Building a Smart Meal Planning App with Supabase and Lovable

Introduction

Hey there! 👋 I’ve been working on something exciting—a meal-planning app! I built it using two awesome tools: Supabase and Lovable. I wanted to share my experience bringing these together to create a full-stack app that helps people plan meals around their nutritional goals. Let’s dive in!

What I built

I built Avocado - a smart meal planning app that:

• Generates personalized meal plans based on users' macronutrient needs

• Stores favorite meals

• Tracks progress with photos and weight

• Provides a clean, user-friendly interface

Why Supabase and Lovable?

Supabase

• Authentication out of the box

• Real-time database

• File storage for progress photos

• Edge Functions for AI integration

Lovable

• AI-powered development environment

• Real-time preview of changes

• Built on modern stack (React, Typescript, Tailwind, Shadcn/UI)

• Incredibly fast prototyping

The Development Journey

1. Setting Up the Foundation

Started with user authentication using Supabase Auth, implementing both email/password and Google sign-in. The integration was smooth thanks to Lovable's native Supabase support.

2. Core Features Implementation

User Profiles

• Created a profiles table in Supabase

• Stored user preferences and physical stats

• Implemented automatic profile creation on signup

Meal Plan Generation

• Used Claude AI through Supabase Edge Functions to generate meal plans

• Stored meal plans in the database

• Implemented real-time updates

Progress Tracking

• Photo upload with Supabase Storage

• Weight tracking with charts

• Progress visualization

3. Real-time Features

One of the coolest aspects was implementing real-time updates using Supabase's subscription feature. When users save a meal plan or upload a progress photo, it updates instantly.

Technical Highlights

• Supabase RLS policies for data security

• Edge Functions for AI meal generation

• Real-time subscriptions for live updates

• File storage for progress photos

Challenges and Solutions

1. Authentication Flow: Initially had issues with redirect URLs, solved by proper Supabase configuration

2. AI Integration: Implemented rate limiting and error handling for the meal generation

3. Real-time Updates: Managed state efficiently using React Query

Developer Experience

The combination of Supabase and Lovable was incredibly powerful:

• Lovable's AI assistance accelerated development

• Supabase's dashboard made database management a breeze

• Real-time preview helped catch issues early

Conclusion

Building with Supabase and Lovable was such a great experience! Lovable, especially with its seamless Supabase integration, is an absolute game-changer. The mix of AI-powered development and Supabase's reliable backend made it so easy to create a full-featured app quickly and efficiently.

The web application is already deployed, feel free to test it here