Why Should I Track on Keto & with What Tracking APP?

Why should I track what I eat on keto?

Tracking your food intake can identify your good habits (such as eating three daily meals and choosing healthy snacks) and your less ideal habits (such as unhealthy snacking). You can write it down on paper, track on a computer spreadsheet, take notes on your phone, diet-tracking website, or app.

The advantage of an app is that it tracks portion sizes, food weights and measurements and/or calories are typically calculated for you. And most importantly for all of us on keto, net carbs. And with the right APP like Cronometer or Carb Manager, your net carbs are already figured out for you on most foods and that’s super helpful!

In fact, the first thing I recommend for anyone starting off their keto journey is to track their foods…at least for a while

If you’re an emotional eater (or think you might be), noting when you eat can also be beneficial. You can even combine that with journaling about your feelings at the time of eating to identify emotional patterns that might affect your intake. Believe me, this really helps when trying to work on the “why”…but that’s an entirely different post.

By reviewing and evaluating how you ate, you can adjust and move forward. Tracking can help you control your hunger and reduce your calories if needed. The number one reason I love using a tracking app is also the key to success when eating out. Planning ahead using a tracking app, you can determine what to eat before you’re faced with choices—good and bad.

What tracking app is best for keto?

There are tons of apps out there that can help you track your food intake and/or macros. Chris loves Cronometer. He’s talked about it on livestreams and written a great post about it. Many of our staff at Keto Chow are fans and use this app. It has the ability to share recipes (which you might find really useful), and has has verified foods rather than user-submitted data.

If it feels a bit much for you at first, you might want to try Carb Manager. I found it simpler to use and fell in love with the dashboard that showed my current ratios at a glance. I also like the water tracking feature.

And of course, we’re curious and wanted to know what our Keto Chow customers are using to track their foods and got some awesome feedback.

The majority of those that replied seemed to be using Carb Manager, although a few sounded like they were switching over to Cronometer after reading some of the comments:

Julia Carrasco-Kendzora I use carb manager mainly for scanning labels when my weight loss stalls, then I count total carbs.

mytinyketolife  I ????????????? Cronometer!! It has a Keto option that I can edit & has an amazing amount of food options. I can also make my own recipes.

A few of our friends even compared Cronometer and Carb Manager against each other and posted this feedback for us:

Lindsey Marie Austin While I was using both apps the macros almost NEVER matched up! Cronometer seems much more reliable to me.

Do I need to track forever?

Short answer: no! If it creates problems for you or makes keto (or healthy eating in general) harder, than stop!

If you’re not meeting your health goals and aren’t tracking your food, though, tracking for even a short time (like a month) can help give you an idea of your patterns. That can be enough data to help you feel empowered and be able to make more progress.