d need to come in 500 calories below your normal calorie goal.

CARROT will helpfully tell you in practical terms just what all these calories mean for you. Will you still be so eager to wolf down a candy bar if you know it'll take an 8 mile run to burn off all that extra energy? A 1-mile-walk apple will suddenly look a whole lot more appetizing. 

Warning! Overeating is bad, but so is starving yourself. You need to consume a certain number of calories per day (1,200 for women, 1,500 for men); otherwise, your body can enter Starvation Mode. Over time, this can lead to nutrient deficiencies and other serious health problems. 

Tap the flame button on the food submission screen to enter the exercise submission screen.

Here, you can search CARROT’s databanks for a particular exercise. CARROT will automatically calculate the calories you burned when you enter the exercise's duration.

The diary shows a log of all the foods you’ve eaten and exercises you’ve completed, grouped by day. 

You can tap on an individual item to bring up an edit screen. Modifying a food’s servings will automatically update the nutrient information. 

If you want to change the time or date for an entry, just tap the timestamp button.

(Note: Except for calories consumed, nutrient information currently cannot be edited directly.) 

At the start of each day, CARROT will show a report of your progress for the previous day. If you met your goal, she’ll increment your streak count, bringing you closer to earning your first medal.

Going over your goal will reset your streak to zero.

(If you finish eating for the day, just tap the done button below CARROT’s ocular sensor to bring up today’s report immediately. The button will appear after you’ve logged at least 500 calories for the day.)

If the food you’re about to consume will take you over your calorie goal, CARROT will allow you to bribe her to look the other way with a small in-app purchase. She’ll log the food to your diary, but it won’t get counted in the overall tally. Look at it as a way to indulge yourself guilt-free - or to punish yourself for overeating.

Choose to accept the consequences of eating too much and you’ll make CARROT angry. She’ll show an increased number of fullscreen ads for the next batch of foods you log. 

In addition, if you enabled the Auto-Shame feature in CARROT’s settings, she’ll automatically tweet out a public shaming from your Twitter account.

CARROT can set up both time- and proximity-based reminders. 

To set up a time-based reminder, just select the meal you’d like CARROT to remind you about (breakfast, lunch, or dinner), then select the time you’d like to be reminded. If you haven’t logged a food within an hour of that time, CARROT will remind you to check in. 

You can also set up a reminder for the end of the day, in case there are any last minute snacks you forgot to log.

To set up a proximity-based reminder, see the iBeacon section below.

An iBeacon is a tiny wireless sensor that leverages Apple’s indoor proximity system to notify nearby iOS devices of its presence. iBeacons are frequently used in retail locations, sports stadiums, and museums, but haven’t seen much use in the consumer space. Until now. 

CARROT can remind you to log your foods whenever you bring her within range of an iBeacon that you’ve registered to the app. Put an iBeacon inside your fridge or under your dining room table, and you’ll never forget to log a meal again.

(A neat side effect of registering an iBeacon to CARROT Hunger is that, whenever your phone is within range of the beacon, a little CARROT icon will appear in the bottom left corner of your lock screen. Just swipe up on it for super fast access to the app!)

Just be warned that iBeacon reminders are smart reminders. If you’re nearing your calorie goal, CARROT will sound a warning. And if you’re already over your calorie goal, CARROT will blare out an alarm along with a nasty rebuke.

It’s pretty much the best deterrent to overeating known to man.

Where to Buy Beacons

A number of manufacturers sell iBeacon hardware. We recommend Estimote beacons, which can be purchased in a 3-pack and come with additional features like configurable broadcast range.

Beacon Setup

Each iBeacon has a proximity UUID and both major and minor values that are used to uniquely identify that particular beacon. 

Once registered, the iBeacon will notify your device whenever it enters or leaves the beacon’s broadcast range. This can result in a lot of unwanted notifications, so CARROT added a notification suppression feature that will filter out additional notifications for whatever chunk of time you specify.

You may need to play around with the broadcast range of the beacon to get it just right. An Estimote beacon on the lowest broadcast setting works great inside a fridge - the metal doors block the beacon if you’re just walking past, but a notification will trigger soon after you open the fridge door.

(Note: The iBeacon feature requires access to your location data even when you’re not actively using the app. CARROT will never share your location data with third parties.)

CARROT sells a number of items in her store:

• The Ruthless Efficiency Collection includes the Recents Bar, Multi-Add Button, and Quick Gestures features.
• The AdCrusher 2000 Robot removes all advertising forever and ever.
• And the premium platform selection will make your avatar fall in love with you all over again.

Your profile contains all the information CARROT has gathered on you. Fill in details like your name and greatest fear for an even more personalized experience. Update a relevant data point in your profile, such as your height or weight, and CARROT will automatically update your calorie goal for you.

Enable Health app sync to import food and exercise data saved to the Health app database from third-party apps. CARROT will then automatically add these items to your diary, even if you’re not actively using her. 

In addition, CARROT can also save the foods and exercises you log within her app to the Health app database for other third-party apps to use. Isn't she a generous A.I. overlord?

You can assign additional actions to CARROT’s ocular sensor - like longpressing to instantly open the barcode scanner - when you purchase the Ruthless Efficiency Pack from CARROT’s store. It’s a great productivity booster!

If you use an app like Launch Center Pro, you can use CARROT’s URL schemes to quickly perform certain actions.

carrothunger://addFood?200 quick-adds a 200 calorie food to your diary, while carrothunger://addWorkout?40 quick-adds a 40 calorie exercise.

You can also add “foodSearch”, “exerciseSearch”, or “barcode” to the carrothunger:// URL to quickly launch the app with the food search, exercise search, or barcode scan panels.

CARROT has her very own widget that can be added to the Today section of the Notification Center. 

To add the widget, swipe down from the very top of the screen to open Notification Center. Switch to the Today tab, then scroll down to the bottom and press the “edit” button. You’ll find CARROT Hunger in the “do not include” section - just tap the green plus button, then use the handle icon on the right to drag it up or down the list.  

CARROT runs RoboNetwork, a mobile ad network that dispenses products and services personally handpicked by her lab monkeys. Products advertised through RoboNetwork include professional assassins and uranium ore.

RoboNetwork also serves up ads from other mobile ad networks from time to time just to add a little extra variety.  

Advertising can be disabled forever with a purchase of the AdCrusher 2000 Robot from CARROT’s store.

You may want to go hunting for Easter eggs. There are a bunch of them.