🔎 Cronometer Made Easy
Start with one meal. Free, optional, and no daily logging needed.
🧭 Choose how far you want to go
Cronometer is an independent nutrition app with a free Basic account. Using it requires creating a separate Cronometer account. You can view our recipes and nutrition summaries without any account. Cronometer offers optional paid upgrades; you don’t need one for anything on this page. Kitchen Monk has no partnership or financial relationship with Cronometer and cannot see anyone’s account.
🍲 Explore one meal: the easy steps
- Open Cronometer’s official website (cronometer.com) or its official app from your phone’s app store.
- Create a free Basic account. You’ll be asked for some personal details, and you choose what goals to set. Default targets aren’t personalized, so you can ignore them.
- Pick one meal to explore. Our Edamame & Rice Bowl is a good first try.
- Create a custom recipe and add each ingredient with its actual amount. Match the state: cooked, frozen, canned, or dry.
- Set the number of servings to match the recipe.
- View the estimated nutrition per serving: protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
- Save the recipe if you’d like to use it again. You don’t need to log it in a diary.
Cronometer works on the web and in its iPhone and Android apps, and the screens differ a little. We haven’t yet tested and photographed each screen, so for exact button locations please use Cronometer’s official help center ↗. Kitchen Monk doesn’t provide Cronometer customer support for accounts, billing, or technical problems.
📝 Example: create the Edamame & Rice Bowl in Cronometer Basic
Recipe name: Kitchen Monk — Edamame & Rice Bowl
Recipe yield: 1 serving (the whole bowl)
| Ingredient | Amount to enter | Entry guidance |
|---|---|---|
| Edamame, shelled | 1 cup | Frozen, prepared (cooked) |
| Brown rice | 1 cup | Cooked (not dry); long-grain |
| Mixed vegetables | 1 cup | Frozen, cooked, no salt added |
| Rice vinegar | 1 tbsp | Unseasoned (seasoned versions add sugar and salt) |
| Ground ginger, garlic powder | ¼ tsp each | Optional to enter |
Copy-ready list: 1 cup frozen shelled edamame (cooked) · 1 cup cooked brown rice · 1 cup frozen mixed vegetables (cooked, no salt added) · 1 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar · ¼ tsp ground ginger · ¼ tsp garlic powder
Use this ingredient list to create a custom recipe in your free account. Pasting a list doesn’t import it automatically; recipe importing is a paid Gold feature. Choose entries that match the ingredients you actually use. Different brands and substitutions may produce different estimates, so your result may not match ours exactly. Our estimate is about 29 g protein and 20 g fiber.
🤔 Why might my estimate differ?
First check: confirm the ingredient amounts and the number of servings. Other reasons include a different brand, raw versus cooked entries, drained versus undrained ingredients, optional toppings, a different recipe yield, missing nutrient data, and rounding. If you think our recipe has an error, email rfjeep@gmail.com. Please don’t send your food diary or health information.
🆓 What’s free and what’s paid
| In the free Basic account | In paid Gold (optional) |
|---|---|
| Food database, custom foods and recipes, barcode scanner, diary, 7-day nutrition average, exporting your data, web and mobile apps (with ads) | No ads, recipe importer, recipe sharing, printed reports, long-term charts, and more |
📅 Exploring your eating pattern (optional)
Some people like to log a few typical days, then bring what they notice to a health coach, dietitian, or clinician. If you try it:
- Treat targets and percentages as general settings, not a medical verdict.
- One meal or one day can’t diagnose a deficiency.
- You don’t need to log your weight or pursue weight loss to use it.
💚 If logging food feels stressful or unhelpful, or you’ve had a hard relationship with food, choose the no-tracking pathway and talk with your care team. If you have a medical nutrition plan, your care team’s guidance comes first.
🩺 Part of a healthcare team? See the nursing teaching version ↗
Original guide written for Kitchen Monk with AI assistance, for Nathanael Elijah Smith, MSN, APRN, FNP-C, DipACLM. The Cronometer screens have not yet been tested step by step. Registered dietitian review is planned but not yet completed. Cronometer is a trademark of its owner; this guide is independent and not endorsed by Cronometer. Last updated October 3, 2026.
