CRON Diets?

James_Bergin

Hey all, I'm about to begin a month long cron diet. Just to clarify, cron stands for calorie restriction with optimal nutrition. I was wondering if anyone has tried this type of diet and how well it worked for them. Also, if anyone has any tips or suggestions about what to do and what not to do, and any pitfalls they ran into I'd like to hear about them.

Generally, what do you guys think about cron as a diet strategy?

Cheers,

James

Meerataila

Cronometer. I it for the layout when I'm having to work to get all my nutrients. Though I use MFP, too.

As for what I think, I think it has interesting possibilities for longevity and health but more data and research are needed.

And I think if you aren't careful to define it as still requiring the MFP minimum calories daily for your height and weight, you will risk trouble discussing it here, unless you are also under doctor's supervision.

Branstin

I think a weight loss plan should be healthy and sustainable for the rest of your life. Is the CRON diet such a plan and if so then why are you going to do it for just a month? What happens after the month is up?

James_Bergin

I think I have everything in order when it comes to making sure I get my daily caloric intake. As for the long-termness of the diet, it is sustainable long term but it is extremely strict.

With that in mind I want to use CRON as a means to accelerate my weight loss progress and then revert to my original diet thereafter. I don't know if that is a good or bad idea but I'd be interested to hear what people think. I'm mostly interested in the cron to achieve a certain result and to try to force myself to cook at home more and restrict what I'm willing to put into my body. Beyond that, the diet is simply to strict to comfortably manage my nutrition - that's I'm thinking of only sticking with it for a month or two at most.

Wetcoaster

I think I have everything in order when it comes to making sure I get my daily caloric intake. As for the long-termness of the diet, it is sustainable long term but it is extremely strict.

With that in mind I want to use CRON as a means to accelerate my weight loss progress and then revert to my original diet thereafter. I don't know if that is a good or bad idea but I'd be interested to hear what people think. I'm mostly interested in the cron to achieve a certain result and to try to force myself to cook at home more and restrict what I'm willing to put into my body. Beyond that, the diet is simply to strict to comfortably manage my nutrition - that's I'm thinking of only sticking with it for a month or two at most.

ok.....no need to follow this "cron" diet then...why bother?

rosebette

I was rather interested in CRON after reading about it and I had a thread asking about it that never got shut down. I'm somewhat older, 55, female and 5'1.5". I weigh around 120 lbs. and have been eating 1200 calories, with eating back exercise calories. I started at 126, but then reached a plateau where I couldn't lose anymore. I then began to wonder whether my maintenance might be 1200 at this point in my life due to age and metabolism, and I wondered what my calorie needs might be as I get even older and my metabolic needs decrease even more. That's when I started reading about CRON. By the CRON calculator, my BMR is around 1481, and, my CRON requirement would be 1200, which is what I am currently eating. I would assume that as I age more and become less active, the calorie requirement would be even less. As I said, I'm already eating 1200 and "eating back" exercise calories and not losing, which might mean that this is maintenance for me.

I guess there is an eating plan with CRON that one follows where one would get all the necessary nutrients. I've just been trying to get my macros in, eat fairly nutritiously dense food, and take a multivitamin and a calcium supplement.

CRON does not advise about eating back exercise calories, but the assumption is that most people would eventually lose some body weight, have reduced energy and metabolic levels and then exercise less. CRON really isn't about sustaining high levels of exercise but on the idea that reducing calories will prolong life. Frankly, I feel I need exercise to maintain muscle and bone density, so I can't go without eating back those calories without feeling weak and hungry. Today, I warmed up for 22 minutes on a stationary bike, did a one hour strength training class, and took a 2 mile walk later in the day, over 400 calories worth of activity. 1200 calories without "eating back" doesn't cut it, even for someone my size, and believe me, I ate back those spent calories. When the time comes where I can't do as much physical activity, I will eat less and based on CRON, I probably would need only around 1000 a day, and that day isn't here yet, thank goodness, but I know it's somewhere down the road.

If the theory behind CRON is to promote longevity, going back to your previous way of eating once you lose the weight seems to be defeating the purpose. I know I can't go back to eating more food because I am getting older and my metabolism is getting slower. I can splurge occasionally, but I have accepted that if I want to live a long and healthy life and to stay at a reasonable weight, I will have to follow some form of food tracking for the rest of my life.

rosebette

Here's the link to the thread on it from a while back: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1269408-calorie-restriction-diet-for-anti-aging?hl=calorie+restriction+diet&page=4

By the way, you're only 24... I thought guys your age just assumed you would live forever anyway!

James_Bergin

First of all, as to why I'm thinking of bothering to follow the CRON diet, it simply a way to accelerate weight loss progress. I know that with my current diet I should be able to maintain whatever weight I reach with this diet with a few tweaks. So while it isn't strictly necessary to follow the CRON diet, I see it as a way to speed up progress that is not likely to do any harm - except for making me more squeemish when a friend suggests hitting up the local take-away for a 2400 calorie noodle dish!

As for the longevity thing, I realize too that this is the central idea behind cron; its not really about active lifestyle or weight loss per se, but more about promoting long term health. That's kind of a side reason I want to try it out, to see how manageable it is and if its something I can hybridize with my current diet to get a little bit of the best of both worlds.

Anyway, Thanks Rosebette for the information and the link to the old tread. Lots of useful stuff in there it seems As for living forever, all I can say is you must know some very optimistic 24 year olds haha.

If anyone still wants to chime in with anecdotal stories or experiences of their own working with CRON, I'd be more than happy to hear about them. Also, if anyone has some more excellent threads like Rosebette, from MFP or elsewhere on the web, those would be great to.

Thanks for all the feedback so far guys.

ekat120

I'm also a fan of Cronometer. A key part of CRON is lowering your intake gradually so you lose weight slowly. You're supposed to start by just improving the quality of your food before restricting calories. It sounds like you're just planning to do a nutrition-optimized weight loss diet, not CRON.

rosebette

I tried the cronometer and was surprised that all my macros and nutrients were well within if not over the limits even at around 1200 calories, which was a relief. The advantage of the cronometer is that it does measure the micronutrients; the disadavantage is that, unlike MFP, it doesn't have as wide a range of foods as MFP so you have to guess more.

_Zardoz_

I'm not sure I'd want to do anything that sounds like it's named after an evil weapon from a marvel comic . 'THE CRONOMETER'

In all seriousness though whatever food/diet plan you decide on you need to work out if this will work long term. Are you going to be eating like this for the rest of your life? If not what about a transition phase and how will that effect any progress.

From what I read about Cron is it works very well for some people but it's just to decide if it's for you. As any plan is only good if you can stick to it

rosebette

I'm not sure I'd want to do anything that sounds like it's named after an evil weapon from a marvel comic . 'THE CRONOMETER'

In all seriousness though whatever food/diet plan you decide on you need to work out if this will work long term. Are you going to be eating like this for the rest of your life? If not what about a transition phase and how will that effect any progress.

From what I read about Cron is it works very well for some people but it's just to decide if it's for you. As any plan is only good if you can stick to it

For me, it's sustainable because I am smaller and over 50. I don't know if it would be sustainable long term for a young person who is active. He would be set at a higher lever that 1200 calories because like MFP, the cronometer uses age, height, activity level, and targets (lose, maintain, or gain) to calculate caloric goals. It depends how much weight he wants to lose.

Meerataila

For me the CRON experiment really either begins or ends when I hit my lowest healthy BMI. Then I'll find out how many calories I need every day to maintain within a couple pounds of that, because I have no intention of risking bone loss or anything else by being under a healthy BMI.

It will be interesting to see if aging, a lower weight, and over two decades of yo-yo dieting will qualify me as technically a CRONIE by my maintenance intake. Not that I expect anyone to send me a secret decoder ring or a t-shirt or anything!

James_Bergin

For me the CRON experiment really either begins or ends when I hit my lowest healthy BMI. Then I'll find out how many calories I need every day to maintain within a couple pounds of that, because I have no intention of risking bone loss or anything else by being under a healthy BMI.

It will be interesting to see if aging, a lower weight, and over two decades of yo-yo dieting will qualify me as technically a CRONIE by my maintenance intake. Not that I expect anyone to send me a secret decoder ring or a t-shirt or anything!

I guess to clarify I'm following the same strategy. The idea of the cron or nutrition-optimized weight loss (as one user pointed out) for me is to lose weight and reach my goal weigh, improve the quality of what I'm taking in, and ten transition to a maintenance diet I guess.

Meerataila

I guess to clarify I'm following the same strategy. The idea of the cron or nutrition-optimized weight loss (as one user pointed out) for me is to lose weight and reach my goal weigh, improve the quality of what I'm taking in, and ten transition to a maintenance diet I guess.

I don't see how it could possibly be a bad thing to maximize the nutritional value of our food per calorie no matter how many calories we end up eating for maintenance in the end.

rosebette

The cronometer can be a useful tool, but it's not as accurate as MFP, but more accurate in measuring micronutrients. For instance, today the cronometer said I was low on calcium, so I had some extra yogurt because I had calories left.

James_Bergin

No no, of course not! All I'm saying is that initially I was thinking of temporarily adopting a CRON diet as an exercise in eating better in general. MFP has been great in that regard, but I think going a bit more strict for a while would push my nutrition to the next level in terms of healthfulness.

On a side note, I checked out CRONOMETER, but it appears that on android its a paid-for application. There doesn't appear to be much else on offer in terms of CRON style diet tracking out there. Does anyone know of another application that provides roughly the same functionality as CRONOMETER?

Lastly, some of the comments have called into the question the idea that I'm only going to be doing this for a while. I've changed my mind a bit and I've decided that I'm going to try and go with the CRON diet for as long as I can and see if its sustainable for me. Then if things workout it will be for good. More likely however, I anticipate that it will impede my subsequent goals of muscle gain and I'll have to adapt some hybrid of CRON and my current diet - which isn't terrible to be fair.

Anyway, take home point, I want to give CRON a real shot as a long-term approach to diet and nutrition, but I'm a bit lost as to how to begin. Some have mentioned an application called CRONOMETER, but if anyone has suggestions as to free alternatives, that would be ideal for me as I trial the diet. Then if things are going well I'll shell out for the real deal.

Anyway, thanks again everyone for the comments and feedback

Meerataila

No no, of course not! All I'm saying is that initially I was thinking of temporarily adopting a CRON diet as an exercise in eating better in general. MFP has been great in that regard, but I think going a bit more strict for a while would push my nutrition to the next level in terms of healthfulness.

On a side note, I checked out CRONOMETER, but it appears that on android its a paid-for application. There doesn't appear to be much else on offer in terms of CRON style diet tracking out there. Does anyone know of another application that provides roughly the same functionality as CRONOMETER?

Lastly, some of the comments have called into the question the idea that I'm only going to be doing this for a while. I've changed my mind a bit and I've decided that I'm going to try and go with the CRON diet for as long as I can and see if its sustainable for me. Then if things workout it will be for good. More likely however, I anticipate that it will impede my subsequent goals of muscle gain and I'll have to adapt some hybrid of CRON and my current diet - which isn't terrible to be fair.

Anyway, take home point, I want to give CRON a real shot as a long-term approach to diet and nutrition, but I'm a bit lost as to how to begin. Some have mentioned an application called CRONOMETER, but if anyone has suggestions as to free alternatives, that would be ideal for me as I trial the diet. Then if things are going well I'll shell out for the real deal.

Anyway, thanks again everyone for the comments and feedback

I apologize, I use it on my computer, so I had no idea the app cost money.

rosebette

The Cronometer is available as a free app on the web. It's at www.cronometer.com. I've been using it for a bit. I've also just adjusted my MFP goals to what the cronometer says I should be eating. It is less than the MFP recommended 1200 calories, but as I said earlier, I'm older and smaller, so I have a low BMR. One word of caution, some younger folks, especially males, have experienced extreme weight loss on this program. If you read some of the forums, there are guys 5'9" who weigh about 125-130, which I think is a bit extreme. Be careful not to lose muscle mass. My own case, I'm not losing even at 1200.

Meerataila

The Cronometer is available as a free app on the web. It's at www.cronometer.com. I've been using it for a bit. I've also just adjusted my MFP goals to what the cronometer says I should be eating. It is less than the MFP recommended 1200 calories, but as I said earlier, I'm older and smaller, so I have a low BMR. One word of caution, some younger folks, especially males, have experienced extreme weight loss on this program. If you read some of the forums, there are guys 5'9" who weigh about 125-130, which I think is a bit extreme. Be careful not to lose muscle mass. My own case, I'm not losing even at 1200.

When I put my Cronometer settings at lose 1 lb a week, it gives me more than 1200 calories.

rosebette

The Cronometer is available as a free app on the web. It's at www.cronometer.com. I've been using it for a bit. I've also just adjusted my MFP goals to what the cronometer says I should be eating. It is less than the MFP recommended 1200 calories, but as I said earlier, I'm older and smaller, so I have a low BMR. One word of caution, some younger folks, especially males, have experienced extreme weight loss on this program. If you read some of the forums, there are guys 5'9" who weigh about 125-130, which I think is a bit extreme. Be careful not to lose muscle mass. My own case, I'm not losing even at 1200.

When I put my Cronometer settings at lose 1 lb a week, it gives me more than 1200 calories.

What is your age, height, and weight? I'm sure that all goes into the calcuation. As I said earlier, I'm 55, female, 5'1.5", and 120 lbs. If my BMR is around 1500 and it's going 30% below that, that would take me to around 1000 calories. To lose a lb. a week it says I need to eat 1039 calories a day.

Ludka13

I think I have everything in order when it comes to making sure I get my daily caloric intake. As for the long-termness of the diet, it is sustainable long term but it is extremely strict.

With that in mind I want to use CRON as a means to accelerate my weight loss progress and then revert to my original diet thereafter. I don't know if that is a good or bad idea but I'd be interested to hear what people think. I'm mostly interested in the cron to achieve a certain result and to try to force myself to cook at home more and restrict what I'm willing to put into my body. Beyond that, the diet is simply to strict to comfortably manage my nutrition - that's I'm thinking of only sticking with it for a month or two at most.

What I've read about cron advocates slow weight loss over time. If you revert to your original diet you'll just revert to your original weight.