Recommended Tracking App - Easy to use, tracks what I need to monitor for CKD

[2023CKD]

After searching for a long time and almost giving up, I finally found an app that does everything that I need. Yeah! It tracks my diet and helps me monitor my intake of Sodium, Potassium, Phosphate, Protein and Water, which is important for patients with CKD . At the same time it tracks calories, nutrients & exercise.

It is widely used by professional health care providers and dieticians to work with their clients who are working to monitor their diets, exercise and health. It is used by many well known healthcare providers,. Their about section says that over 6 million people use it. It isn't marketed except by word of mouth. It was developed in 2005.

Good News: It's free for individuals with no limit to how long you use the free plan.

The App is: cronometer.com/

It's motto:

Eat smarter.

Live better.

Track your diet, exercise, and health data.

I started using it last night and am just discovering how to use it. So far it is easy to use and feature rich. I am a software and data nerd, so your results may vary.

Disclaimer - I have no affiliation with this company or product and am not getting any perks for this post. I just found it and it does everything I was looking for and more.

It has a daily food diary, a large database of foods, easy to scan foods or enter them. So far there are limited foods that I've had to search for, most everything has barcodes, even some of my produce.

As my CKD disease progresses I will need some of the paid features, such as customizing my Macronutrient Targets. After I meet with my doctor I will find out what my target values should be. Each Individual may have different requirements based on the stage of CKD they are in and their overall health.

The price seems reasonable:

Free indefinitely with ads and some limited features

If you upgrade the Individual plan it is $54.99 per year or $9.99 per month. It can be found on their webpage under the Products Menu --> Chronometer for Individuals

Tip: Don't look at the Pro plan it is confusing as it's more expensive. The Pro Plan is for dietician's or nutritionists , who use it in their practices for patients.

For now I have downloaded the Free version (to test it out (it has ads and is missing some advanced features that I may or may not need - TBD if I upgrade after I meet with my doctor.)

It synchs with Apple and Google smartphones, Fitbit (etc.) and there is a desktop version. I'm not sure of what version plan or phones it supports for various devices. I have older versions, so newer versions may track more (apple 5 watch and 11 phone).

I'm finding it fairly intuitive and discovering many shortcuts as I go.

It has a extensive database, you can enter your food or scan a barcode. So far I haven't found a food that it didn't already have. I even tested adding my supplements and Penzey Spices cinnamon.

Today I added my items to my diary on the wrong date by mistake. I found a way to swipe right and reveal a menu that allowed me to "move the item to today".

The app has detailed dashboards with graphic reports. You can drill down to more details as needed. A top level report allows me to easily find and view my daily levels of Potassium, Sodium, Phosphate, Protein and Water. If the default target values are different then what your doctor requires you will need the paid version which permits you to customize them to meet your needs.

It also allows you to select your preferences for searching for foods, for example by name, brand etc. Although I didn't have to manually search for much except fresh produce.

An exciting feature is the ability to pair with your Health App, I paired it with my phone which also picks up readings from my phone. It is downloading my steps, heart rate, etc.

With the advanced version you can also to monitor your diet over time, create repeating meals, add lab test results, change your target macronutrient values and much more. You can also import recipes and much more.

If I ever decide to get the paid version I will let you know. If anyone decides to try the free or paid version I would love to hear from you about what you discover.

I'm not sure if the free version allows you to upload your records to healthcare providers who are utilizing this software app.

If you are interested give it a spin and let me know what you like and don't like about it.

It appears that the support team is receptive to getting feedback on what works and what doesn't and that they are doing new product updates and releases.

I noticed in my app store that there were two versions. One said NEW release. Be sure to download that one.

I will provide feedback as I have more time to learn about this product. It is what I was hoping to find and so much more.

I'm excited and looking forward to learning more about this tool. For now I am doing the basics, tracking items in my diary and looking at the basic reports. I'm hooked up to my Health app but will take some time to review that data.

I know this will save me a lot of time and effort and help me keep reach my goals.

Happy tracking!

[BecBoo02]

After reading your post I've decided to give this app a whirl... I'll keep you posted! 😄

[MoeAndMoot]

I started with the free version but eventually got the pay version. It does everything I could want to track my CKD needs. Unfortunately, unlike you, I'm not a data-type and so the learning curve is steep for me. It's taking me longer to get comfortable using it, but I'll keep at it. I have the app on my android phone, desktop, laptop, and tablet. It syncs across all devices. My next plan is to learn to input recipes as I cook a lot for my CKD. You're right about the number of items because I have yet to find a food they can't track. Like you I highly recommend this tracker which I discovered when a member here suggested I try the free version. And here I am still using it two years later. Good luck with your journey!

[2023CKD in reply to MoeAndMoot]

Thank you. I plan to get the paid version after I talk to my doctor.

I am still learning how to use the app too. It has so much information that is above my nutritional knowledge. It can seem overwhelming but I just try to learn a little every day.

Yesterday I was on my computer going through their website. They do have some educational videos and tutorials for using the tool and nutritional videos. Lots of content that I will check out.

I watched a video from a nutritionist. It was interesting as it was about a vegan diet. I don’t plan to be a vegan but I learned about some alternative protein sources that I might try?

I might write to them to let them know about how valuable this tool might be for those with CKD and if they are open to the idea recommendation some dashboards specific to those managing the s specific health lifestyle. I see this tool and its dashboards helping other segments in the market as well.

[CuriousCKD]

You are a wealth of info! Thanks for all the great tips! 🤗

[Badger2024]

I too was so excited to read your post and downloaded it immediately. Unfortunately as I live in Australia hardly any foods came up other than whole foods. I’ve messaged customer service to ask if there are any posts from Aussies who have entered their own foods and recipes that could be shared. MyFitnessPal has all the Australian foods

[2023CKD in reply to Badger2024]

Sorry to hear that. I understand how disappointing that can be. I got a book that listed the values for foods and discovered that it was for England. Let us know what you find out?

[2023CKD in reply to 2023CKD]

Badger 2024.

I looked up the data sources used for the app. It’s listed for all the countries they have loaded data from

While it does have foods from various countries, it appears that data is not as extensive as the US list.

Not sure this will help but I found this about their data source for Australia. I wonder if you could contact the folks in Australia and see if they have added or have plans to add any additional data since 2014?

If so perhaps you could see if Cronometer could do a more recent and detailed data extract?

Australian Food Composition Database (NUTTAB)

From Cronometer:

We have over 800 foods in our database from the analysis of foods found in Australia.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (2014). AUSNUT 2011–13 – Australian Food Composition Database. Canberra: FSANZ

foodstandards.gov.au/scienc...

Maybe if you let them know the importance of the usage it might help? If you have a department of health perhaps they could help advocate and fund a project?

Best wishes.

[Badger2024 in reply to 2023CKD]

Thanks so much for this. I’ll wait for their response. I’m happy to scan a load of products for them if they want to increase their products. NCCDB was the database it was searching when I was trying to add a food. Only whole foods came up. I couldn’t change the database on my phone app. I’ll try it using a browser. Thanks for your help

[Pontios]

Hi 2023CKD, I use Cronometer (free version) on and off now for a while. You can set your individual nutrient targets in the free version. I have set my Potassium and Phosphorus targets: go to the three dots "more" in the bottom right hand corner, then Targets, then Nutrient Targets, then Minerals, now you can edit your individual Targets.

[2023CKD]

Excellent, thanks! Much appreciated! That’s very helpful to anyone looking to use the app!

I did discovered that I can change some Targets. Haven’t looked into it yet as I need to ask my kidney doctor what he recommends for my stage.

Excited that my appointment is today.

Hopefully he will take the time to educate me and get answers to my questions.

I’ve found the tool helpful. Last night I was able to look and see how many of the elements I need to limit that I had left and look up what I wanted to fix for dinner. I was happy to see that it still kept me in my target for all the key minerals. Yeah!