Beyond Carbs, Fat & Protein – Tracking Your Nutrition
Nutrition From Food?
Does your food tracking app tell you how much folate, potassium, magnesium, iron or omega-3 fatty acids you are getting each day from your food choices? Probably not! But mine does, and I want to share it with you today!
(I usually recommend that most clients only track food for about 2 weeks or less to figure out “trends”. Tracking longer that that can feel like a burden.)
My favorite tracker is called Cronometer and it is free and easy to use on the computer or on your phone! Cronometer very plainly gives you all the nutrient information you’ve been wanting to know, in addition to just calories, carbs, fat and protein!
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More than Carbs, Fat, Protein
You might be asking, who would want to know more than the basic macro-nutrients (carbs, fat, protein)? So, here are a few possibilities…
- Ladies trying to conceive may be very interested in their folate intakes from food.
- Pregnant women wanting to avoid (potentially) constipating iron supplements may want to see how much iron they get currently from their diet.
- Breastfeeding moms with tooth sensitivity may be interested in calcium, vitamin D & K intake levels.
- People with chronic pain may want to know their daily magnesium or omega-3 intakes.
Personally, I tracked my nutrient intakes, in a clunky old tracking system, through parts of four pregnancies. I would have loved to use Cronometer instead. Knowledge is power! For example, if you know what nutrients you are eating (or not eating), it can be very motivating to try new foods or to break out of food ruts!
What About Supplements?
We know that nutrients from foods are preferable and more “usable” than a pill, but what if you are taking a multivitamin or prenatal? No problem – you can chose how to track your supplements. Cronometer will let you choose to exclude or include supplements when running weekly Nutrition Report trends. I was really excited about that one little feature!
Have you tried Cronometer? I’d love to hear about your experience and what you may have changed after tracking your nutrition.
In health,
~Kamie