Tips & Tricks Archives - Cronometer Blog

Tips & Tricks: Getting Started With The Cronometer App

Emily Wright — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 03:57:30 +0000

If you’re new to Cronometer let us be the first to say – welcome aboard! We are thrilled to have you and we feel like we’ve created the perfect app to help you reach your goals. Whether you’re looking to track your protein intake to gain muscle composition, keep an eye on your magnesium and omega 3 for better health or shed a couple pounds, you can count on our nutrition tracker because:

Our data is accurate.

The nutrition information found within our app comes from lab-analyzed sources, such as the NCCDB or USDA. Other nutrition tracking apps will allow users to submit their own entries, meaning there can be multiple options for a single food such as an egg, and each option will have different (and unreliable) nutrition information. We do still allow our users to submit foods into our database, but each entry is checked and verified by a staff member before being made available to the public.

You’re getting detailed information.

Cronometer gives you the ability to scroll through granular details on up to 84 micronutrients, which is more than any other app on the market. Take a deep dive on things like zinc and potassium or lysine and oxalate.

Because using a new app can occasionally be confusing we’ve compiled some tips and tricks so you can get the most out of your Cronometer account.

Swipe Right & Left

In the mobile app, you can swipe right or left on any entry in your diary. Swipe left to delete or swipe right to unlock more functionality such as copy & paste or to show more nutrition details.

You can also swipe left on the top header bar of your Diary to view your macros, highlighted targets & more!

Sync Apps & Devices

We support integrations with several mobile apps, such as Apple Health and Health Connect. We also provide support for many popular wearable devices and activity trackers such as Garmin, Fitbit, WHOOP, Oura and Suunto.

To get the most out of your existing exercise and health data, you can import it into Cronometer. Sync your device and our seamless integration will feed your activity and health data directly into your account.

Pro Tip

If you have a device that isn't on the list, see if it will sync data with Apple Health or Health Connect, then link those with Cronometer.

Create A Custom Meal

Within the web or mobile app, you can create a custom meal to make logging the things you eat on a regular basis easier than ever!

Do you drink coffee with a splash of milk and a teaspoon of sugar every morning? Create a meal so you don’t have to add all of the ingredients to your diary separately each time. Navigate to the Foods tab, then click ‘Create Meal’ to get started.

Pro Tip

Always taking the same combination of vitamins or supplements? Create a meal that includes them all to add it in one easy step.

Choose Your Food Entries Wisely

When you search for a food, you’ll notice that there are letters, like NCCDB, USDA or CRDB coming up on the right hand side of the screen. This is telling you the source of the nutrition data for that food entry.

To get the most accurate and reliable data, make sure you’re logging with generic entries from the NCCDB or the USDA. Read this blog for more tips on getting the best data.

Pro Tip

Click the orange filter button to bring up more food search options. You can filter out for just NCCDB data entries, sort by most frequent and even enable a multi-add function.

Edit Your Targets

Your daily targets for both your macronutrients (carbs, fat, protein) and your micronutrients (all of those vitamins & minerals) are fully customizable. Our default targets aren’t necessarily fit for everyone and we recommend checking with your doctor, nutritionist or dietitian to help tailor them specific to your needs. Edit these in the ‘More’ section of both the web and mobile app.

Ask For Help

We have a wonderful community around us here at Cronometer. A handful of staff members and over 10 million users are at the ready and willing to help. If you’re stuck and have a question or just need some straight up motivation, don’t be shy. Reach out to our support team, make a post in our community forums or leverage any of our social media accounts. We’re active on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok & YouTube so make sure you toss us a like, a follow and let us know what you think!

Ready To Level Up?

Tips & Tricks

2 mins read

Tips & Tricks: For The Advanced Cronometer User

Way to go! If you’re landing on this page, we’re making the assumption that you’ve made it past our basics and level up tips and tricks and you’re ready to graduate to a master user. If that’s the case, you’re in the right place. Below we’ll show you some high level tricks to...

Tips & Tricks

4 mins read

Tips & Tricks: Level Up With The Cronometer App

Congratulations! You’re continuing with your Cronometer journey past the basic first steps and for that, not only are we grateful, but your body will thank you. If you’ve landed on this page, we’re making the assumption that you’ve already read our Tips & Tricks – Getting Started blog, you’ve logged your first food,...

The post Tips & Tricks: Getting Started With The Cronometer App appeared first on Cronometer Blog.

Tips & Tricks: 9 Ways To Log Food Faster

Emily Wright — Sun, 01 Sep 2024 22:57:25 +0000

“It’s too time consuming to log my food.”

Yes – we know! It’s a lot of work, especially at the beginning of your Cronometer journey. We get this one all the time from users and while we think that the time spent logging your food is well worth the knowledge you gain from it, we do have a few tricks up our sleeve which will help you speed up the process.

Home Screen Quick Add

If you’re using the mobile app, it’s easy to reduce the amount of taps it takes to add a food. From the home screen of your phone, long-tap on the Cronometer icon which will bring up a quick actions menu. Tap Add Food, and you’ll get brought directly to the food search panel.

Barcode Scanner

A fan-favourite Cronometer feature is our Barcode Scanner. Don’t worry, it’s free! Simply scan the barcode of the food you’ve eaten and it will bring up the entry of that food in our database.

If the food isn’t already in our database, we’ll ask you to take a photo of the nutrition label and the packaging and the app will auto-fill the nutrition details and create a Custom Food in your account. This allows you to add the food to your Diary right away but it will also submit the item into our queue to be checked by a staff member before being added to the public database.

Access the Barcode Scanner (only available on the mobile app) in a few different ways:

Tap the + button on the main menu, select ‘Scan Food’.
Use the home screen quick actions menu mentioned above.
From the food search panel, tap the barcode icon in the top right corner.

Copy & Paste

Copy & paste is a functionality you can use in several ways across the app to save time while logging your food. Copy a single entry by swiping right on the food and tapping the ⋮ icon. Copy an entire day by tapping the ⋮ in the top right hand corner of your Diary. Gold users can also copy the contents of an entire Diary Group by swiping right on the Diary Group header.

Get a full breakdown of the many ways to use copy & paste on mobile or on web.

Custom Meals

If you’re not already using our Custom Meal feature, now is the time to start! Meals allow you to group several foods together so you can quickly add multiple foods in just a few taps.

If you’re always eating the same thing for breakfast (two eggs, toast and three coffees) or taking the same supplement cocktail every day, create a meal containing those items. That way, you’ll just need to add the Custom Meal to your Diary instead of each individual item.

Once a Custom Meal has been added to your Diary, you can use the ‘explode meal’ feature to create individual entries for each food so you can edit the measurements or delete items separately.

Learn how to leverage the Custom Meal feature here.

Set Repeat Items (Gold Feature)

By upgrading to Gold, you’ll get access to several features that will make tracking your nutrition faster and easier – you’ll no longer be interrupted by advertising, you can create recipes in a flash with our Recipe Importer and you’ll gain access to be able to schedule your foods, meals and recipes on repeat.

This feature cuts down a ton of time if you consistently consume the same foods since you can add all of your repeating items in just one click.

Multi-Add

If you’re adding multiple foods at once, you can save a little time by using the ‘Multi-Add’ functionality. When searching for a food on the mobile app, tap on the orange filter icon in the right hand side of the search bar. Toggle on ‘Enable Multi-Add’ and start your food search. Tap on the orange box to select an item and search for your next foods. You’ll be able to review before adding all of the items to your Diary or creating a Custom Recipe with your selection.

Quick Add From Diary Group (Gold Feature)

By upgrading to Gold, you’ll also gain access to Diary Groups which allow you to categorize your food entries. Most of our users will use breakfast, lunch and dinner but we applaud any creativity here.

Diary Groups also come with some little-known functionality including the quick add menu. On mobile, tap the + on the left side of the Diary Group label, which will bring up a menu allowing you to add food, exercise, a biometric, note or scan a barcode.

You can even customize the menu for each Diary Group in More > Diary Settings > Group Quick Add Preferences.

Dictate On iOS

If you use Cronometer on an iPhone, enable dictation and you’ll be able to talk instead of type during the food search process. Enabling dictation will allow you to speak anywhere there’s a text field so if you prefer to speak rather than type, this can be a handy tool.

While in the food search panel, tap the search bar and press on the microphone icon in the bottom right corner of the keyboard. Then just say the food you’re looking for and Apple will type it into the search bar for you.

Quick Add From Custom Foods & Recipes Page

On mobile, if you find yourself on your Custom Foods or Custom Recipes page (Foods > Custom Foods or Foods > Custom Recipes), swipe right on any item in the list to bring up an option to add that item to your Diary.

Well, there you have it. We hope that you learned at least one thing from these quick-adding tips. Put them into practice to help make logging your food in Cronometer an easier, breezier process.

Want to learn more Crono hacks? Here are some more tips & tricks.

The post Tips & Tricks: 9 Ways To Log Food Faster appeared first on Cronometer Blog.

Tips & Tricks: Searching For A Food

Eliisa — Thu, 16 May 2024 20:54:31 +0000

If you’re having trouble finding the right foods or want to learn how to log food more efficiently, then you’ve come to the right place! There is so much functionality in our food search that you have yet to discover.

Read on for time-saving food search tips!

Getting To The Food Search

First things first, let’s get you to the food search menu.

On mobile, tap the + button > Add Food.

On web, click Diary > + Food

Searching For Food

Once you’ve opened the food search menu, a list of your recently logged foods will appear. Tap on the orange sort button (shown as ‘Most Recent’ in the screenshot above) to change how these entries are sorted.

If you don’t see what you want in those selections, there are two options to search for a food:

Text-based Search

To use our text-based search, which we recommend to get the most accurate and comprehensive data, simply start typing!

Barcode Scanner

If you’re on the mobile app and looking for a branded food that has a nutrition label and a barcode, using our Barcode Scanner is the easiest way to find what you’re looking for.

Tap the icon to the right of the text box and hover your camera over the barcode of the item.

If the item is in our database, it will pull up the food entry and you can easily add that to your Diary.

If the food isn’t in our database, you can quickly create a Custom Food by taking two photos – one of the product and one of the nutrition label. The app will read the nutrition label and automatically create a Custom Food for you. You can add this Custom Food entry to your Diary right away and will have the option to submit it to our curation queue, which will be verified for accuracy before getting added to the public database.

Multi-Add

Our multi-add functionality allows you to search and add multiple food entries at once, speeding up your food logging process.

On mobile, tap the orange icon within the text search bar. Toggle on ‘Enable Multi-Add’.

Then, you can continue to search for multiple food entries, check the boxes and they will all be added to your Diary in one fell swoop.

You can even create your own Custom Recipe from these selections.

Customize How Food Entries Are Sorted

You can choose how your food entries are sorted within the food search. Choose from:

A to Z
Z to A
Most Frequent
Most Recent

On mobile, tap the orange icon and text to change or tap the icon to bring up the full list of options.

On web, tap the orange icon within the text search bar.

Using The Food Search Filters

You can use filters to hone in on specific search results, allowing you to find foods faster.

On mobile, tap the orange icon within the text search bar.

On web, click the icon within the text search bar.

Filter By Category

Use the categories to filter into more specific search results. Categories available include:

All
Favorites: scroll down to learn how to add food entries into this category.
Common Foods: This will show results from our highest quality nutrition databases and will typically have the most nutrition information available for a particular food.
Supplements
Brands: This will show store-bought, brand name products.
Restaurants: This will show foods from restaurants that are included in our database.
Custom: This will show your Custom Foods, Custom Meals and Custom Recipes that you’ve created in your Cronometer account. It will also show any Custom Foods, Meals or Recipes that have been shared with you by other users.

Filter By Database

The letters that show up on the right-hand side of a food entry indicates which database it is coming from. You’ll typically see the following:

USDA
NCCDB
CRDB
Custom

Food entries from our lab-analyzed databases like the USDA and NCCDB will have the most accurate nutrition data. If accuracy is a priority for you, use this filter to only show results from our lab-analyzed databases. You can learn more about our data sources and how to get the most accurate data here.

Adding Your Food Entry

Once you have found the food you are looking for, select it from the list. You can then change the serving size, quantity and the group it will be added to in your Diary.

By upgrading to Cronometer Gold, you can also choose to add and change the Timestamp.

In this section you can also see the full nutritional breakdown of the food. Scroll down to see calorie, macronutrient and vitamins and mineral content of this food.

We will list the data source and the number of nutrients included in this food entry, so you can quickly assess the accuracy of this entry.

For example, on the entry below, you’ll see the data source as NCCDB and it has 82 listed nutrients, which is a nice, full nutrient profile.

When Better Alternatives Exist

We’re now using AI to automatically ensure you can access better, more accurate data.

If a user submitted, branded product or restaurant food has a similar food entry in one of our lab-analyzed databases, we will cross reference and automatically add the nutrients that the entry is missing. You’ll see that this is the case when there are two data sources listed and a magic wand icon appears with the listed nutrients.

Adding A Food To Favorites

Mark your frequently eaten foods as favourites to find them easily later on.

On mobile, you can tap on the star beside the name of the food or tap the icon in the top right hand side, then ‘Add to Favorites’.

On web, click the star beside the name of the food.

Then, use the favorites category filter to see all of your favorite foods in one place.

The post Tips & Tricks: Searching For A Food appeared first on Cronometer Blog.

JJ Virgin’s Top Tips For Cronometer Users

Emily Wright — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 20:41:56 +0000

Here at Cronometer, we don’t subscribe or push any specific diet. We are here to support you in your health and wellness goals whether you’re on a vegan, ketogenic, mediterranean or you-name-it diet. As of lately though, we have been noticing that a lot of our users are coming to us thanks to JJ Virgin, certified nutrition expert and Fitness Hall of Famer. Read more about JJ Virgin here.

So, if you’re following or planning to follow any of JJ Virgin’s programs, challenges or diets, you’ve come to the right place. JJ recommends using Cronometer and here are some of her favorite tips for using the app.

"It’s not just an app, it’s my secret weapon for success!”

JJ Virgin, CNS, CHFS

Let's Talk About Protein

JJ is a strong believer that a protein-first approach is the best way to balance blood sugar, optimize your metabolism, and meet your body-composition goals.

She recommends:

0.7 grams of protein per pound of ideal body weight is the minimum for healthy folks and those who want to maintain a healthy weight.
1 gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight if you’re vegan, aging, training really hard, or you’re recovering from illness, injury, or surgery.

So to get your protein target, say I am a healthy person wanting to maintain a healthy body weight. I currently weigh 175 pounds, but my ideal body weight is 160 pounds. I would take 160 * 0.7 = 112, meaning I would need to aim to eat 112 grams of protein every day.

For more info on how much protein JJ recommends, read this blog or start her 7-day Protein First Challenge here.

Setting Your Protein Target In Cronometer

It’s super easy to set this up so that Cronometer does all the work for you!

On mobile, tap More > Targets > Macronutrient Settings. Then tap ‘Set macros using’ and set this to ‘Fixed Values’. Toggle to the Grams option (as opposed to kcals) and type in your specific protein target.

On the desktop version, click More > Profile + Targets > scroll down to Macronutrient Targets. Click the drop down menu for ‘Set macro targets using’ and select ‘Fixed ratios’. Select the Grams option (as opposed to kcals) and type in your specific protein target.

Intermittent Fasting

If your program includes intermittent fasting, Gold subscribers can easily track and schedule your fasts right within the app.

Not sure if you should be fasting? It has been picking up momentum in the health and nutrition space since about 2015 and is growing in popularity across the globe, for good reason. There’s tons of scientific research to support its health benefits and it’s undeniably improving the lives of many individuals.

Sync A Device

Don’t forget to sync a device for a holistic approach to transforming into a leaner, stronger, more powerful you.

Cronometer integrates with several wearable devices and apps such as WHOOP, Oura Ring, Garmin, Fitbit, Samsung, Apple, Suunto and more.

About JJ Virgin

As a triple-board certified nutrition expert and Fitness Hall of Famer, JJ is a passionate advocate of the healing power of nutrition, and is mission driven to change the way the world sees aging and longevity.

She has launched 2 multimillion-dollar businesses, including a 7-figure personal brand, and founded the Mindshare Collaborative, the most influential professional community in health, having propelled more New York Times bestsellers, PBS specials, and 7 figure brands than any other community.

JJ is a prominent TV and media personality who co-hosted TLC’s Freaky Eaters and was the nutrition expert for Dr. Phil’s Weight Loss Challenges. She’s made numerous appearances on PBS, Dr. Oz, Rachael Ray, Access Hollywood, and The TODAY Show. She also speaks regularly, commanding audiences of 10,000 or more, and has shared the stage with other highly sought-after experts including Tony Robbins, Seth Godin, Lisa Nichols, Gary Vaynerchuk, Dr. Mark Hyman, Dan Buettner, Mary Morrissey and more.

JJ is the author of four NY Times bestsellers: The Virgin Diet, The Virgin Diet Cookbook, JJ Virgin’s Sugar Impact Diet, and JJ Virgin’s Sugar Impact Diet Cookbook. Her book, Warrior Mom: 7 Secrets to Bold, Brave Resilience, shares the inspirational lessons JJ learned as she fought for her son’s life.

Evidence of JJ’s far-reaching impact can be seen in the millions of views on her YouTube channel, Instagram and Facebook, and through her popular podcast Well Beyond 40 with JJ Virgin, which has more than 18 million downloads and counting.

JJ is a 3x Inc. 5000 Founder and a top 10 finalist for the John C Maxwell award. As an authority on transformational leadership, she has coached some of the biggest names in health and transformed the lives of millions of people around the world.

The post JJ Virgin’s Top Tips For Cronometer Users appeared first on Cronometer Blog.

7 Tips For Getting The Most Accurate Nutrition Data

admin — Fri, 24 Nov 2023 16:17:00 +0000

At Cronometer, we pride ourselves in having the best, most comprehensive nutrition information that an app can give. Our app is a powerful tool for tracking your nutrition in great detail. However, with great power comes great responsibility.

Nutrition science and nutrition data is a messy business, and in order to get the most out of Cronometer, it does require a bit more education on the nuances and complications around tracking diets. This article provides a guide through some of these issues and tips for how to deal with them.

A Note On Cronometer's Data

When you search for a food in Cronometer, it’s good to know that your search results will be coming from three main sources:

Lab-Analyzed: We have a large database of common whole foods that have been analyzed in great detail. Foods coming from lab-analyzed sources will be non-branded, generic listings (like Almonds, Raw) and they will be marked as USDA, NCCDB, NUTTAB.

User Submitted Foods: We have a growing database of foods which is populated by user submitted food entries. To ensure accuracy, each of these entries are checked by a staff member before being made readily available to the rest of our users. That being said, foods coming from these sources will typically be limited to the number of nutrients listed on the nutrition label when in reality, more nutrients are present. These foods will be marked as CRDB.

Branded Products & Restaurant Foods: We also rely on several databases of popular branded foods and chain restaurant foods. Foods coming from these sources will typically be limited to the number of nutrients listed on the nutrition label when in reality, more nutrients are present. These foods will be marked as UPC or Nutritionix.

For more information on our data sources, click here.

Tips For Maximizing Your Data

Check The Source

When searching for a food, check the ‘source’ column.

USDA, NCCDB, CNF, NUTTAB, CoFID, NEVO, IFCDB are all of our lab-analyzed sources which will have the most detailed nutrition information.
CRDB, UPC, Nutritionix will typically be less detailed nutrition information with data being sources from the foods nutrition label.

Hot tip: tap over to the ‘Common’ category or use the filter button when searching for a food to only show results from specified data sources.

Check The Nutrient Count

Tap into any food entry to quickly check the number of listed nutrients. If a food has 50 or less listed nutrients, chances are the data is coming strictly from the nutrition label and isn’t a comprehensive look at all of it’s nutrients.

When Better Alternatives Exist

We’re now using AI to automatically ensure you can access better, more accurate data.

If a User Submitted, Branded Product or Restaurant Food has a similar food entry in one of our lab-analyzed databases, we will cross reference and automatically add the nutrients that the entry is missing. You’ll see that this is the case when there are two data sources listed and a magic wand icon appears with the listed nutrients.

Be Careful Using The Barcode Scanner

One of the greatest features of Cronometer that can help you log food faster is our Barcode Scanner – and yes, it’s free!

If you enjoy the convenience of using the Barcode Scanner, it’s good to keep in mind that the majority of results will be coming from the second data source mentioned above. Meaning, you might not be getting credit for some of the nutrients you’re eating because it wasn’t listed on the nutrition label.

So, if you’re trying to leverage Cronometer for accurate micronutrient tracking, you might want to avoid using the Barcode Scanner and look for food entries with full nutrient profiles (70+ listed nutrients) from the NCCDB, USDA or NUTTAB.

For example, let’s say you ate some brazil nuts which are a great source of selenium. Scanning the package with the Barcode Scanner will bring up Trader Joe’s Brazil Nuts, which contains 17 listed nutrients. As opposed to a generic Brazil Nuts, Unsalted entry from the NCCDB, which has data for 76 different nutrients.

Weigh It Out

If you want the most accuracy, we recommend using a kitchen scale to weigh your ingredients with a kitchen scale. In Cronometer, most food entries have different serving sizes available to choose from, but some can be subjective, especially for certain types of foods.

For example, if you were adding ‘1 cup of raw baby spinach’, this can vary person to person. One may loosely pack the leaves into a cup, and another may stuff them in tightly. Both have 1 cup of baby spinach, but the actual amounts can be completely different.

Remove the ambiguity here by weighing the food and entering the actual gram weight. This is less of an issue for food types that are more uniform like liquids or powders (my cup of flour should be the same as yours).

Try To Stick To Whole Foods

This suggestion might sound a little cheeky, but if you truly care about optimizing your nutrition and improving your health, try to prepare your own food from quality whole-food ingredients. If you eat whole foods, you’ll be logging the best data as a side effect!

Understand The Limitations

Nutrition data can be messy, even for high-quality data sources. Exact amounts of nutrients can vary significantly from sample to sample. One apple’s nutrient profile can be significantly different from another, even if it’s picked from the same tree.

The nutrition information provided will be derived from the average of several different lab tests of the food.

Don’t get too caught up in the exact amounts down to the microgram. These are meant to be accurate numbers but not precision truths.

In Summary

If you’re only paying attention to your macros (calories, carbs, protein, fat) then feel free to take a step back and be less discerning, but if you care about the finer details like your micronutrient intake, amino acids, and other nutrient breakdowns:

Pay attention to the sources
Use the ‘Common’ category selection as much as possible
Weigh your ingredients with a kitchen scale
Be careful when using the barcode scanner
Eat & log whole foods

The post 7 Tips For Getting The Most Accurate Nutrition Data appeared first on Cronometer Blog.

5 Ways To Spread The #CronoLove

Emily Wright — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 13:44:00 +0000

We’re not shy to admit – we LOVE you. Each and every one of you. We strive every day to help make reaching your health and nutrition goals a seamless endeavour.

Whether you’re a power user or a brand-spankin’ newbie, if you like using the Cronometer app and love us as much as we love you, here are a few simple ways you can spread the #CronoLove. Not only will you be supplying us with warm fuzzies to thrive off of but you will be helping to support the longevity of a company dedicated to helping you! How’s that for a symbiotic relationship?

Tell Your Friends

We now have over 10 million users world-wide, and we attribute that success to the power of a simple recommendation. If you enjoy the app, don’t be shy to spread the word and tell your friends, family, doctors, nutritionists and clients about us! Give $5 and get $5 with our refer a friend program. Enter your friend’s email address into the app, which gives them $5 off their Cronometer Gold subscription. Once they upgrade, you’ll get either $5 off Cronometer Gold or a $5 electronic gift card, depending on your subscription status.

Rate Us On The App Store

A simple step that goes a long way. If you think we’re worth it, give us a 4 or 5-star rating on the App Store or Google Play Store. This will help to boost our ranking within our Health & Fitness category. We also have a staff member that thrives off reading our app reviews – she replies to every single one!

Follow & Tag Us On Social

We’re active on several social media platforms, so toss us a like on your favourite one! We’ll keep you up to date on any feature releases, give you tips and tricks on how to use the app, share nutrition information and even try to keep you motivated.

Whether you’re sharing results, how you like to use the app or just straight up #CronoLove, don’t forget to tag our accounts so we can keep up with you, too!

Share Your Crono Story

We always love to hear how Cronometer has helped you reach your health goals! If you’re interested in sharing your story, here are a few ways to do so:

Book a video call with us – If you’re comfortable on camera, we’d love to chat and hear how Cronometer has made a difference in your life. The call will be recorded and your testimonial may be used to help promote the app.
Alert the media – share your story with your followers and beyond using the hashtag #CronoLove
Send us an email

We’re all ears and can’t wait to hear from you!

Upgrade To Gold

A major part of how we can continue to thrive in our space is through users upgrading to our Gold subscription. Not only will you get access to some amazing additional features like Repeat Items, the Recipe Importer, Nutrition Scores, a Fasting Timer & more, you’ll also be supporting our growth.

Already a Gold member? We now have functionality which allows you to Gift Gold to a friend or family member.

We’re a small company, around 50 “Cronomites”, based in Revelstoke, British Columbia in Canada. We’re growing fast and hope to continue to help our users for many years to come! Curious to hear more about our story? Listen to our podcast episode with our three founders.

Have suggestions on how we can improve your experience? We’d love to hear from you!

The post 5 Ways To Spread The #CronoLove appeared first on Cronometer Blog.

Tips For Using Cronometer On The Keto Diet

Emily Wright — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 23:25:00 +0000

We know that a ton of our users are following a ketogenic diet, so we’ve created several features and functionality in the app to make reaching your keto goals a bit easier. Follow along for a few tips and tricks to help get the most out of your Cronometer account while on a keto diet.

Set Your Macros With The Keto Calculator

If you’re a bit lost as to how you should be setting your macros in order to follow a keto diet, look no further than the Keto Calculator! Watch the video below or check out the user manual to learn how to use it on mobile or web. You can set how stringent you want to adhere to a keto program, with options of rigorous, moderate, relaxed or custom.

Sync A Ketone Monitor Device

You can automatically sync blood ketones from Keto-Mojo into your Cronometer account to assess your progress within the app. Visit this blog to learn more.

Keep An Eye On Your Ketogenic Nutrition Score

Gold subscribers have access to our Nutrition Scores feature, which includes a Ketogenic score. This gives you an overall percentage for how well you’re hitting your targets for total fat and staying under your limit for net carbs, achieving your protein target without going over your maximum threshold, eating at least 4000 mg sodium, and meeting your targets for potassium, magnesium, water and fiber. Learn more about the Ketogenic Nutrition Score here.

Not a Gold subscriber yet? Here are 9 reasons why you should be.

Dial In With Accurate Entries

If you’re looking for real results, accuracy is your friend and that’s where Cronometer shines the brightest! As much as possible, try to enter food from our NCCDB or USDA databases, which have the best and most comprehensive nutrient profiles. This will ensure you’re getting realistic and accurate values for net carbs, fats and protein on your Nutrition Report.

If possible, we also recommend using a food scale to get down to the nitty gritty and to be 100% confident in your data. Here are more ways to get the best data.

The post Tips For Using Cronometer On The Keto Diet appeared first on Cronometer Blog.

Easing The Transition: MyFitnessPal to Cronometer

Emily Wright — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 19:25:47 +0000

We’ve done the research and our user survey results have indicated that as much as 64% of Cronometer users try or use the nutrition tracking app, MyFitnessPal, before coming over to us. Several people, including our staff, refer to Cronometer as the app that you graduate to if you’re serious about your nutrition.

From chatting to our users, though, we know that making the transition can be a bit overwhelming. Although we have a cleaner database, we provide you a lot more information and we’re here to help you dissect it from the lens of a previous MyFitnessPal user!

Dial In Your Settings

Whether you’re on the web or mobile app, the sign up process for Cronometer will take you through similar questions as MyFitnessPal’s. We ask for some personal details so that we can set your energy (calorie) targets based on your weight goal. Many of our users, however, will want to set a custom energy target.

Here’s how to do that on the web app or on the mobile app.

You can also change your macro targets based on a ratio, fixed values or you can use our keto calculator. Here’s how to do that on the web app or on the mobile app.

Food Search

Our food search functionality is a bit different to MyFitnessPal’s for a few reasons. First of all, our food entries are pulled from lab-analyzed databases such as the NCCDB or the USDA or are verified by a staff member. So, you may notice that the food database is a lot cleaner.

Some users, however, have trouble finding our food search filters on the mobile app. There is a little filter button in the top right hand corner which will allow you to sort your food search results by most recent, most frequent or alphabetically.

On this same screen, you can also enable the multi-add function or filter the results by the database.

Creating Recipes

Similar to MyFitnessPal, you can create Custom Recipes in Cronometer but many users seem to have trouble finding that functionality. Here’s how to do that on the web app or on the mobile app.

We see some users asking to see individual ingredients from a recipe in their diary. You can achieve this by swiping right on the mobile app or right clicking on the web app on the recipe and clicking ‘explode recipe’.

Creating A Custom Food

Our database might appear small, but it’s actually mighty and that’s because we don’t have duplicates of the same foods. This can save you valuable time while searching for the right item to add to your diary.

A lot of our foods are from North America, but we’re rounding out entries from other countries; the more labels that are submitted from other destinations means that our database is growing rapidly – we’re entering thousands of verified foods every week!

If something isn’t available, you can easily add it as a Custom Food (mobile / web app) and you’ll have access to it right away, after our curation team checks it, it will be available to the public.

The Barcode Scanner

Heck yes – we have a barcode scanner and it’s available in the free account, along with all of these other features.

Using the barcode scanner (only available on mobile) is a breeze. Quickly scan the barcode to match the product to the correct item in our database. If it doesn’t already exist as an entry, take a photo of the nutrition label and we’ll wave a magic wand, creating a Custom Food so you can add it to your diary in a few clicks!

KCal Are The Same As Calories

Alongside all of your metrics, you’ll see the term kcal instead of calories. Yes, they are the same thing!

Quick Add Calories

We’ve noticed a lot of users transitioning from MyFitnessPal looking to simply add the calories or the macros of a food without entering in all the details. We’re suckers for nutrition information but can appreciate you might only be eating something once or you’re logging on the run and for that we created our “Quick Add” entries.

If you’re looking to add only the calories of the meal type in “Quick Add, Calories” into the search bar and enter in the numbers of calories consumed. For a little bit more detail for you macronutrients you can also search “Quick Add, Protein”, “Quick Add, Fat” or “Quick Add, Carbohydrate”.

The Community

Many of our users come over from MyFitnessPal and mention that they miss the access to their community – the encouragement and support that they can get from being able to speak to others in their situation. We totally understand!

While it may not be nearly as large, we do have an active community of users on Reddit and Facebook and we’re always here to support you if you want to chat. Reach out to us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or Twitter.

So, there you have it – all of the common hiccups that users will typically see when making the switch to Cronometer from MyFitnessPal. We’re so happy to have you and hope that we can continue to be an integral part of your health and wellness journey for years to come!

If you have any additional questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our customer support team.

The post Easing The Transition: MyFitnessPal to Cronometer appeared first on Cronometer Blog.