guide to tracking calories with the chronometer app
If you have a weight loss goal and are not tracking calories, in some fashion, you have a weight loss wish, not a goal. The single most important factor in weight loss is consuming fewer calories than you burn and tracking will ensure you know when you do this.
If you’re not tracking your calorie intake you’re not serious about your weight loss goal.
You might not like hearing this. That’s fine. Continue to enjoy your comfortable LIES! However, if you’re ready to take weight loss seriously read on for a basic guide to tracking calories. If you’re not interested in weight loss, that’s cool, probably not the article for you.
Jargon
BMR: Base metabolic rate. This is the number of calories your body burns just to function during a day. Largely determined by age, gender, height, and weight.
TEF: Thermic effect of food. The number of calories burned by certain nutrients that cost energy to utilize and store in the body. Proteins have the highest thermic effect and cost the most calories to utilize and store.
TDEE: Total daily energy expenditure. This is the total number of calories you burn in a day. TDEE = BMR + TEF + Exercise.
Tracking Calories
This is a simple approach to tracking calorie intake and expenditure using an app called Cronometer. I will cover:
Calculating TDEE
Goal setting
Logging calories
Let’s get into it.
Calculating TDEE
First off, download Cronometer on your phone and set up your profile information (Settings>Profile). This should include your height, weight, age, and gender.
Next, configure the Energy Settings (Settings>Targets>Energy Settings). This is where you’ll see your TDEE. At the top of this screen you’ll see your BMR, nothing to change here.
You will want to adjust the Activity Level. This ranges from None to Very Active. You can select None if you connect a fitness tracker to Cronometer that imports general activity or select Sedentary if you connect a fitness tracker to Cronometer that doesn’t import general activity but does import exercise.
If you don’t use a fitness tracker you’ll most likely be choosing something between Lightly Active and Very Active, these are all described on the app when you select them.
Note for fitness tracker folks who might not always use the tracker, you can check the box for Replace with Imported Activity to override the set activity level with your fitness tracker, only on days you use the tracker.
The last two things to sort out for TDEE are further down the same screen. Check the Include Exercise and Thermic Effect of Food boxes. Now your TDEE calculation takes both exercise and TEF into account.
Goal Setting
Cronometer allows you to set a Weight Goal or Custom Energy Target. This is done from the Energy Settings screen, at the bottom (Settings>Targets>Energy Settings). I recommend a caloric deficit between 300kCal and 500kCal for weight loss. Any lower than that and you’re going to be hungry, often. Any higher and you’re going to progress pretty slowly. A rate of losing 1lbs per week comes out to a 500kCal deficit for me, so play around with this until you get a goal that looks good to you.
Logging Calories
If you don’t have a food scale yet you’ll need to grab one from a local grocery store, kitchen supply, amazon, etc. Once secured you’ll use this scale to weigh all the food you eat. Cronometer lets you search for generic food items (e.g. banana), search for specific food items (e.g. Dairyland 3.5% milk), or scan an item’s barcode. You do this from the Diary screen of the app, smash the big orange plus sign and use the red apple to search and the barcode to scan. Exercise can also be added manually here by clicking the little blue man. The three circles at the top of the Diary screen show you how many calories you’ve consumed, burned, and have remaining for a given day.
Most food items and generic dishes have portion options (e.g. 1 package, 1 bowl) that you can use to estimate when you don’t have access to your scale and aren’t inputting a gram amount. Try to minimize this and always weigh your food.
Those are the basics, I’ll include a couple more things below for people interested in setting macronutrient goals or connecting a fitness tracker but am going to keep this guide to the bare bones.
What gets tracked gets managed. If you want to manage your weight then you need to track your calories, at least for a few weeks to really understand what a day in a caloric deficit feels and looks like.
Some people are afraid to say this, but you should manage your weight. Being overweight is not good for you, it will reduce your lifespan and your healthspan. Tracking your calories is the best way to take control of your eating habits.
Take care of yourself, get to a healthy weight and body fat percentage, feel good, look good, and enjoy your life more!
Macronutrients
I’m not a dietician, even though I like to pretend sometimes, so I will not tell you what to eat. Limiting calories is more important than macronutrients for most people, anyways. But if you’re someone that has a specific diet that includes macronutrient targets you can set these from the Macronutrient Settings screen (Settings>Targets>Macronutrient Settings).
The only recommendation I’d make here is to have 0.6g - 1.0g of protein per pound of body weight. On the higher end if building muscle is important to you (it should be).
Fitness Trackers
You can sync your fitness tracker by going Settings>Integrations>Devices or Apple Health. Follow the prompts.
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