Chronometer or Myfitnesspal?

eugeneparkers

After going through the wiki and realising I need to actually do a better job at tracking my calories. Which is better for this? Does it matter which region I'm in to be affected by the database? I'm the EU. Thanks

Karen_Cronometer

Hi Eugeneparkers,

One of the things that sets Cronometer apart from other applications is that we don't allow users to add foods directly to our public database, nutrition information is first verified by staff so you can count on the accuracy of the data. Of course, you are always welcome to create your own custom foods too!

Generally, we recommend using generic alternatives from our most comprehensive nutrition databases, like NCCDB and USDA. This will give you much more nutrition information. We are also in the process of adding more foods from the EU to give you even more options!

Best,

jefmcg

If you care about carb intake, here is a huge design flaw in cronometer that it uses a only US/Canada nutrition labels, so if you just enter the numbers from a European nutrition label, it will under count the carbs.

I've stopped recommending it because of this. I don't know if mfp is the same.

Hilary

Hi @jefmcg we do actually support other labels. On the web version of cronometer you can change the label when creating a food, and all foods labelled CRDB have the carb tracking of different labels taken into account. If you are creating a custom food or submitting a food to the database, you can enter it correctly by scrolling down to the carbohydrate section of the food editor and entering carbs in the correct field. For European and Australian label types you should enter carbs in the Net carbs field as opposed to the total carbs field.You can learn more about labels and tracking carbs in our user manual:
https://cronometer.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018869171-Reading-Nutrition-Labels
https://cronometer.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018576952-Tracking-Carbohydrates

jefmcg

That is not good enough.

I'm not telling someone to use the app in Europe when it requires that much contortion to use.

I am already doing maths everytime I fill in the sodium field.

And the software doesn't protect you at all. It let me enter a food with negative net carbohydrate. At least if it had flagged that to me, I might have understood this months ago.

This should be your top priority, or you should remove it from the app from the non-US app stores

You may think doing it on the website is good enough, but a lot of us come to you from the app store, and use our phones when we are out and about. Your website is nearly unusable on a phone, so switching to that is not an option.

Hilary

Thanks for your input @jefmcg we really appreciate any and all feedback from users as it helps direct our decision making for future development.

jan98k

Homemade things are hard. have to go ingredient by ingredient. Using premade foods as substitutes do not work as they add trans-fats, etc.

robartsd

I just started using Cronometer after trying MyFitnessPal for about a month and a half. So far only using the free versions (web and android). I've been logging in both for a few days.

Cronometer advantages:

• high quality public database
• weight based recipe option
• tracks more nutrients (data source dependent)
• data export option in free version
• share foods and recipes with friends (requires subscription)

MyFitnessPal advantages:

• share diaries with friends (can copy any entry in a friend's diary for free - can't directly share recipes)
• mobile app functional offline (some features require internet connection, but you can create foods and log foods that already exist in your diary offline)

Cronometer annual subscription is cheaper ($35 vs $45/yr). I can't find any compelling reason to pay for MFP. I respect that Cronometer's subscription provides convenience functions while still allowing users of the free version all the essentials needed to benefit from tracking and am considering subscribing. So far my opinion is that Cronometer is absolutely the best option (free or paid) for nerds focusing on a diet consisting primarily of whole foods prepared from scratch. MFP has some advantages for those who prefer a more social experience in a free app.

As I started looking for options that had better database quality than MFP, I looked at MyNetDiary (web), but I decided I was not interested in the free version of MND when I learned that editing your own recipes requires a subscription. For someone more interested in the nicest user interface than the most detailed tracking, MNDmay be worth considering. MND offers a 50% discount when purchasing 3+ 12-month gift card codes ($30/yr instead of $60/yr), so it is also the cheaper subscription option if you jump through the right hoops.

Tallynoles98

When are you all going to put more Foods into your databases? This is so frustrating for newbies and can easily derail eating habits.

Will you all some day update recipe creation to put able to input urls and the app calculators the carbs breakdown?

Karen_Cronometer

Hi Tallynoles,

We add new brand name products to our database everyday! Last month we added >2000 foods from high quality databases from Australia, UK and the Netherlands too! What foods have you been having a hard time finding?

We are planning to add a way to import recipes from websites. This is a big project, but is well worth all that effort to build. Thanks for your feedback

Cheers,

ForumUser

@robartsd

share diaries with friends (can copy any entry in a friend's diary for free - can't directly share recipes)

This is one of the features of Cronometer Gold, you can add other users as friends, and you will see each other's custom foods and recipes. You have to be Gold to send a friend request, but a non-gold user can accept it and get all the benefits of recipe sharing.

robartsd

MFP lets you share your DIARY with other users (I don't think this requires a subscription). Cronometer only lets you share your diary with a provider who has a PRO account. There is no way for regular users to share their diary on Cronometer (other than taking a screenshot and posting that elsewhere).

As I listed in my earlier post, an advantage of Cronometer (with subscription) is that you can share foods with others without them needing access to your diary. The ONLY way to share foods in MFP is to share the diary and copy the food from a diary entry.

ForumUser

@robartsd

Sorry, I misunderstood what you wrote.

Shellybee22

I believe cronometer to be more accurate than MFP with their database.

Hilary

@Shellybee22 we think so too check out our user manual to learn more about our data sources! https://cronometer.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018239472-Data-Sources

haildodger

I've been with MFP since 2014 and I just switched to Chronometer. I got really tired of MFP's website not working properly. "Sorry, we couldn't complete your request. Please try again." It gets old fast. I like to track my intake, but I don't want it to take up too much time. I signed on for the gold membership because I like to log each meal separately. So far I'm happy. Good overall functionality.

haildodger

Cronometer nutrition tracker may be better, but it can't touch the community on MFP. The forums here are too heavily moderated, and detract from the community. You've been around since 2011 and the forums here are on life support by comparison.

AWB

When I first started tracking my eating I used a program called "DietPower" which I loaded on my PC and loved it because its was graphically beautiful, but most importantly, tracked 33 different nutrients. When they fizzled by not being able to compete with on-line programs I didn't know what to do. I turned to MyFitnessPal and LoseIt! for the last 10 years. I was frustrated with these program because of the member input which was often lacking or just plain wrong. Those who monitored these programs didn't seem to keep up to date and the sites just got frustrating for me with so much clutter. I discovered Cronometer the other day and was crazy delighted to see all the nutrients that it tracked and the accuracy of the nutritional values. So much better than DietPower. I appreciate the monitoring that it has and I'm happy to be here.

Chelleb74

I have been a user of MFP for many years. Only recently have I started paying more attention to micronutrients (Magnesium in particular). MFP does not track Magnesium because it is not required on US food labels. I searched online for a tracker that could track Magnesium, and of the options I found (which weren't much), Cronometer seemd the best one. I signed up, got the gold plan, and am loving it so far!

MetalPirate

My two cents, I've used both fairly extensively at this point, though Cronometer for a lot less time.

MyFitnessPal's food database has become both it's biggest strength, and one of it's biggest weaknesses. It has millions of items, but a vast majority of them are user generated, and as a developer myself, you can't trust your users to enter accurate data. Many listings in MFP will be way off base calorie wise, which if you're following it closely can lead you to under or over eating, while thinking you're doing the right thing. I also often find that even in the macros are correct, things like sodium are often not listed. MFP also has strengths in it's community and forums, which are huge and very active, but you can also participate there if you're not tracking with the tool. There are also other issues, such as site stability and the constant crashing and erroring that has been plaguing the site for a very long time. Under Armor does not appear to want to invest in their own platform, and I've even heard rumors of it being sold off.

Cronometer has a smaller, but much more accurate system. This ensures that what you do find, you can trust to be accurate. I've submitted corrections due to product formula changes and have them approved the very same day. I've actually paid for Gold recently, as I feel the tool is worth the $3.33 a month that is costs for the yearly subscription. It's also a smaller company, so they have less staff and developers, but they do seem responsive and to actually focus on what people ask for. The community focus is much smaller, and the forums are pretty hidden, but since I consider the tool more important than the community it's the best fit for me.

Lori_B64

I like that chronometer syncs with keto mojo.

batterycharger

I moved from MFP after 200 days(still have premium for a while).
so this begun my 200 days here.

Reason to move was physics breaking food listings and not being able to change serving sizes. So to see if there is more accurate defaults for food. I must admit that none of the EANs I've scanned this far have not been in database.

What is great here is that you have helps / documented how food entries should be made and how things work. Help button where it's needed is what counts.

CM seem to have more ads on the mobile app than MFP. I must say that it probably takes some time to get used to that.

Lector

I agree that Cronometer is superior to MFP in database quality, and some other aspects, such as not having MFP's off-topic/istracting "community"/"blog" posts cluttering the interface.

On the other hand, the ergonomics of MFP at adding food are significantly better, because of these two long-standing issues in Cronometer with logging foods.

CrisRich

If one lives in the EU Lifesum may be a better choice. And maybe Yazio.

batterycharger

Please, someone, make a wiki comparison page with listing of all interesting features.

jefmcg

https://forums.cronometer.com/discussion/comment/14719#Comment_14719

Go for it!

bugstrix05

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robartsd

I left MFP a bit over a year ago precisely for the reason Karen pointed out. I briefly looked at My Net Diary but found it impractical for use without subscription; so I kept looking and found Cronometer. While there are some interface improvements that could be made, the nerd in me loves the micronutrient data that I don't see anywhere else. At this point, the only reason I think I'd consider leaving Cronometer would be if I had a need for regular offline tracking (MFP app lets you record foods you've recorded before even if you are offline; you can't do anything in Cronometer offline).

My take:
MFP - best free social tracking
MND - best interface (for subscribers)
CM - best food database