In this day and age, technology is at an all-time high and constantly improving our lives. An example of this is calorie tracking apps that provide us with an easy way to count our daily calorie and macronutrient intake.
These calorie counting tools are a fantastic way to see almost exactly what you are putting into your body on a daily basis. But, at first, counting your calories, carbs, fats, and proteins can be a huge hassle, especially when you’re transitioning into a ketogenic diet.
This is why I put together this article to help you learn how to track carbs on keto the easy way! By following the suggestions below, you will be able to reap the many benefits to knowing what is going in your body and how much of each macronutrient you need to eat to reach your goals. Now, you want the secret sauce, don’t you?
If you ask the Keto Community “how do you track your carbs on keto?” You’ll be flooded with a chorus of MFP (MyFitnessPal), Cronometer, and Carb Manager. Although there are other apps that are useful for carb and calorie tracking, the most popular tend to be these three.
In this article, we will be taking a look at how to use each one to track carbs on the ketogenic diet.
For your convenience, we’ve included a clickable list of the topics we’ll cover:
- Why tracking carbs is so helpful
- Pros and cons of MyFitnessPal
- Pros and cons of Cronometer
- Pros and cons of Carb Manager
- How to use MyFitnessPal
- How to use Cronometer
- How to use Carb Manager
- What is the best app for tracking carbs on keto? A side-by-side comparison
- Final thoughts and free resources
Why Track Your Carbs & Use A Keto Carb Counter?
You might be asking me, “What’s the point of using a calorie counter?” Well, there are numerous reasons to, including:
- Portion Control: As you increasingly read nutrition labels, you’ll realize that serving sizes are tiny. Manufacturers do that on purpose to get their macronutrients counts low and portray their product in a healthier light. By tracking your macros, you can develop a better feel for what serving size is optimal for you.
- Ninja Carbs: Some labels show that their products have 0 carbs, but you’d be surprised at how many things actually have carbs in them. Remember, 1g of carbs can really add up over a day’s worth of eating! Splenda used to be one of my favorite things to use because it had no carbs in it, but it actually has quite a few carbs if you are using it a lot.
- Mindless Eating: We overeat when we aren’t mindful of what goes into our meals. If you are experiencing a weight loss stall or unexpected weight gain, this could be why.
These are the main reasons why some keto dieters don’t get the results they are expecting. Luckily, as long as you use an accurate calorie and macro tracker, you won’t have to worry about any of these issues getting in your way.
That being said, you may come across one detour: finding the right app for you. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of the top three tracking apps for keto to help you decide.
Pros and Cons of MyFitnessPal
MyFitnessPal is one of the most popular calorie tracking apps, and it’s free (unless you want extra features that are helpful for keto dieters). The app prioritizes social networking and progress sharing with friends, which sets it apart from other apps.
With a massive food database, you can find almost any food (or keto recipe) you desire on MyFitnessPal. However, the main reason for their massive database is that anyone who uses the app can submit anything they want. This makes it difficult to know which food item in the database you should choose.
The free MyFitnessPal app also doesn’t track net carbs, only total carbohydrates and fiber. This makes it a bit more tedious for keto dieters to use because they have to make their own net carb calculations.
Here’s a quick list of the pros and cons of MyFitnessPal:
Pros:
- Social sharing
- Weight loss/gain progress graph
- Huge food database
- Great for tracking packaged foods with barcodes
- Option to import recipes directly from your favorite keto recipe websites
Cons:
- Some foods and recipes will not be accurate
- Can’t track net carbs on the free app
- Can only use macronutrient percentages (not specific gram targets)
- Advertisements throughout the app
Pros and Cons of Cronometer
The biggest differences between Cronometer and MyFitnessPal are the food database and social media aspects of the apps.
Cronometer’s food database is curated — it only has validated, correct entries with a lot more detailed information (like micronutrients and amino acids). The app also lacks a social sharing side to it unless you buy the gold subscription.
However, there is one thing that sets Cronometer apart MyFitnessPal for ketoers — the ability to track net carbs and set a net carb limit (more on this later).
Here’s a quick list of the pros and cons of Cronometer:
Pros:
- Easy net carb tracking (with an option to limit sugar alcohols as well)
- More precise and accurate food database
- Offers multiple keto calculator settings
- Can change macronutrient and micronutrient goals by grams and percentages
- Allows you to track micronutrients
Cons:
- Limited food database
- Tedious process for adding recipes and new foods
- Occasional add pop-ups with free version
Pros and Cons of Carb Manager
Carb Manager is tailored specifically for anyone tracking net carbs, which makes it a great app for low-carb and keto dieters. Though it looks a bit different than Cronometer and MyFitnessPal, it has the same functionality of both apps. In fact, the app mitigates many of the cons mentioned previously.
Unfortunately, I’ve noticed several inaccuracies in the macronutrients of certain foods and Ruled.me recipes. This makes me more skeptical of the data on Carb Manager than I would be with Cronometer.
Here’s a quick list of the pros and cons for Carb Manager:
Pros:
- Tailored to the needs of the keto dieters, with net carb tracking and a keto grading system for foods.
- Allows you to track your progress, ketone levels, insulin, and blood sugar over time
- Access to keto information and a forum with other keto dieters
- Option to add recipes directly from your favorite keto recipe websites
Cons:
- Must pay a monthly subscription to track micronutrients
- Some recipes and food items are not accurate
- Big pop-up advertisements for its premium subscription service
How To Configure MyFitnessPal
Signing up for MyFitnessPal is simple. You can use Facebook or your email, and it will ask you for your goals, height, weight, activity level, etc. Feel free to change the units to whatever you prefer to use from here on out.
Keep in mind that you can adjust your calorie goals later if you wish. I find that using the keto calculator provides me with a more accurate estimate of how much I need to eat. After I use the calculator to find my daily needs, I plug it into MyFitnessPal.
Setting Your Macronutrient Ratios and Calorie Goals with MyFitnessPal
There are two ways (that I know of) to change your daily macronutrient and calorie goals using MyFitnessPal. Let’s stick with the easiest, more intuitive way:
Tap on “More”, then tap “Goals”.
Here you can adjust your weight, activity levels, and weight loss/gain goals. Most importantly, this is where you can change your calorie and macronutrient goals. Tap “Calories, Carbs, Protein and Fat Goals”.
From here, you can select one of the macronutrients (carbs, fats, or protein) to change your carbohydrate, protein, and fat intake goals.
Use your finger to adjust the percentages until they look something like this:
Note: the app will not let you save your new macronutrient goals if they don’t add up to 100%.
If you want to be more precise by using the Keto Calculator, then play around with the macronutrient percentages until you get as close as you can to what the calculator suggests. Unfortunately, the free version of MyFitnessPal does not let you change your macronutrient goals by using grams.
Sometimes the calorie estimates are off as well. If this is the case, then you can tap on the calories row and change your daily calorie goal to match what the keto calculator says.
If you are not using the calculator, you can play around with your daily calorie allowance depending on how much weight you want to lose per week. This is up to you, but we recommend no more than a 30% calorie deficit.
Once you’ve double-checked your macronutrient intake goals, you can click the arrow on the top left of the screen to go back to the Goals screen.
If you would like to set additional nutrient goals and/or fitness goals, then scroll down and tap on the relevant option to adjust it. (Unfortunately, there is no option for “net carbs”, so you will have to calculate that on your own — there will be more on how to do that later in this article.)
Now that you have set your goals, you are ready to track your food consumption.
How To Track Meals Using MyFitnessPal
Click the back button until you are in the “More” menu. See the big “+” at the bottom? This is one of the many methods you can use to enter what you just ate.
Tap the “+” and choose the “food” button. Select whatever meal you are about to add in.
Now, you’ll be at a screen where you have many options. You can search for the food by tapping the search bar, you can tap the location logo next to the search bar to find a restaurant that you ate at, or you can click the barcode icon to scan the barcode of the food package. Most of the time, however, you will be using the search option.
For example, let’s log the eggs that I had for breakfast. To do this, we must search for the food item (or scan the barcode of the egg carton by tapping the barcode icon).
Look at all the options you get when you search “eggs”. Which one should you choose?
A useful tip to use when you are overwhelmed by options is to choose the item that matches the description of what you ate and has a green checkmark next to it. According to MyFitnessPal, the green checkmark logo means that the food has complete nutrition information and accurately reflects the nutrition information from the product packaging.
For this reason, I recommend tapping the logo to the right of “Search Results” to filter out all randomly entered foods, leaving behind the most accurate entries. This will allow you to get the best estimates for your fat, protein, net carb, and fiber intake with each meal.
Anyway, let’s get back to tracking breakfast. Let’s select the first “egg” result with the green checkmark next to it.
Here you can change the serving size and number of servings to accurately reflect what you ate just by tapping the appropriate row. Since I had 4 large eggs, I am going to leave the serving size as is and change the number of servings to 4.
This tells MyFitnessPal that I ate 4 large eggs, and it will accurately reflect this when I click the black checkmark at the top right of the screen.
Time-saving Tip: To enter multiple items at once, use the multi-add tool by tapping multi-add at the bottom of the search screen. Check off what you had, then search for the next item. To edit the servings and serving sizes, simply select the item you want to edit, enter the correct info, and tap the black checkmark at the top right to save the entry before searching for the next item.
How To Calculate Net Carbs For Each Food Entry on MyFitnessPal
Before we leave this screen, let’s see what other information it has. By scrolling down, we can access all the nutrition info available on that food item.
We can also use this information to calculate the net carbs of that entry to make sure it fits into your daily net carb limit.
To do this, subtract the grams of fiber from the grams of carbs. For example, the four eggs I ate had 1.4 total grams of carbs and 0 grams of fiber. The net carbs = 1.4 – 0 = 1.4 grams.
This is such a small amount! This is why eggs are a staple of the keto diet.
How to Track Net Carbs Using MyFitnessPal
After a full day of keto-friendly eating and macro tracking, you have all the info you need to calculate your net carb intake.
First, make sure you are in your food dairy by tapping the “Diary” icon to the left of the “+” sign. Tap on the banner at the top that has your daily calories remaining.
You’ll be taken to a screen that provides you with your daily nutrient breakdown. Here you will find all the relevant information that you need to ensure you are following the ketogenic diet correctly.
To calculate your net carb intake for the day, take your fiber number and subtract it from the grams of carbohydrates you consumed.
For example, after a sample day of beginner keto eating, I consumed 25 grams of carbs and 7 grams of fiber. 25 g – 7 g= 18 grams of net carbs — not bad!
How To Make Meal Tracking Easier with MyFitnessPal
After a couple of days using MyFitnessPal, you’ll notice that it is a pretty tedious task to plug in every single ingredient that you eat. If you are like me and have a couple of staple keto recipes that you always go back to, then you can make the macro tracking process easier by using previously entered recipes or importing your favorites.
Finding Your Favorite Keto Recipes
To use a previously enter recipe simply search “Ruled.me” in the food search bar:
Here you can look for your favorite recipes that have already been imported into MyFitnessPal. Just make sure you double check the nutrition information since other users may have made their own tweaks to the recipe.
How to Import Your Favorite Keto Recipes
If you are struggling to find the recipe you want to make, try importing it into the app yourself.
Simply tap the black “+” in the food search screen.
Then, select “Create a Recipe”:
You can either enter the ingredients manually or add them from a website.
To insert my favorite Ruled.me recipes, for example, I enter the website on the app and search through the website to find what I am looking for.
When you tap “Import Recipe,” the app will find the ingredients and write them down for you.
Click the arrow on the top right for the app to match the ingredients. If you find any ingredient that is inaccurate, then you can choose an alternative. Plus, you can add or delete any ingredient by choosing the options at the bottom of the screen.
Once everything looks good, click the arrow at the top right.
At the next screen, you have to scroll down all the way to see all the options. Here you can make sure the name, servings, and calorie breakdowns are accurate before you save it.
Once it is saved, you can log it at any time you’d like. All you have to do is click on the “Recipes” tab (found next to “ALL” on the food search screen), click on the keto-friendly recipe, and enter the number of servings that you ate.
How To Configure Cronometer
If you’d rather use an app that tracks your net carbs, micronutrients, and is much more precise and accurate, then I’d recommend using Cronometer.
Here’s how to set it up:
First, you must download the app and set up an account.
Once you end up at the following screen, you are ready to set your macronutrient and calorie goals.
How to Set Your Carb Limit and Macro Intake Goals with Cronometer
Tap on the “Settings” button (in the bottom right of the screen) and scroll down.
Here you will find all your information (which you can edit at any time) and your macronutrients and nutrient targets.
First, let’s set our macronutrient targets by selecting “Macronutrient Targets”
Firstly, you’ll notice the “tracking carbs as” option. This allows you to select the type of carbs you want to track: total carbs, net carbs + sugar alcohols, or net carbs without sugar alcohols.
Here’s a quick overview of the three options to help you decide what may be best for you:
- Net Carbs + Sugar Alcohols will add sugar alcohols into your net carb limit for the day. For instance, if you consume a keto cookie that uses erythritol as a sweetener, the grams of erythritol from that cookie will be logged as a net carb.
- Net Carbs – No Sugar Alcohol only counts carbs that aren’t categorized as a fiber or a sugar alcohol.
- Total Carbs shows you the sum of fiber, net carbs, and sugar alcohols.
As long as the only sugar alcohols you consume are erythritol and xylitol, the “Net Carbs – No Sugar Alcohol” will help you optimize your diet for ketosis.
However, if you eat low carb products that contain other sugar alcohols, such as sorbitol or maltitol, “Net Carbs + Sugar Alcohols” will be the better option for you (due to their glycemic effect). To learn more about sugar alcohols and the keto diet, read through our guide to keto-friendly sweeteners.
Once you’ve selected the appropriate carb tracking setting, you are ready to set your macros for keto.
You can program your keto macros in one of three ways:
- Use our keto calculator to find out your daily calorie, fat, protein, and carb requirements, and plug them in after selecting the “Fixed Values” option.
- Use “Macro Ratios” if you’d rather stick with keto diet macro percentages (like the ones we used with MyFitnessPal).
- Select the “Keto Calculator” option if you want the app to do the calculations for you. Feel free to use the following section to help you figure out which “Keto Program” to choose.
A Quick Overview of Cronometer’s Keto Calculator
If you select “Keto Calculator,” you will find different “Keto Program” options to choose from. According to Cronometer’s website, here is what each keto program represents:
-
Rigorous is recommended for people doing a ketogenic diet for therapeutic reasons (cancer, epilepsy, etc…) where limits on carbs and protein need to be very tight. This is also a good setting for people who are very sensitive to carbohydrates and cannot easily maintain nutritional ketosis without very strict limits.
-
Moderate should be a good range for most people practicing a ketogenic diet for weight loss or health benefits.
-
Relaxed can be used by people who are very athletic and/or have determined through self-monitoring that they can maintain ketosis at higher levels of carbs and protein.
-
Custom lets you edit any of the values as you and your healthcare team sees fit.
For those who want more in-depth info about how they calculate protein intake and net carb limits, here is how Cronometer describes it:
Your maximum protein is based on a multiplier for each kilogram of lean body mass (LBM). For strict ketogenic diets, this is typically 1.0 grams of protein per kg LBM, and the Moderate setting is at 1.5 gram protein per kg LBM.
It is also worth noting that pregnant and lactating women will have an additional 25 grams of protein added.
When it comes to setting your carb limit, here is what Cronometer does:
Your carbohydrate target is based on the chosen Keto Program. The Athletic Bonus will grant an additional 1 gram of carbohydrates for every 50 kcal of exercise. Those that are highly athletic can typically handle more carbohydrates without hampering ketosis.
If you’d rather have more control over your protein intake and carb limit, you’ll find the “Fixed Value” setting to be a better option. Simply plug-in your macros from our keto calculator, and you are good to go.
Once you’ve finished adjusting your macronutrient targets, go back to the settings menu where you can set your goals for other nutrients by tapping “Nutrient Targets” as well.
Here you can fine-tune your goals for nutrients like water, vitamins, minerals, and specific amino acids, fats, and carbs, as well as your daily calorie goals.
Now that you have all of your daily goals set and ready for a successful ketogenic diet, let’s learn how to track food consumption on Cronometer.
How To Track Meals Using Cronometer
Just like with MyFitnessPal, simply tap on the “+” sign to log a new entry.
(Quick tip: To reveal your daily macro target, swipe left on the banner that is right below the date. This will provide you a much clearer picture of your daily intake goals.)
The food adding screen looks very similar to MyFitnessPal and functions similarly. You’ll find a search bar to type in the food you ate and a barcode scanning option as well.
To add the four eggs that I had with breakfast to my food log, I type in eggs and select “eggs, cooked.” Since I ate four large eggs, I am going to change the serving size to large and type in 4 instead of 1.
As you can see, the great thing about using Cronometer for keto is that it gives me the net carbs for each item without me having to calculate it.
How to Know Which Search Result to Choose on Cronometer
To select the most accurate food entry, look for USDA or NCCDB next to the listed item. Double-check to make sure the food has 50 or more listed nutrient values in the calorie summary.
For example, If I scroll down in the first search result for “eggs”, I see that this entry has 77 listed nutrients. This means that it will give me a complete picture of the vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and fatty acids when I log this option.
Once you’ve entered the right food, servings size, and amount, tap “Add to Diary”. This will add the food item to your food diary for the day, which you can see by tapping “Diary” on the bottom left of the screen.
If you are looking for more details (like your vitamin, mineral, and fiber intake), then simply tap on the middle of that banner (it doesn’t matter where), select “full report”, and scroll down to get all the info you need.
Making Meal Tracking Easier With Cronometer
Similar to MyFitnessPal, Cronometer has a multi-add option that can cut down the time it takes to enter your meals.
To access this feature, you will need to go to the food search screen and tap the orange icon to the right of the search bar.
Here you can enable the “multi-add” slider and change how your results are filtered.
With the multi-add enabled, you can now select multiple entries as once, review the servings, and edit each one before adding it to your food diary.
How to Add Your Favorite Keto Products and Recipes To Cronometer
Although you can’t import recipes directly from Ruled.me to Cronometer, you can still create your own recipes and add new foods to your app’s database for future use.
To add a new recipe or food, tap the “Foods” icon at the bottom of the screen.
After that, tap the “Create Food” logo if you want to enter a keto-friendly item that isn’t in the database or “Create Recipe” if you want to add a keto recipe that consists of multiple ingredients.
To create a new recipe, simply click “add ingredients” and add them until it matches what you find in your recipe. After you are done adding the ingredients, change the servings and recipe name to your preference.
How to Track Net Carbs with Cronometer
My favorite thing about Cronometer is how it shows you a progress bar for each macro as you add your meals in. This allows you to track net carbs throughout the day and adjust what you eat accordingly.
To make the macronutrient progress bars your default view, simply swipe left on the banner immediately below the date. The banner will look something like this at first:
After swiping left once, you will end up with the progress bars for easy and convenient tracking:
This banner will be automatically saved before exiting the app.
Please note: Your macronutrient goals will not be accurate until you follow the guidelines in the “How to Set Your Macronutrient Ratios and Calorie Goals with Cronometer” section of this article.
How to Configure Carb Manager for the Keto Diet
Carb Manager integrates many of the positive aspects of MyFitnessPal together with features designed specifically for anyone tracking their carbs.
The onboarding process is straightforward, but there are some aspects worth highlighting to make sure you get the most out of this app for your keto lifestyle:
Once you reach the screen above, I recommend adjusting some settings before you start tracking. Settings can be accessed by tapping the white horizontal lines at the top left.
At the settings screen, select the “Macros” option. This is where you can set your calorie and macronutrient goals.
Though there are many ways to set your macros for keto, these two options are the simplest:
- Set the calorie deficit based on your weight loss goals. Scroll down, tap “Carbs:Protein:Fat Ratio,” and select 5:25:70 (Keto).
- Use our keto calculator and type the calorie calculation in the calorie goals box. Scroll down, tap “Carbs:Protein:Fat Ratio,” and select “Custom Grams.” Enter the gram calculations from our keto calculator and tap “APPLY MY MACROS”.
Once your macros are set, tap the horizontal white line logo in the top left, scroll up, and go to “My Daily Log”. The daily log screen is where you can start adding your meals and tracking carbs.
How to Track Your Net Carbs with Carb Manager
Tap the white plus sign at the top right on your daily log, and you will be brought to the “Find Foods” window:
Their search function works a lot like the MyFitnessPal app, allowing you to find foods and recipes from one search bar. To find your favorite ruled.me recipe, for example, type in “Ruled.me” followed by the recipe you are looking for.
Fortunately, you won’t have to do any extra math to track net carbs (like you would with MyFitnessPal). After you log each item, your net carb count (and your other macros) will automatically update themselves, giving you a clear picture of your macros for the day.
What is the Best Carb Tracking App for Keto? A Side by Side Review of Cronometer vs. MyFitnessPal vs. Carb Manager
If we compare the results of tracking the exact same meals side by side, we can see that MyFitnessPal, Cronometer, and Carb Manager are within 60 calories and 3 grams of net carbs of each other.
With 2,121 calories, MyFitnessPal had the lowest energy estimate for the day. However, this wasn’t far from Cronometer (at 2,173.2 calories), which is known for being a highly accurate tracking app.
From a net carb perspective, I noticed that MyFitnessPal was the least accurate (mostly because of an inaccurate Pecan listing). There was also a 1.5-gram difference between Cronometer and Carb Manager, which I traced back to Cronometer’s greater precision and a discrepancy between each app’s spring mix listing.
Overall, these discrepancies are small enough that they will not make or break your results. This means that the best app for keto ultimately depends on your preferences.
If you want to track your macronutrients, net carbs, vitamins, and minerals with greater precision (to the tenths decimal place), then Cronometer is the best choice.
On the other hand, if you would rather have a larger database of foods and recipes to choose from, then you’ll find Carb Manager or MyFitnessPal to be the better option.
Final Thoughts and Helpful Keto Resources
No matter what carb and calorie tracking app you choose, I hope you now know how to utilize these calorie tracking tools to make the most out of your efforts on a keto diet.
It’s extremely beneficial to keep a log of what you are eating, especially in the first 2 months that you start. In fact, a 2011 meta-analysis of 22 studies on self-monitoring found that “all [15] of the 15 studies that focused on dietary self-monitoring found significant associations between self-monitoring and weight loss.” In other words, tracking your calories is a great way to boost your results.
Personally, I’ve been logging my food for years now, and it has helped me reach my goals more quickly and easily. Tracking my food intake also helps me understand what I need more of in my diet so that I can be as healthy as possible.
And since I eat almost the same thing every day, logging what I eat has become super simple because the apps now have my favorite recipes and most frequent foods ready to be selected without me having to search for them every time.
Cronometer, Carb Manager, and MyFitnessPal have their pros and cons, but one is not — beyond a reasonable doubt — better than the other. Each app will give you the functionality that you need to track your calories successfully and get the most out of your ketogenic diet. The calorie tracking app that you choose is up to you and your personal preference.
Now that you know how to track your macros, you’re ready to take the next step toward improving your health and losing fat. If you’d like to turn that small step into a giant leap forward, we’ve included several helpful resources below:
- Our 14-day Meal Plan — One month of keto meals mapped out for you
- The Keto Diet and Weight Loss Plateaus — Learn how to break through your weight loss stall
- How to Find Your Ketogenic Carb Limit — Dive deeper into the science of ketosis and how you can use it to personalize your carb counts.
- 5 Keto Diet Hacks for Optimal Results — Simple changes you can make to reach your goals and maintain them for the long-term
Thanks very much for putting this guide together! It is extremely helpful!
I’ve used my fitness pal before and was unable to make the setting changes. Help!
Amy, did you follow the guide? Did you read it from top to bottom? It explains step by step what you need to do and also explains you have to set it up first on your desktop computer before it follows through to your mobile device.
I was wondering, I noticed after I enter a food for breakfast for example, it only shows me a total calorie for breakfast in MFP. I would love to see the total carbs also for breakfast, etc also and I haven’t found a way to change that setting, any suggestions?
Keep messing with it to make sure it’s set up correctly through your desktop first. I will go through it soon and make sure all my pictures are up to date 🙂
thanks for the tutorial. i had gone to FP and didn’t have a clue as to how to use it. You’ve helped a LOT!
Awesome Mary, glad you got it all worked out 🙂
Hey Craig i really need help can you please give me a menu for a week see to see if i can loose a pound i been trying a bout 3 weeks now, i am 165 pounds now need to drop 40 pounds..thanks ..
Esther,
There’s 2 meal plans on the site. A 1 week one and a 30 day one – just check in the navigation menu on the website.
Hello again Craig, thanks for the reply, i will try that hope i see some progress, because i have to have, 25 Carbs/ 60 Protein/ 97 Fat..i will follow that menu ..on that website..Thanks again..
Sure thing, and best of luck!
Hi Craig,
I was following along with your tutorial on changing MFP, and noticed that when I up my calories, I will lose weight faster. IS THIS CORRECT? (I am 49 years old, 5′-10″ and weigh 160. I would like to get down to 145.) When I used your Macros calculator, it had me at 2421 calories and 20 carbs, 90 protein and 220 fat. (Seems like a LOT of fat!) If I change the settings under goal on MFP from 2400 calories to 2500 I go from losing 1.2 lbs per week to 1.4 lbs per week. This just does not seem right?
Thanks for everything – I can tell you put a lot of time and effort into this!
On another note… What about drinking alcohol?
Randi,
When you use the calculator, try putting in a 20% calorie deficit and a 0.6g protein per lean pound ratio. That should give you better stats on your macros. There’s an article on the site called “Counting Calories on a Ketogenic Diet” and “Alcohol and Ketosis: Do they work?” you can read those to get the answers for both of those question 😉
All the best,
Craig
Thank you so much. I made the changes you suggested. When I input the 0.6 protein ratio it was in red. Is that OK? Also, on the MFP calculator, it now has me losing only .5 lbs per week. Is that right? (Of course I would like to lose faster… Don’t we all!) Other than that, I was happy to see my calories went down to 2062. I still do not know how I am going to consume that many calories per day!! I’ve only been doing this 2 days, and I’m full. Is it bad to not eat all the calories?
Thanks again!
Randi, being in the red is fine. I originally built the calculator for people that worked out but it still applies to people that lose weight (with some tweaks). As for calories, it kind of depends how much you weigh. Your fat stores can only cover so many calories in deficit, so you will want to find that out for yourself. Feel free to experiment, but I never suggest higher than a 25-30% deficit (I normally recommend 15-20% deficit).
Hope that helps!
I use LoseIt! but I have used MFP before. I wish they would some how calculate NET CARBS instead of all carbs. I can get pretty high up there in fiber some days.
Also you were talking about ninja carbs, I’d go further as to say that if a “serving size” has less than 0.9g of carbs in it, they can technically say its 0g carbs per serving and round down according to the FDA. Or their serving size could be tiny, tiny that they are allowed to round down. Like, who uses 1/8 teaspoon of butter? But they can round down. Use common sense when you buy stuff. I like to buy whole foods and not something wrapped in plastic or in a box.
Definitely! It’s pretty ridiculous that the FDA can do such things, but they’re working on reforming nutrition labels from the FDA which is a good thing – just wondering how it will really impact things, or if it won’t at all.
I’ve just starting using MFP and i’ve got no fibre record so can’t deduce net carbs. Am I missing something or doing something wrong?
Hannah, you have to set MFP to track fiber so you can subtract it from the carbs.
Craig,
I just started this way of eating yesterday, I lost 2.5 pounds since yesterday! This website is so helpful. I was reading these comments and I missed the fact that this had to be set up from our desktop computer, just as Amy did. So now I am on my with the fitness pal, thanks for showing this step by step. What are your suggestions for some easy reading as far as a book. I love to read at night so this would be great for me. If there is one you sell, sorry, I just haven’t got that far into your website. Let me know.
Thanks, Joyce
Craig,
I did find the cookbook and I am ordering that. I was asking about a book other than the cookbook.
Thanks again!
Joyce
Joyce, I only have the cookbook at the moment – thank you for getting it by the way! If you can, just read the website in your free time. There’s a number of articles on here that’ll give you the same information as many of the books out there. Personally, I’m not a big fan of reading books because all of the information in them (plus more) is available on websites for free 🙂
I used your directions to adjust my settings and goals in My fitness pal, but when I enter them in, it changes my macros a fairly decent amount. I am not sure if that is normal?
Thanks in advance!
Kristina,
Sometimes MFP won’t allow you to get exactly to your macros, but you should be able to set it close enough that it’s easy to follow. If you want to try a different app, you can also give FatSecret a try.
Hi Craig
Stumbled across your page whilst trying to find out more about ketosis. Currently I am following my own version of the Atkins diet. So far since 8th Feb2014 I have lost 361bs. But recently have really slowed down. Don’t think I’m in ketosis any more. Don’t really understand all the figures you have been taking about. Daily I gave less than 20gms of net carbs. However I probably only have about 800 calories. My start weight was 2701bs. I still have a long way to go would like to get to 1501bs. I am age 50. Can you offer any advice
Caz
Caz,
If you’re only having 800 calories then you may have done some metabolic damage to your body. What I suggest (and you may gain a bit of weight first) is starting to increase your caloric intake. You can use the ‘keto calculator’ at the top of the page to calculate how many calories you should be eating (most likely almost double what you are now). When you begin to eat more I think you’ll gain a bit of weight as your body begins to repair (because 800 calories is very low), and then once your body is back to normal, you will begin to lose again. As you lose weight, the less fat stores you have to cover the deficit that you’re in, so the more you have to eat. I hope that helps and you’ve already lost a TON of weight so congrats!
I have been using mfp for a couple years now. I even just hit 450 days off straight logging in a row. I only log the foods I eat including condiments but I dont actually log fats including butter and olive oil. I just figure that’s apart of my fat intake. I typically just cook n don’t measure the fats but I do measure n weigh all my foods for accurate logging. Although keto calculator has me set at 2600 calories, I keep my goals set at 1800 calories on mfp. I guess I figure the fats I’m not logging are included in the additional calories suggested by keto calculator. Would you recommend actually weighing n logging fat accurately? Or is the way I do things ok?
Allyson,
If that seems to be working for you, then I see no big deal there. If you feel like you’re not hungry a lot, I would continue what you’re doing. Personally I think tracking fat is just as important as tracking other macros because the most important thing is making sure your ratios are in check. But, normally if you’re hitting your protein and carb requirement (and not going over) then the rest should be coming from fat.
I started my weight loss journey with the atkins diet and through the first phase and staying (for the most part) in ketosis, I lost 40lbs between February and July 2014. Since starting to reintroduce healthy carbs here and there, I seem to have stalled my weight loss. I’ve been stuck at 138lbs for the last month. I have started researching ketogenic diets and am now back on track and hopefully back in ketosis (I need to buy some strips to make sure) anyway, my question is, how many calories should I be consuming? How do I figure this out? I have checked out the links to keto calculator but as I am still kinda new to it and flying by the seat of my pants, most of it is all gibberish to me. I don’t know how to figure out my kcal per min etc… please give me some pointers and newbie tips!?
Thanks! 🙂
Kelly,
Take a look around the website. You should take a few hours or a few days to really dig into the information and see what will be going on when you introduce your body to ketosis. There’s tons of info all around the site, just take your time 🙂
If you want a “fast track” answer to this, where I ween out all the unnecessary information and do all the planning for you, I also sell the Keto Academy you can check out here: //www.ruled.me/keto-academy/
Hope that helps!
What about sugar alcohols, or “sugars” listed on nutritional breakdowns? I know Atkins always subtracts these, and I think that most if not all “sugars” do not impact blood sugar. But I don’t hear much about subtracting these from net carbs in diets other than Atkins; only hear about subtracting the fiber. Just as an example, I had some cottage cheese today and the breakdown was: Carbs – 17; Fiber – 4; sugars – 12. This would make a huge difference if sugars could be subtracted. (Ingredients were only milk and cream and salt).
Linda,
Sugars and sugar alcohols are completely different. Atkins old style of dieting was probably the most successful, but since then have turned it into a money-marketing scheme in my eyes. Sugar alcohols matter, depending on which you use. Some of them raise blood sugars and have a glycemic impact (bad), and some don’t (these ones are fine). The Atkin’s diet bars and such actually raise blood sugars and are pretty well known for kicking people out of ketosis. So I would stay away from them.
As for your yogurt, there are natural sugars in milk and that will affect your blood sugars also. I suggest staying away from these to be honest. If you want to eat yogurt, you can eat greek yogurt in moderation. There was a breakdown done on some yogurts a while ago, and it seems that the bacteria feeds on the sugar in the milk to ferment it into yogurt. The “waste” of the bacteria is supposed to have less carbs – so yogurt in general should in THEORY have less carbs, but I still try to stay away from it.
As for the yogurt you were eating, it sounds like it was pretty sugary – you should look for some different brands (natural, full fat greek yogurt) if you want to eat it.
Hope that helps,
Craig
Not yogurt – cottage cheese. There was no sugar in it, but “sugars” on the nutrient list. It does seem abnormally high. Sounds like, in general, dairy sugars are good to avoid, yes? How can we know if it’s ok to subtract “sugars?”
Thanks.
Sorry, I just saw your other response to me about the MFP and sugars, so you don’t have to repeat yourself
My question there, though, was whether we need to change the carb target on the “goals” tab in MFP — it defaults to 21. You don’t mention that in your tutorial above. (Or, maybe it doesn’t matter in the goals section because it just counts them anyway.) Setting these things up is daunting at first.
Thanks yet again.
Linda,
If your carb targets are 21 in MFP, you can leave them like that. You will most likely go over on your carb limit, and have to manually subtract the fiber yourself (because MFP doesn’t calculate this for us). But it’s not too big an issue. MFP isn’t a perfect system, but it is a helpful one 🙂
Ok, I’m new to this. I just changed my MFP goals per your guide above with 1600 intake calories. I notice that down the list on the goals tab there are settings for fiber and sugars, which default to 21 and 45. Should these be changed? 5% carbs would be about 80, and I need to reduce that to 20. (Are we subtracting sugars?) And, based on what I input, it shows me losing .2 lbs/wk. I’m losing about 1.5-2 lbs per week not tracking anything except carbs.
This is a great thing you’ve put together here. Thanks!
Linda,
You can use the keto calculator on here (//www.ruled.me/keto-calculator/) to figure out how much you need to eat. But, based on what you’re telling me, you shouldn’t have to worry too much. Some lucky dogs (like yourself) can get away with just counting carbs and not worrying about anything else. This is generally because fat and protein are naturally satiating, but many of the people that start keto have hormone issues. You don’t seem to be that type of person – so I would suggest sticking with what’s working for you so far.
As per the sugar question – you want to completely ignore sugars. You don’t want to have sugars in your diet where possible (obviously you will have some, naturally from vegetables) but you don’t want to try to hit a certain sugar amount per day (just minimize it as much as possible). You want to keep net carbs to 20, which generally means total carbs – fiber.
As for the sugar alcohols, the only ones I really suggest are erythritol and stevia (these don’t affect blood sugars and are 0 glycemic impact, so they are great for “not counting”). Hope that all helps.
Are there any meal bars that you recommend for breakfast? I love the eggs, but I need something to “grab and go” at times!
Hey Joni,
There’s a couple of different meal bars that you can check out on the site. From the top of my head (and 2 of the most popular) would be the Almond Pecan Bars and the Chia Fat Bomb Squares 🙂
Hi Craig,
Thank you for this wonderful website. I’ve been thinking about ketosis for a while (around 2 weeks?) and it was reading your blog that gave me the courage to finally take the step! I have two specific questions for you:
1) Is it really accurate to calculate net carbs by simply deducting fibre? For instance, I really love edamame; it has about 4 g carbs in it (1.2g sugar) and >6g fibre. To have a negative carb count seems odd, unless it cancels it out? I would think the sugar is a better indicator?
2) How vital it is to get ketone testing strips? I’ve been using fatsecret to track my daily intake, and for the past two days I’ve been keeping it around 20g total carbs, which means my net carbs are probably lower since I consume quite a bit of vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, bak choy; no high carb stuff!) I haven’t gotten any keto flu symptoms (though I seem to have developed a mild runny nose) but then again, I’ve been slowly cutting down on carbs over the past weeks…
Looking forward to your answers and once again, thank you! 😀
There is no such thing as a negative carb count, so I am guessing that either they subtracted the fiber out already (they do this on European labels) or that the nutrition information is incorrect as edamame is quite carby.
It’s not all that vital to test with the strips – they just tell you a “yes” or “no” to whether you’re in keto, but the actual value they give out can change based on so many factors including how hydrated you are.
Sounds like you’ve been doing great so far!
How do we find food ideas when for instance what I have left for dinner is Fat 81 grams, 4 carbs and 4 proteins. I’m not sure how to get that in. This is my day one, I’m still learning how to even this out throughout the day.
Well that would not really be possible unless you’re willing to have a lot of oil for dinner. I’d say try to plan ahead and plan in advanced so that your macros aren’t like that. You’ll most likely be best off just going over a bit on protein and enjoy a decent meal instead of trying to make it miserable and just eating oil.
This is the most common thing with keto – and one of the reasons many can’t do it – the planning ahead (at least a little) for balanced meals through the day so that you’re not faced with the same situation.
As you said, it’s your first day, and you’re still learning – so don’t be too hard on yourself.
Hi Craig, great website 🙂 thank you for helping us keto-newbies! I was just wondering can you please explain how I get to the last screen shot? I can only bring up the ‘Nutrient’ details not the ‘Foods’ details! Thanks!
You’re very welcome, Wendy! The last screenshot is located in the “Diary” section.
Why does Erythitol not show on your recipes nutrition information list?
Angie, it is because it isn’t absorbed by our body. Our body doesn’t have the enzymes to break it down and it mainly excreted through urine. I’ve gone in depth on this topic on the forums and many of the recipe posts before (in the comments).
I am so glad I came across this–because I was feeling so discouraged!!! It’s only 4th day doing Keto and I’m not sure I’m even doing it right–but I’ve been using MyFitnessPal, which helps a lot. My carb grams for today (so far) is 30 ….but after subtracting out the fiber (25), it’s only 5g of carbs!! Whoo-hoo! I know I’m not getting enough fat and I’m concerned about that–but I’m trying to get my body into ketosis. I just don’t eat a ton of fatty meats. Suggestions?
Keep reading through the recipes on the website. There’s tons of options on how to get fats in there. Using more cooking oil and changing your purchases to include fattier meats is definitely a starting point.
Thanks, Craig. I’m not much of a red-meat eater–but I do eat pork, chicken, and fish. So far bacon is helping me in the fats department. If I’m short on my fats near the end of the day, I just eat some bacon and/or eat some cheese. I’m on Day 8 and so far have lost 3 lbs. I bought ketostix and according to those, I’m in ketosis. Are your recipes in MFP? Or would I need to import them in? Thanks so much!
Hey Lesli – that sounds good. Definitely opt for fattier fish like mackerel, sardines, and salmon. Eggs and chicken thighs (with the skin on), and ground pork and bacon will help out tons. Supplement with fatty salad dressings, cooking oils, butter, and fatty nuts like macadamias and walnuts. Avocado’s also go fantastic with fish and are packed with fats.
MFP has a good chunk of recipes of mine inputted by readers of mine. I personally haven’t played a part in that so I can’t say every single inputted recipe is 100% accurate, but I did check a number of them out a while back and they seemed on point. You can search “ruled.me” in MFP and a bunch should pop up. Keep on going!
Thank you so much, Craig! I did find a number of your recipes in MFP–so that’s good. Also, I’ve been in ketosis for several days now and can definitely tell a difference in how my clothes are fitting–and I’m down 4 lbs. –still having headaches and some dizziness but hopefully that will go away.
That’s awesome to hear! As far as headaches go, make sure that you’re replenishing your electrolytes. Either by supplementing, buying Lite Salt and using it, or drinking a Powderade Zero (this is 1.5g carbs per bottle keep in mind) in the morning to help with it. Once your electrolytes are in check, headaches and dizziness will definitely go away.
Hello Craig,
I have a question about my daily goals setup in MFP.
So everyday my tracker shows I should consume 1200 cals, 92gm fats and 75gm proteins but as the day goes by, it syncs my activity steps from my phone and keeps increasing these numbers. Sometimes they are all way too high. For example: one day when I had about 14000 steps, my goals turned to 1,692cals, 131gm fats and 84gm proteins. This is so confusing as which numbers to follow? My son tells me I should keep following my original goals and eat only that much fat and protein regardless of what MFP suggests based on my steps. Is this the correct way? I sure am losing though but since its just about 2 weeks, I’m thinking it could be water weight. Also my daily net carbs are always around 20 so thats not my concern as I’m avoiding most of the carbs and only incoming carbs are from nuts and some veggies.
I’d really appreciate if you could please help me out with this confusion 🙂
Thanks,
Manisha
Hey Manisha. I’d suggest using the keto calculator on this site and using that as a basis for your calories (it will probably be in the 1500-1600 range). MFP usually gives you pretty low calorie basis, and at times can hurt your progress because it will start to be too high of a deficit for your body and slow your metabolism. The aim is to keep a healthy amount of calories in your diet (while still at a small deficit) and allowing the excess energy needed to come from bodyfat.
Keep in mind that keto adaption is a process and can take some time before you start seeing the deeper side of ketosis and the weight loss.
Thanks for your reply Craig 🙂
I had begun my Keto journey by using another calculator and those are the numbers what it suggested for weight loss 1209 cals(since Im 42 yr old woman 5ft tall and 127lbs) and using that I adjusted my goals in MFP.
Now I tried your calculator and it gives me 1349 cals, 20g Net Carbs,50g Protein, 119g Fat which seems very much doable as I do get hungry and 1200 was getting a bit difficult by end of day. But your calculator doesn’t account for gender, so wondering if that would affect the numbers?
Also just to make sure, I’m calculating on your site correctly….I just chose lightly active and did not check the exercise option as yes to add in the 300-350 cals I get back from my brisk walks after meals, but I have assumed that choosing lightly active would take care of those calories. If I add my walking calories too then the total calories rise to 1589!! And the fat increases to 146 so I’m still a bit confused as to which numbers to follow? Please help 🙂 For now I have stopped syncing my MFP with my daily steps, as the numbers thruout the day confuse me but please do suggest if its ok to sync.
You could always do the 1350 (though that does sound a little low) and add in more calories if you are hungry. My calculator doesn’t account for gender because usually the TTF are going to be around the same in both male/female – it matters more about muscle mass and body fat percentage.
MFP can be a bit finicky – so I would just suggest to do what you find easier.
So far its going well. I increased my calories to 1300 and don’t mind if it hits 1350 as long as my fats are up and carbs are low with moderate protein. I’m doing great!! Thanks for your advices. It helps a bunch!
Awesome to hear – keep it up!
Hi Craig, Wanted to let you know my calories somehow dont seem to matter at all….I changed my way of eating, like load up really well at breakfast time…..good lunch with salad and evening again salad but very little actual protein(1-2oz)….and ending with your super yummy fat bombs 🙂 during the day I eat peanut butter almond butter etc to keep myself going and I noticed my calories went up high….like in high 1500s and I still lost weight and feeling awesome. Of course my fat intake went up even higher, protein was just a lil above moderate but not too much and carbs under 30…earlier when I restircted my calories I had to restrict lot of good food too coz just with the basics I would touch 1200-1300! Now with this way of eating I love it. Also I added grass fed plain whole milk yogurt…about twice a day 1/3 cup maybe, and that has helped me tremendously with my digestion….so looks like I’m helping myself with these changes. Oh yeah I’m going for a blood work in a week so hopefully will see it all in black and white soon 🙂 I’m excited! Thanks for all your help btw.
Manisha, MFP has a setting that you can turn OFF/ON when syncing with an exercise tracker. To chg this, go to: MYHOME>SETTINGS>ADJUSTMENTS and uncheck the box entitled ‘Enable Negative Adjustments’. Unchecking this box will keep your calorie and other macros constant. They will not chg when synced with your tracker. 🙂
Craig, another amazing article for me to share ~Teraisa
That’s pretty normal, Manisha. Typically speaking we’re taught that lower calories = faster weight loss. That’s typically too low for the average person trying to lose weight, and 1500 is around the average. Glad to see you’re seeing results!
I read a book by kyle McDonald regarding the sodium intake, and he recommends a whopping 5000mg of sodium a day, which I took and helped with my cramps I was getting so im not sure when you say: A diet with too much salt is unhealthy”, I lost 80 pounds on the ketogenic diet and it wasn’t until I started taking in that much sodium that things were doing great, something about electrolytes
It’s definitely got to do with the electrolytes. Keto is a natural diuretic, so you’re losing a lot more liquids than you would in a normal diet – which is why it’s very important to keep electrolytes in balance. Amazing job on the weight loss, by the way!
I really, enjoy the recipes but I have a little problem with the nutrition tracking. I am using spark people adding the actual recipe as I like to track my vitamins as well, however the nutrition information that you provided per serving in your guide, significantly differs from that I get on a daily basis in spark people especially the protein! Why do you think that is and is it actually a problem?
So, I should still enter NET carbs as my carb goal in MyFitnessPal, even though the app only tracks TOTAL carbs?
You should track total carbs AND fiber. Subtract the fiber from the total carbs for net carbs. You still want to keep an eye on total carbs (try to keep it below 30 if you can).
Under 30 for TOTAL carbs? Yikes.
It’s a good rule of thumb to follow – but it shouldn’t be too hard to do if you’re eating the right foods. Most people typically sit at around 20-25g carbs per day.
Yeah, I’m sure it’s totally doable, but to this carb-loving newbie, it seems like a stretch! I think I’m doing fairly well, though, it’s been a huge shift in how I eat.
On MFP, if something has 13 carbs and only 2 g fiber, I’m eating 11 g carbs.
However, if something else I eat has 10 g of fiber, it is subtracting that total & I’m now at 1g of carbs.
Is this accurate? I thought it was to be tracked per serving not in an entire day’s intake of both?
I’m really sorry for the late reply. I was in the middle of 2 cross country moves. It sounds like some of the items you’re choosing have incorrect nutritional information. If something has 10g fiber, it has 10g total carbs as well. You can never be “negative” on carbs, per se.
Are the recipes you created for the 30-day meal plan maybe logged somewhere in the MyFitnessPal archives? It would be sweet if I could just insert “Not Your Caveman’s Chili” and get all the needed info?
I asked this then checked the app. You are freaking awesome. Take my money. Thanks for making this so easy.
There are some recipes, but it depends. Some recipes from the site may be different as I adjusted some of the recipes in the plan (compared to the versions on the site).
is there an updated version of this guide? MyfitnessPal seems to have changed.
Thank you so much for this explanation of how to set up this fabulous app!!
Do you guys track/count your veggies?
Yes!
Help!
Almost finished with week two. Haven’t lost an ounce! Why?? In keto sis as per keto strips. I am keeping carbs 20-25 net g, fat 110-120 g and protein 60-75 g. Calories have been 1450 and higher. Walk or bike ride 40 min, 3x a week. I am 5’2″ 148#. What am I doing wrong?
Hi Jill,
I am wondering if you stuck with it and what your results are? I am just starting (day 2) and am the same size as you were when you wrote this.
I just started the Keto diet 2 days ago and i’m learning to use MyFitnessPal to track my macros. I’m a little confused about tracking exercise though. I exercise 3 times a week, 10 min of cardio and 40 min of weight training. I also do some form of cardio activity once a week such as dancing or hiking. When I enter my exercise into the app it raises my daily calories and macros. I’m not sure if I should follow that or stick with the numbers it gives me without entering the exercise I do. In other words, Would i starve if I don’t raise my mi macros? I hope this makes sense. Thanks for your help.
Most people ignore that feature in MFP. In the paid version of the app you can even turn it off. If you entered the right activity level then you should be fine.
Thanks Laura. This helps. It’s a lot to take in all at once. Day 3 today and i’m doing fine. Really tired and looking forward to get fat adjusted!
When calculating carbs, do you deduct sugar alcohols to get net carbs? Or, are the sugar alcohols considered a carb? Some websites deduct half the sugar alcohols to get net carbs.
That’s great!
Hi there Im new to Keto and so far love it! I have battled my weight for 20+ years but i have a question u have on here my fitness pal do you have any suggestions for Lose it app on I phone. Ive been using it for months now and don’t want to loos all the info and switch to another app.
any help would be awesome and if switching is the best option thats fine too (I just pay for the Loose it app so if im going to switch id like to know now)
Hi Meg, I’ve never used Lose it before but I think it works fairly similarly to MFP?
Trying to figure out the macros is confusing in it hahah I’m down with using the different one I just do t want to waste money ya know ?
doing the Net carbs is the odd part. I downloaded the free mfp to see if i can match up the screens. if nothing else i can always just switch to the premium of the MFP
I have premium of MFP. They will let you put the total and fiber on your main screen but you still have to do the subtraction in your head unfortunately 🙁
I’m using My Fitness Pal to record my eating on the keto diet but it doesn’t account for fiber so my carbs are higher than they should be. Is that the right app to use? How do I sync it so it looks like your diary example above?
My Fitness Pal is a great one to use. I think these screen shots are a bit older. If you don’t see it on your main diary page click “View Full Report (Printable)” on the bottom and you should find it there.
Am I the only person having problems with fat being correct? Every day I enter my plan and have my numbers dead on. However, when I check back the following day it shows me short on fats despite being higher the day before. App problem? Or user error?
Hi, I am doing profile for My Fitness Pal, free version and it is not letting me move over to grams withoujt doing the paid option. Am I missing something?????
best free aopthat I found to track all the amount of carbs, protein and fat is “Calories, carbs and fat counter” by Virtualgym.way better than MyFitnessPal in my opinion
I used the calculator on here to get my Macros. I entered that into MyFitnessPal and I’m thrown off on one thing. For my goals, everything is good but they have a goal for sugars. Sugars and Carbs are the same thing, so why is that goal not the same on MyFitnessPal? Do I just ignore the sugars portion? I talked to someone who knows about keto and they said to add my goal for carbs and sugars, but that is way too high (82g carbs), which is also what they thought, so they were just as confused. I am sticking with the suggestion on here of the 20g carbs, which is what I have for my goal on MyFitnessPal. I’m so confused. Please help? Thanks!!!
You should be able to change the carbohydrate goal around in their settings, though I think it’s not as precise if you don’t have a paid membership.