Track macros without calories

Sicahjes

Hi Team,

I'm not too sure if this is possible, or if it's currently available and I'm just messing it up, but here goes:

My Situation:
I had a break from tracking calories. When I came back to it, I found that I would get too hard on myself if my calories tipped over 1300 per day - which isn't really sustainable for my body type and activity level. I get too focused on the calories instead of focusing on nutrition.

Preference:
I'd like to focus on eating 'good' foods that help me meet my macro and micro nutrient targets (the latter is especially important, as I'm vegan).

Problem:
If I switch off 'Show Calories Summary in Diary' it also switches of my Daily Macronutrient Targets (as it's based on calories, I'm assuming).

Short Term Solution:
I have changed some of my targets to percentages for protein, fat and carbs, but it's nested with other nutrient trackers - and I had so sacrifice other key micro-nutrients that I like to track for my health.

Suggestion:
Could there be an option to create a Macronutrient Tracker field that doesn't display calories? Possibly a Gold Members feature whereby users could choose between the current Calorie display, a Daily non-caloire Macro display, or to switch it off?

In an ideal world, I would love to replace the Daily Calorie Count section with Activity Tracking, and change the Macronutrient targets to a non-calorie display.

I hope I've explained myself well!

EDIT: I should also add that even through I can switch off the calorie display on a laptop, it still shows the calories on the app... which is not ideal.

Susan_RD_101

@Sicahjes

I'll let the brains who run the app answer your questions about the logistics of tracking and address your concerns about going over your target.

As an RD who's worked in weight loss for many a year, 1300 calories can be a difficult target for most people to sustain long-term. If your goal is weight loss, it might be better to set a more flexible target (say 1400-1500 kcal), which is likely still less than your maintenance kcal needs and will lead to weight loss, albeit more slowly (and in my opinion- sustainably).

I also wouldn't be too hard on yourself for going over your calorie target; what matter's most is your weekly average. If you can generate nutrient reports, you will be able to see what your calorie intake is like over the week and month; this is far more telling of true weight loss than day-to-day fluctuations.

Hope this provides some reassurance!

Kind regards,

Sicahjes

Thanks for the feedback. I’m not trying to aim for 1300, I’m just trying to track nutrients without calories.

Marie_Eve_Cronometer

Hello @Sicahjes ,

Thanks for the very well explained suggestions! As you have noticed, if you are using the mobile app, you can choose to hide the calories summary and still view the macronutrients. However, both will be hidden on the website. We are looking into improving this eventually on the website!

Regards,
Marie-Eve

Sicahjes

Thanks Marie,

😊

Sicahjes

Could I possibly be a pain and ask if there is an ETA on this feature request? :-)

Hilary

@Sicahjes unfortunately we havent got to this one yet, but it is in our plans to resolve. In the meantime, I would recommend turning off the calories summary and macronutrient breakdown as explained in Marie-Eve's above post. You can also turn off the visibility of Calories in the Nutrient summary area. Once you have done this, you will easily be able to track Nutrients only, and disregard calories. You can also choose to set highlighted targets to view the nutrients that matter to you most!

Jcart1590

Just hit your protein and fat goals for the day and ignore everything else!

0.8g of protein per lb and 0.4g of dietary fat.

The problem with not tracking calories is that you could not be eating enough even though you are getting adequate protein and fat. That's not good for your health or weight loss goals. You want to be just underneath your maintenance level so that you are losing at a level that is sustainable.

I know tracking calories can be mind numbing and definitely leads to losing focus on the real goal (proper nutrition for your body) but even getting better at ballparking your calories can make a huge difference.

Sicahjes

The thing is, I fixate on calories when they're visible - which I'd rather not do.

robartsd

In the web app, you can easily use custom CSS to hide the most prominent display of calories. You can use a browser plugin like Stylish to apply these CSS rules to cronometer.

.summary-energy {
/* Hide energy bar of Macronutrient Summary Box */
    visibility: hidden;
}
.GHDCC5OBKW {
/* Hide Calorie Summary Box */
    visibility: hidden;
}
.GHDCC5OBPVC {
/* Hide Calorie Chart on Diary Page */
    visibility: hidden;
}

Calories of foods in the diary and in the detailed nutrition tables at the bottom will still be visible; hiding these without hiding other useful information would require something more complicated than CSS can do. This level of hiding calorie information likely could be accomplished using userscripts.

Note: visibility: hidden; causes these elements not to display on the screen, but everything else behaves as if they are still there. display: none; would remove the elements from the page rendering (and hide them from assistive technology like screen readers) causing some formatting changes.