Best Of
Re: Recipe Question
That's strange. When I enter a food into my diary that I've previously created as a recipe, if I choose to explode the recipe it simply lists all of the ingredients separately in my diary. Is it possible you are not noticing that instead of the named recipe it's just changing to the individual ingredients?
For example, I have a recipe for two scrambled eggs and two slices of melted cheese on it; cooked with butter. Sometimes I don't use both slices of cheese, sometimes I don't cook it with butter - I still enter that food that I've made into a recipe - into my diary. The recipe is simply named "2 scrambled eggs w/2 slices cheese" - and that is what shows up in my diary. Once it's there, I can select it, right click to open a drop-down, and click on "explode recipe". All it does is list allllllll of the ingredients, (the original named recipe is no longer there because it is all of the ingredients listed individually). So it lists the eggs, the cheese, and the butter and no longer lists the recipe name. Then, I can just change the cheese to one slice instead of two or delete it from the recipe for that day.
Sorry if this isn't helping. I don't use the app so it might behave differently on different devices.
Re: Measuring ketones with Precision Xtra meter
I also am a type 2 diabetic (diagnosed in 2011). Over the years I have studied and learned a lot both from books/videos and also from trying different diets and the effects on my diabetes.
From a diabetic view point, our bodies cannot handle carbs. I have been doing a low carb/higher fat type diet for several years now with very good results. My doctor at one point wanted me to start on a statin for my Cholesterol (My total cholesterol was 200 but because of a bad family history of heart issues he thought it was a good idea). After doing some research on the negative effects of statins I went began faithfully exercising and also watching my carbs much more closely. I spent a few weeks studying everything about cholesterol and decided to do the opposite of what is recommended (which means I did Keto). I also decided to pay for a specialized cholesterol test after 4 months of the diet to show my doctor (I believe its called the NMR Lipoprofile test) that much more accurately measures risk indicators, size of LDL, etc. The result is everything on my test came back better than average (better than most non-diabetics)! Don't be afraid of doing Keto ... you will find (as you are already finding) that your diabetes will greatly improve as will your other tests.
Lately I have been doing Keto with IF (intermittent fasting as taught by Jason Fung). This just means that I am going longer between my last meal in the evening, till my first meal the next day. This allows the insulin level to fall (which stays too high in most type 2 diabetics if their beta cells are not burned out) and allows my body to burn/use up the glucose from the day before and begin burning fat. In just a week of doing it my bG is staying in the high 70's/low 80's during the fasting time, and my diastolic blood pressure is staying in the low 70's. (I may have to cut back on my blood pressure medicine which is a good thing).
If I tried to follow the diet your doctor is suggesting (which is probably similar to the ADA diet with 120+ grams of carbs daily) I would never be able to control my bG's. I highly recommend you watch some videos on youtube by Jason Fung.
As a diabetic you have 2 choices on how you deal with your diabetes:
- The way most diabetics deal with it is to continue eating too many carbs and gradually increasing meds over the years until they get to the point they go blind, lose a foot, etc. The meds only deal with the bG's which is just a symptom.
- Other's like myself deal with what is causing the high blood glucose - too much carbs and also the problem of the effects of too much insulin (too much insulin caused by lack of insulin sensitivity). If you deal with the cause not the symptom, then you will control your diabetes, it doesn't have to progress and become worse.
Re: Weight Loss Challenges
Realising the difference between head hunger and stomach hunger! I've been eating low carb for almost two months now, and this way of eating has made me generally much much less hungry during the day, to the point where I've been able to realise that I was getting "hungry" according to the clock, and had lost the ability to listen to my actual body!!
Re: Hello
@Jamie Veggies are great, but for Keto one wants to avoid any that are starchy or sweet (so no potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets, etc...). Leafy greens and cruciferous veggies are mostly fiber so are generally compatible with keto.
Target Bars Set to Reach Minimums Instead of the Goal Being to Stay Under Maximums
Let me first say that the work you people are doing at Cronometer is CHANGING PEOPLES LIVES! Know that as you clock in for your work today and everyday, know that the work you are doing with Cronometer is helping people achieve their goals and live happier, healthier lives. How cool is that?
I have a lot of feedback, but let me start at the top of the list because the way the Target Goals are set up seems completely backwards to me.
Looking at the Diet Profile on the Target Settings, it makes no sense that your bar charts in Targets show the Minimums as your daily goal, as if most people are shooting to reach a minimum amount of calories or a minimum amount of carbs or a minimum amount of fat every day. For protein, yes I can see that you would want to target a minimum goal of protein, but for 90 - 95% of us, I'm pretty sure the daily struggle is to stay UNDER a MAXIMUM amount of calories, carbs and fats.
By adjusting the scale of the Target bars to the user defined maximums, it would make so much more sense, and then perhaps somewhere to the left of the end of the bar, you could also add little hash marks for the minimums as well.
Re: Target Bars Set to Reach Minimums Instead of the Goal Being to Stay Under Maximums
But food is the devil! LOL.
I lost 59 pounds in three months last year, but coming off of that, I knew that the even bigger challenge would be in keeping it off, which means trading in the crash diet mentality for a healthy lifestyle mentality. It's over a year later now and yet I still have trouble pulling myself out of the crash diet mentality, but . . . I do know you're absolutely right when you place the emphasis on fueling the body.
I still think for most people however, we'd rather know at a glance if we're under our own personal maximums for calories and carbs and fats for the day.
The perfect solution would be to add a setting where the user could choose having those target bar charts set to meeting minimums or staying under maximums.
Re: Measuring ketones with Precision Xtra meter
Thanks for the responses! I found this ketosis "zone" chart
Nutritional ketosis optimal zone is 0.5 to 3.5 According to Dr's Volek and Phinney, Authors of The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living.
I did my first ketone test today and it was 2.6 right in the optimal zone so I must be doing keto right!!!
So far 45 days in and am 18.6 lbs down and glucose readings are all under 120 now.
Re: Different Calorie goals on Specific Days
Even for those of us who fast intermittently (or not at all), some of us need to take in more protein on the strength-training workout days, or more carbs on other days. Customizable calorie/macro days could prove to be a powerful addition to Cronometer.
Different Calorie goals on Specific Days
I've been using the paid program for a couple months and really love tracking my overall intakes. It's nice to see where I need to adjust for more protein, different vitamins, etc. What I would really like is to be able to set different calorie goals for different days. I do a 4:3 diet where 3 days of the week I have fasting 5-600 calorie days and usually 1 day on the weekend I eat absolutely whatever I want and it may wind up over 2000 calories. It is so hard to track where I'm at on the fasting days b/c all it can tell me is that I can still have 700 more calories that day. (I have it set on a generic 1200 cal/day) Everything else about this tracker I love. (I tested lots of different ones when I started and found this to be the best to fit my needs) I even refer people starting diets to use your program for how nice it is. If you could add this one feature, the program would be perfect to me.