Part I: Three-Day Food Log

Part I: Three-Day Food Log

Complete a 3 Day Food Diary.  Choose three days, including two weekdays and one weekend day as close together as possible, and write down everything that you eat and drink and the quantity in common household measurements.  Try to eat as normal as possible these days.  (You will not be graded on how healthy your diet is.)  Be sure to include everything such as condiments, sauces, beverages, etc.  Try to write what you’ve eaten or drank immediately after you have consumed it.  It can be difficult to accurately recall what you have consumed and how much from days previous or at the end of the day.

Food logs should be typed and submitted into Assignments.  Each day should be clearly labeled with the day of the week and the actual date the log was taken. You must include current dates within the session dates of this course. You will receive no credit (0 for the assignment) if the dates do not fall within the dates for this course session.  Below the date include one line for each food item and the quantity consumed.

For example:

Day of the Week – Month Day, Year

Cheerios – 1 cup

2% Milk – 1 cup

Apple – 1 small

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Part II

Step 1: Creating a Profile

1.  Go to the following website: https://cronometer.com/ IMPORTANT: Instructions below apply to the web-based Cronometer application. Do NOT use the mobile device App.

2.  Click on Sign Up for Free in the middle of the screen.

• Create your profile by entering your school email and password (8 characters).
• Next, enter your sex, birthdate, height, and weight.  For females, leave as normal unless you are pregnant or lactating, which can be selected from the drop down menu.
• Click the check box to agree to Terms of Service and click Create Account at the bottom of the screen.

3.  Once you have entered the Cronometer site, click on Profile at the top of the screen. Under email, be sure to uncheck any checked boxes.  Leaving these checked results in promotional emails from Cronometer.  Cronometer is not endorsed by UMUC and we do not support any fad diet information that may be sent to you.

4.  Staying in Profile, using the drop down menu, adjust your Activity Level to the appropriate selection based on your habits and lifestyle. Clicking on Activity Level can provide guidance on which activity level is appropriate for your lifestyle.

Note: for this project, do not link your Cronometer account with any fitness tracking devices as it may alter the accuracy of your results for this project.

Step 2: Using the Food Database

1.  To begin entering your foods for Day 1, ensure you are under the Diary tab at the top of the screen.

2.  Select the appropriate calendar date.  It is highly recommended that you enter all three food diaries at once, using consecutive days on the Cronometer calendar (even if your log days were not consecutive), and use dates closest to today’s actual date.  Because we are using the free version of the site, reports can only be done for the last 7 days so you will be unable to get a report for the days you enter if they are more than 7 days away.

3.  Click on Add Food at the top of the screen. Type the first food from your food log into the search bar and click Search.  Select the food item that best matches the food you ate in the Search Results.

4. Choose the amount that you consumed at the bottom of the search box.  Use the drop menu to select the most appropriate serving measurement and enter the number of servings.  If less than 1 serving, use a decimal to indicate the percentage of one serving consumed.  Click on Add Serving.

Note: Do not include any supplements into your food diary as you are doing an assessment of your dietary intake only.

5. If you need to delete a food item from your diary, simply right click on the food item and select Delete Selected Items.

6.  Continue Steps 1-3 for all food items for your Day 1 Food Diary.

7.  After you have entered all food and drink items for the first day, click on the gear found at the top right of the screen.  Select “Mark Day Complete”.

8.  Repeat for Days 2 and 3 by changing the date in the calendar. Again, ensure dates are consecutive in the Cronometer calendar; are within a 7-day window; and are as close to today’s date as possible.

Step 3: Obtaining Your Nutrition Report

1. Once you have entered all of your foods into the Diary for all three days and marked all three days as complete, you need to create your nutrition report to analyze your average intake of nutrients over the three days.  Click on the Trends tab at the top of the screen. Select Nutrition Report.

2.  At the top, select the parameters for your search [see screenshot below]. Ensure your 3 days are included in the last 7 days as the free version of this site only allows for averages from the last 7 days.

• Select include today only if one of your three days was entered on today’s date in the Cronometer calendar.
• From the drop down menu, select “Completed Days” instead of the default “All Days”.  This will ensure your report is accurate and includes values for only days in which food was entered.
• Do not include supplements in this report.

3.  After your report is generated, take a screen shot of your Nutrition Report to show all nutrient values from Nutrition Report dates at the top down to Zinc You will likely need to take two screen shots in order to include the required data. [See sample screenshot below].   This step must be done as it is a requirement that you turn this in with the analysis.