Welcome to Ask An Expert!

Lakelady

Hi I am new to this app. I have filled in all the info and without putting in any exercise it says calories burned 2036. How do I fix this

Hilary

Hi @Lakelady this number is likely reflecting your Bsal Metabolic Rate and general activity settings. To view these settings go to your Profile Tab and see the "Body Details" Section. You can learn more about setting up your profile here:
https://cronometer.com/help/profile/#overview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E09SRRMErzE&t=183s&index=24&list=PLwVXgmubuwgJrxhZXqfs-Wv4tSCwUyeIV

akalbedwi

Hi my wight is 71 22 kg fat and 28 kg muscles . So i want to gain more muscle mass . If ill eat more than my cal healthy food does my fitness will be good for building muscles and about fat ill gain how many kg if i eat 500 more than my cal burn

Susan_RD_101

@akalbedwi

Thanks for your question!

It's important to remember that we can't build lean muscle or "bulk up" simply by eating more calories; there needs to be a muscle building resistance training program that goes along with the extra calories. Also, I always tell athletes that we can either bulk or get lean right now, we can't do both at the same time.

When we build muscle, we inherently accumulate additional fat tissue. To combat this, most athletes will have a "bulking season" and a "leaning out season".

Having a calorie surplus of 500 calories per day will theoretically help you to gain ~1 lb per week.

Kind regards,

Smc

Hi. I've lost a lot of weight by keeping my cronometer setting at sedentary. I dropped to under 115 pounds. So to maintain my weight I set the app to mildly active. Would I actually be moderately active? I lift weights 5 or 6 days a week for half an hour. I also stationary cycle for 15 minutes 5 or 6 days a week. Plus I do shadow Muay thai for 20 minutes 6 days a week. But I don't do much else aside from short strolls.

Should I set the app to sedentary, lightly active, or moderately active?

Thank you!

Susan_RD_101

@Smc

Congrats on your weight loss! Setting your calorie target to "sedentary" is a great tip, as it encourages you to eat closer to your BMR and is less likely to lead to compensatory eating that often happens when people log their activity.

Based on your reported activity, I would say you are more "moderately active". I'd suggest setting your target to this level, listening to your hunger and fullness cues, and monitoring your weight 1x per week. If you remain overall weight stable, then you know your calorie target is accurate.

Kind regards,

Smc

Thank you very much @Susan_RD_101. Great advice!

I upped my app activity level to moderately active but I feel bloated now. As you advised, I'm listening to hunger cues. The bloating might also correlate with me eating organic lemon peels. I seem to bloat not long after eating the peels.

I once tried tweaking the custom setting for activity level, but it didn't work. I hoped to set it between sedentary and lightly active as I'm on a tranqulizing medicine that might skew my results. But the online custom setting defaulted to moderately active. Not sure why.

Thanks very much.

Susan_RD_101

@Smc

It does sound like the bloating is from lemon peels as this is typically where all the fibre is found and it would not be digested very well by the gut. Definitely don't force yourself to eat past the point of fullness either. The body does a fantastic job of regulating your appetite day-to-day based on activity level; we just need to listen to what it's telling us.

Best of luck!

Smc

Hi Susan_RD_101. Your call was bang on. Moderately active is the right setting.. I went to a nutritionist today. My weight dropped to 113, just barely healthy. Turns out I am not eating enough protein and carbs like whole grains or sweet potatoes. Do you know how to increase the required amount of protein in the app? My old protein amount registers as healthy but i think my weightlifting demdnds more. Thank you.

Suzanna2018

Hi there, I am new here and just getting to grips with all the logging! I have a question if anyone can help. I had 150g of black beans and the tin says the protein is 4.1 for 100g. so 6.3 id assumed but when I go on to my overview of how my calories are split it shows 0.9% protein against the beans! Ive tried deleting the entry and then redoing the food as a custom yet it still doesnt show the 6.3 ...Im worried all other figures are wrong. Help....!

Karen_Cronometer

Hi @Suzanna2018,

You can click on a food in your diary to see the nutrition breakdown in your nutrient targets below.

For example, the protein target bar in the Calories Summary and the Nutrient Targets will show you how much protein is in the beans in grams and also calculate how much that contributes to your protein target (as a percentage).

In this example, black beans contributes 6.2 grams of protein which is about 8% of my protein target for the day:

Hover over the target bar to see the pop-up shown in the pictures.

I hope that helps!

Best,

Suzanna2018

Thank you Karen for your prompt reply

chunky

Hi @Suzanna2018,

In addition to what Karen mentioned above, it sounds like you either might have entered a diary value different than 150g, or that your protein target is set very high.

A result of .9% for 6.2 gm of protein implies a daily target of 688 gm. To summarize, It is worth double checking both the entry amount and the macro nutrient protein target amount under your profile.

Suzanna2018

ahhhh ok thank you CHunky, how do i set a protein target, i just thought it was automatically set?

Karen_Cronometer

Hi Suzanna2018,

You can see your protein target by clicking on the target bar in your diary.

Or, you click on your Profile tab, scroll down to Nutritional Targets. Click on the Protein tab to see what your protein targets are. Click on the minimum/maximum amounts to edit them.

Cheers,

Smc

My weight dropped to 113 pounds. I exercise 30 minutes weights, 30 minutes muaythai, and 25 minutes cycling, six days a week. But I'm getting a scrawny marathon runner's body. What I want is a muscular female sprinter's body.

So I'm cutting down my cycling and muaythai by half. Im also doing faster sprints on the cycle. Now im getting a bit of a belly on a scrawny body. Some muscle too.

Any advice on how I can get a sprinters look at a gym without a running track? Should i reduce my eating?

Thank you.

Susan_RD_101

@Smc

Something I tell clients often is you can get big or you can get lean, we can't do both at the same time.

It's common for us to put on some additional fat mass when trying to gain muscle. Being mindful of your food intake will be helpful; focus on including plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit, lean protein, and whole grain starches like oatmeal and sweet potato.

Also, remember that our pesky genetics can sometimes make it difficult to achieve a certain body shape.

Kind regards,

Smc

In the past I looked lean but muscular. So it's not genetics that is limiting me. I don't recall exacrly how to get that sprinters look now.

chunky

Perhaps _high intensity weight training _ ( typically 1 set of 5-8 very slow reps at 70-80% max 1 rep ability) of roughly 5 exercises covering the entire body ) twice a week and reduced cardio would do what you want. Google HIT weight results or similar.

Smc

@chunky
Thank you so much. I've heard of high intensity training but didn't know what it was. Today, after your advice, I picked up my first book on high intensity training. Thanks again!

Smc

THE PROMISE

No matter how bad you might think your genetics are, and no matter how lost you might feel after trying and abandoning many types of workouts, you absolutely, positively can have the lean, ripped body that you dream about.

—MICHAEL MATTHEWS

DawnieRotten

I am finding that I consistently do NOT take in enough Vitamin D via a food source. I DO, however, get SUN while out gardening. Can I ask WHY it is that Cronometer does NOT have a way to record Vitamin D intake via being out in the sunshine?? You would think that you would.

Karen_Cronometer

Hi DawnieRotten,

Thanks for the suggestion! One way to record you vitamin D produced from sunshine is to create a custom food called Vitamin D; enter in 1 IU (or ug) for the nutrition information. Save your custom food. When you have been out in the sunshine, add your custom food to your diary and edit the serving size to account for how much vitamin D you have produced.

Best,

DawnieRotten

Thank you, Karen. What would be the 1 IU serving size......1 IU per 1/2 an hour, 1 hour of sun?? It would also be great to see a daily record of Iodine intake. I take a Nascent Iodine supplement (X-2 Survival Shield). And as Dr. Mercola and Dr, Group like to say, "Most people are severely deficient in Iodine!".

Susan_RD_101

@DawnieRotten

A huge challenge to including vitamin D produced from sun exposure is that everyone is different. Vitamin D production in the skin depends on:

• Where you live
• Skin pigmentation (the darker your skin, the more time you need to spend in the sun)
• Amount of fat tissue
• Smog/pollution
• Presence of clothing/sunscreen
• Amount of skin exposed
• Cloud coverage

Personally, I would prefer Cronometer to not include a standard value for vitamin D produced by the sun as it can make people think that they are making enough vitamin D from the sun, when in fact, they may not be.

In general, to get a sufficient dose of daily vitamin D, you need to spend 1/2 the time it takes to turn your skin pink. You also need to show a large body surface, like legs, back, or chest. Keep in mind that increased sun exposure may also increase risk for skin cancer (and advanced aging). I prefer everyone to take a year-round supplement of 1000 IU to be sure that levels are adequate.

Hope this helps!

Karen_Cronometer

Hi DawnieRotten,

You can keep track of your intake of your iodine supplement. We have a few nutrients hidden by default because we do not have much data on the amount of these nutrients in foods. However, if you are adding your iodine supplement to your daily diary, you can keep track of that by making iodine visible in your diary page.

Click on the Profile tab and scroll down to Nutritional Targets section. Click the Minerals tab and find Iodine in the list. Tick the box under the Visible column to show iodine in your diary. You will see a pop-up letting your know that we have sparse data for iodine. You will now see iodine in your diary page under Minerals in the Nutrient Targets.

Best,

DawnieRotten

That makes sense, Susan. Thank you! And, thank you, Karen! Both very helpful!

brewbetter

Hi. really enjoying cronometer, It is way cool. Looking for a way to remove a food from my fav list. Can't seem to figure it out. Thanks in advance.

Bill

Karen_Cronometer

Hi Brewbetter,

To remove a food from your Favorites, click Add Food in the diary page and search for the food. Select it from the list, then click the yellow star. When the star is yellow, it's a favorite; when the star just has an outline it's not a favorite.

Best,

brewbetter

Wow, that was easy. I should have figured that one out. Thanks!