Automatic Calculations in Cronometer are bad, I gained weight

Volcom2096

I have been doing Keto for 6 weeks. Lost 8lbs in the beginning, then gained 4 back. Checked out the auto settings for high-fat/ketogenic compared to a few keto calculators and it was way off. No wonder I gained 4lbs back. I am so irritated. I realized I could "custom" everything in the app and now have everything set appropriately, but cronometers calculators were having me eat 900 more calories than I should have.

Susan_RD_101

Thanks for your comment @Volcom2096 . I'm very sorry to hear about your frustrations. Do you know if you set the "Weight Goal" in the "Profile" tab to lose weight? If not, it might be helpful to do since this will adjust your calorie calculations to help you consume fewer calories than you expend. Also, keep in mind that we can gain (and lose) ~5 lbs in a day. This doesn't reflect true weight gain, but the influence of eating, hydration shifts, physiological functioning, etc. on our body weight.

Please let us know if you have any follow-up questions.

Kind regards,

Summersnow

Yeah, first thing I did for sure was find how to custom set things. I never trust these apps to get it right, but I'm glad they had a custom setting option at least.

Darkerrdave

I can’t see a weight goal tab in my profile. Where is this please

Karen_Cronometer

Hi @Darkerrdave ,

On the website, you can set a weight loss goal under the heading "Weight Goal" in the Profile tab. There is a drop-down menu under the chart where you can choose your goal.

If you are using the mobile app, from your Diary tap on the targets icon, then tap Settings. Tap Set Weight Goal to choose your goal.

Best,

DebraJB

When wanting to maintain you weight, is it really okay to eat as many calories as you burn?

Susan_RD_101

@DebraJB

Keep in mind that calorie expenditure is based on a formula and not your individual resting metabolic rate (as the only way to calculate this would be in a laboratory). As such, I find it helpful to eat to your approximate energy expenditure (i.e. calories burned) or slightly below.

Weighing yourself weekly would be a helpful way to ensure that you are weight stable. Keep in mind that small fluctuations are expected week-to-week, but if each week is gaining, then you may be overestimating activity or underestimating food intake.

Kind regards,

LadyFish

Question on food measurements. Let's say I wanted to sauté 2 cups of swiss chard. Would I select two cups COOKED chard for the measurements? (assuming that the nutritional content may change once an item is cooked). Or do I select two cups RAW for the amount?

Hilary

You have identified one of the toughest parts about tracking nutrition - the best way to record the ingredients in mixed dishes.

The most accurate way to record your ingredients is also the most time-consuming. Cook and then weigh each ingredient separately then mix them together before you eat them. Record the weight of each cooked ingredient in your recipe. There are differences in nutrients in a cooked vs. raw food, so entering in the values as cooked foods will also give you a more accurate nutrient profile.

In the case where you have already prepared your recipe and it is not an option to separate out the ingredients, change the recipe to servings based, rather than weight-based. This will give you an estimate of your nutrient intake, but keep in mind the nutrients found in raw vs. cooked food can be different. The biggest difference can usually be found in the water content, as you have noticed. If you are tracking your water intake very closely, you may consider adding water to your recipe and then entering a negative number to account for the water loss that occurred during cooking.

It is a trade-off between how accurate you would like to be in your food diary and how much time you would like to put in to it.