The 5 Eating Styles Inside Lecker — And The Wiggle Room Behind Each One

Inside Lecker you'll see five eating styles — one-tap presets you can apply to any recipe. They're not marketing labels. Each one is a target ratio of protein, carbs and fat (or, for No rules, no macro target at all) that reflects how that style of eating actually works, plus a set of per-macro bands that decide when a recipe has drifted too far to still count.

This post breaks down all five: the split, why it looks that way, and — the part almost no diet app talks about — exactly how much each macro is allowed to move before Lecker steps in.

The five eating styles

For anyone who doesn't want to think about macros. The ONLY constraint is calories per serving (±10% of your target). Lecker recreates whatever dish you paste, describe, or scan as close to the original as possible — no ingredient swaps for nutritional reasons. When a dish is over calories, we protect the hero elements (sauce, protein, toppings) and trim the neutral base (pasta, rice, bread) instead of shrinking everything proportionally. Extra bolognese, lighter on the pasta. Open-face for maximum topping coverage. The full dish experience, just slightly leaner.

The default preset. A balanced split that fits almost any real meal — enough protein to stay full, enough carbs to fuel your day, enough fat for flavour and satisfaction. If you're not sure which style to pick, pick this one.

For anyone losing weight or building muscle. Protein around 40% keeps you full, protects lean mass in a deficit, and is the single biggest lever for looking better as the scale moves. Lecker locks protein into a 35–55% window — it won't let a 'high protein' recipe come back at 28%, and it won't push protein so high the meal stops being food.

For anyone cutting back on refined carbs — bread, pasta, rice, sugar — without going full keto. A moderate 20% carbs / 35% protein / 45% fat split keeps energy steady, protein high enough for satiety, and fat generous for flavour. Lecker gives carbs a tighter ±6pp band (with a hard floor of 14% and hard ceiling of 26%) because drifting too high defeats the purpose, and holds protein and fat at ±8pp.

Set your own protein / carbs / fat targets. Lecker treats them the same way it treats Balanced — ±8pp on each macro — so the bands stay meaningful no matter what split you dial in.

The full band table

Every style gets its own per-macro band. Kcal per serving is always allowed to move ±10% of your target.

"pp" means percentage points — the distance between the recipe's macro share and the style's target. A recipe at 30% protein on Balanced (target 32%) is 2pp off, well inside ±8pp. Kcal is a straight ±10% of the per-serving target you set.

Why each style has its own bands

Every diet app pretends macros are exact. They aren't. Real meals hit ratios approximately, and different diets tolerate different amounts of drift before the benefit goes away. That's why the bands aren't the same everywhere:

• Lower Carb works by reducing refined carbs — bread, pasta, rice, sugar — without the strict biological switch of keto. Carbs get a tighter ±6pp band with a hard ceiling of 26% because letting them drift back up defeats the purpose. Protein and fat get the normal ±8pp.
• High Protein works on a physiological threshold. Below ~35% protein the muscle-and-satiety benefit fades; above ~55% the meal stops being food and starts being a shake. Hence the 35–55% window.
• Balanced and Custom sit in the middle — ±8pp on every macro, symmetric, no floors or ceilings.
• Kcal is universal — ±10% of your per-serving target across every style, because portion size is the easiest thing to adjust in real cooking.

How this shows up in the app

When you cook a recipe with an eating style set, Lecker checks each macro against its band. Miss the protein band on High Protein — say a recipe comes back at 30% — and you'll see the ratio-drift warning above the macros. On Lower Carb, that warning fires as soon as carbs cross 26%. On Balanced or Custom it's a clean 8pp on each macro.

The same bands are used everywhere recipes are generated — Describe, URL, Scan, and Surprise Me — so a High Protein recipe from any entry point lands in the same window. If a recipe can't naturally hit the bands, the AI is instructed to reach for creative, chef-driven additions (a swirl of tahini, a spoon of Greek yogurt, a handful of roasted chickpeas) rather than just shrinking the portion.

The right band is the one that matches how the diet actually works.

Pick the eating style that fits your life. Cook the food you love. Lecker does the math.