Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) – Calories!

Search and Consumptions

What do the colors of the foods mean?

The colors are derived from the energy density (kcal/kJ per 100 grams) of the food. You can see the colors of a traffic light: green = low, yellow = medium, red = high energy density. Please note that the colors don’t indicate healty or unhealty foods.

I’m weighing all foods and do enter all consumptions using their exact weight. Is there an option to directly start using “grams”, instead of switching from a serving size every time?

Yes, when entering a consumption you can open the menu at the upper right corner (three dots) and pick “Settings”. In this screen untick “Propose Servings”. Starting with the next consumption, “grams” will be activated by default.

Foods

I’m missing food XYZ! (Calories!)

When using the free version of the app, the databases of the Pro Platinum version will be searched too. If there are foods in these additional databases that match the current search, there will be an extra entry at the end of the search results. When you select this entry, a dialog will display a list of all additional hits. Maybe the food you’re searching for is already part of a database of the Pro Platinum version.

If the food is not part of the Pro Platinum version, you may enter it yourself. It’s very easy to add a new food or recipe to the database.

The nutrition values of food XYZ seam to be differrent!

Well, this may be caused by several reasons:

There are foods that don’t have definite nutrition information. In particular with discounters it can happen that one and the same product is produced by different local producers. The food is sold with identical names and identical barcodes, but different nutrition values. Especially with milk, cheese and yoghurt this is relatively common.
A barcode can not be assigned to a single product. Unfortunately, some discounters use a single barcode for a “family” of products. This often occurs with yogurt or juice in different flavors.
The nutrition values of foods change over time. It often happens that the nutrition values of the discounters change when the producer behind them is changed. Similarly, food formulations may change over time, resulting in altered nutrition values.
There are products that use a different recipe depending on the country (depending on the legal framework) and thus have different nutritional values. Example: sweets.
Foods are subject to natural variations. For common foods (i.e. without brand or manufaturer name) all displayed values are representatives of the particular food, but they may differ in concrete cases. Respectively the values of food packages and nutritions lists differ. This isn’t an error, but natural and unavoidable.
The nutrition values of raw and processed foods differ. That’s natural too, because the food changes during the processing. Often sugar will be added, or water, for instance. Heating a food changes its nutrition values too.
The nutrition values of mineral waters strongly differ from brand to brand. Please add the nutrition values of your personal mineral water to the database by add a new food.
Althrough all our care and precaution it’s unavoidable that the food database contains errors. MyCalorieApp: Please edit the nutrition value of the food. Our support team will review the changes and then approve. “Calories!” and “Purine!”: Please send your feedback directly from the app (consumption or food, open top right menu, Feedback).

I’m missing a barcode scanner. (Calories!)

We’ve introduced a barcode scanner in Calories! version 9.0. Please note that the scanner is a feature of the Pro Platinum version.

Why does “Purine!” not provide a barcode scanner?

Foods from the supermarket unfortunately have no purine or uric acid values on the packaging. As a result, we cannot add supermarket products to the database (except for special cases, such as mineral water). So it makes no sense to offer a barcode scanner – it wouldn’t find anything.

If you want to use a calorie counter app with a barcode scanner, we can recommend “Calories!” or MyCalorieApp to you. However, you will not find purine / uric acid levels there.

Recipes

How can I enter a new recipe?

Open the menu at the upper left corner, pick “Add Recipe”, enter a name and choose a category. Tip: You can reach all sub-categories by clicking at the icons or texts on the left side. Press the “+” sign at the upper right corner to add a new ingredient. Repeat this until you added all ingredients. The recipes of the list may be altered too – just select one. When the recipe is complete, press the disc icon at the lower right corner. Done!

How can I alter the ingredients of a recipe?

A recipe can be edited as every regular user defined food can. Just press the pencil in the search/browse view.

What are lists and how do they differ from recipes?

A list is a collection of foods that are either similar or can be related to a common topic. For example, you can create a “breakfast list” and put foods there that you often eat for breakfast. Other examples: cereals, jams, baking ingredients, soft drinks, juices, dips, barbecue sauces, ….

With the help of lists you can create your own groupings of foods. If you additionally use the favorites, you can practically create your own directories inside the favorites.

A recipe is always consumed as a whole (cake, cooked dish, etc.). In a list, you always consume only one food (or part of the food). A list is more like a collection of foods. You group foods together and then choose one of them.

Sports

How can I enter my exercises?

Go to “My Day”, then press “Add new exercise…”. Browse using the categories or search for your sport or physical activity. Then enter the duration of the exercise. If you measured the consumed calories yourself, e.g. using a pulse measuring watch, enter the value at “Energy”. Save, done!

Similar to the foods, favorites for sports are supported. Furthermore it’s possible to add your own sport or physical activity (“Calories!” only!). Then it’s up to you to define it using the metabolic equivalent (MET, see Wikipedia) or a weight independent energy value per hour.

Google Fit

I’ve connected the app to Google Fit successfully, but no training values are transferred. What can I do?

In the default settings the app stores only the trainings from Google Fit that contain an energy value. If you want the app to store all trainings from Google Fit, then please deactivate the switch “Ignore Exercises w/o Energy Value” (menu at the upper left corner, Settings, Google Fit). The app then calculates the energy values of the trainings. Please be aware that the calculated energy values of the app may differ from the displayed values in Google Fit.

The app stores all trainings from Google Fit, but the overall energy calculation of the app ignores them. Why?

If you’re using a fitness tracker, the device calculates the energy needs of the whole day. When you transfer the trainings into the app, the energy needs exist twice – one time from the basic energy needs of the app itself, and a second time from the trainings from Google Fit. That’s why the default setting tells the app to consider only the energy of the trainings that exceed the basic energy needs calculated by the app. If you want the app to consider all the energy from the Google Fit trainings, you may switch off “24 h Recording” (menu at the upper left corner, Settings, Google Fit).

After the transfer of the exercises from Google Fit the app displays invalid activities, e.g. “Automobile or light truck driving”. Why?

Probably you’re using only the Google Fit app without any fitness tracker. The Fit app attempts to determine from the movement of the mobile phone, which activities you have performed. This works very well in most cases, but sometimes it doesn’t. Our app transfers the data from Google Fit, but it has no chance to verify its accuracy.

Why isn’t it possible to change or delete Google Fit acquired data (weight or exercises) in the app?

It’s part of the philosophy of Google Fit that only the application can change the data that originally generated it. If you have transferred the data from your fitness tracker or scale to Google Fit, you can make changes only directly in the corresponding app. If the data were generated from the Fit app itself, you can make changes directly in the Fit app.

What fitness trackers and scales does Google Fit support?

Unfortunately we don’t know any useable list of all compatible devices. Please inquire directly at your selected hardware manufacturer for Google Fit support.

Does Google Fit support my Fitbit device?

Unfortunately not. Fitbit refuses to support Google Fit so far. But maybe the FitnessSyncer service is a workaround for you: https://www.fitnesssyncer.com/

Or Health Sync: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nl.appyhapps.healthsync

What can I do when my fitness tracker doesn’t support Google Fit?

Maybe FitnessSyncer is a solution to you! It supports Fitbit and JawBone, among others.
https://www.fitnesssyncer.com/

Or Health Sync: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nl.appyhapps.healthsync

Analysis

What do the arrows in the anaylsis mean?

We’re using the traffic light colors: green = very good, yellow = good, red = bad. The direction of the arrow describes whether you absorbed too little or too much of a nutrition (or calories, water, etc).

Weight Diary

Is the app able to compute the body fat value if I don’t own a scale that provides this value?

No, a calculation is currently not supported.

Diet

I’m using the app to lose / gain weight. Can I enter my desired weight?

Yes, please use the diet assistant by opening the menu at the upper left corner, then “Diet Assistant”.

How can I decrease / increase the recommended daily calories?

There are two options to do this: (1) You may use the diet assistant (open the menu at the upper left corner), or (2) you set your individual daily values (Settings, Nutrition Values, Individual Daily Values).

Where can I see how many calories I saved daily / weekly / montly?

This feature is already part of our wishlist. At the moment there’s no specific release date, sorry.

Export and Print

How do I set up a printer for the app (Default Print Service, Android 8 or higher)?

Since Android 8 (Oreo), the Default Print Service is available. You can find instructions on how to set up a printer here, for example:

[1] https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-print-from-android-4769907
[2] https://droidrant.com/how-do-i-change-my-default-printer-on-android/
[3] https://www.techrepublic.com/videos/how-to-easily-add-a-printing-service-in-android-10/

More information:

https://mopria.org/androidfaq

Data Synchronization

How do I synchronize all data between two devices? (Calories!)

Google Drive, since Calories! V10.1 / Purine! V2.1

I recommend the following procedure:

(1) Launch the app at the first device. Open the menu at the upper left corner, choose Settings, then Backup.
(2) Select “Backup”, press “Start”
Note: The following screen will be provided by the Android OS. Calories!/Purine! has no influence on the supported functionality!
(3) Open the menu at the upper left corner, choose “Drive”.
Note: If there is no “Drive” entry, please make sure that the Google Drive app is installed at your device. Please open the Drive app for a moment and return.
(4) Choose “My Drive”.
(5) Optional: You may enter a folder of your choice.
(6) Optional: You may change the file name by clicking at it at the bottom of the screen.
(7) Press “Save”. The backup will be created and uploaded to Google Drive.
(8) Launch the app at the second device. Open the menu at the upper left corner, choose Settings, then Backup.
(9) Select “Restore”, press “Start”
(10) Open the menu at the upper left corner, choose “Drive”.
Note: If there is no “Drive” entry, please make sure that the Google Drive app is installed at your device. Please open the Drive app for a moment and return.
(11) Choose “My Drive” and navigate to the backup file. Select the backup file. Done!

Google Drive, before Calories! V10.1 / Purine! V2.1

This is the recommended procedure:

(1) Launch the app at the first device. Open the menu at the upper left corner, choose Settings, then Backup.
(2) Choose “Google Drive” at the first tab (“Backup”). Selecting a folder is currently not supported. Start the backup.
(3) If Google Drive is used for the very first time from this app and device, you have to choose the Google account to be used and confirm the access.
(3a) Please take care that the used Google account is available on both devices! Sharing data between different accounts is not supported.
(3b) Privacy: The app can access its own files only at Google Drive. The app is unable to open, read or write files and folders created by other apps.
(4) Launch the app at the second device. Open the menu at the upper left corner, choose Settings, then Backup.
(5) Select the second tab (“Restore”) and choose “Google Drive”.
(6) Click “Choose” to get a list of all available backup files. This may take a moment. Please choose a file when the list is available.
(6a) If Google Drive is used for the very first time from this app and device, you have to choose the Google account to be used and confirm the access.
(6b) Maybe the created file from step (2) is not visible yet. Google Drive has to synchronize the data between devices first. Please wait a few minutes before trying again.
(7) Press “Restore” to start the import of the backup file. Done!

Please note that all data will be erased automatically before the backup file is imported! That’s why you should avoid to enter data at both devices at the same time. Otherwise a data synchronization would cause the loss of data.

Local Backup, since Calories! V10.1 / Purine! V2.1

To synchronize data, the manual transfer of the data to the second device is required. You may use a PC for this, or a cloud storage provider, or e-mail, or Bluetooth, etc. We recommend to use a cloud storage provider:

(1) Launch the app at the first device. Open the menu at the upper left corner, choose Settings, then Backup.
(2) Select “Backup”, press “Start”
Note: The following screen will be provided by the Android OS. Calories!/Purine! has no influence on the supported functionality!
(3) Open the menu at the upper left corner, choose your device.
(4) Optional: You may enter a folder of your choice.
(5) Optional: You may change the file name by clicking at it at the bottom of the screen.
(6) Press “Save”. The backup will be created.
(7) Upload the created backup file to your cloud storage provider, e.g. Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, etc.
(8) Download the backup file from your cloud provider onto the second device. For example using the Google Drive app: search for the backup file, then click at the small “i” at the right side, then choose “Download”.
(9) Launch the app at the second device. Open the menu at the upper left corner, choose Settings, then Backup.
(10) Select “Restore”, press “Start”
(11) Open the menu at the upper left corner, choose your device.
(12) Navigate to the backup file and select it. Done!

Local Backup, before Calories! V10.1 / Purine! V2.1

(1) Launch the app at the first device. Open the menu at the upper left corner, choose Settings, then Backup.
(2) Choose “Local” at the first tab (“Backup”).
(3) Choose a folder, if required. You may create a new folder as well.
Tip: If you’re unable to pick a folder, this one should work in most cases (try to type it manully):
/sdcard/Android/data/org.digitalcure.ccnf.app/files/
(4) Start the backup.
(5) Upload the created backup file to your cloud storage provider, e.g. Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, etc.
(6) Download the backup file from your cloud provider onto the second device. For example using the Google Drive app: search for the backup file, then click at the small “i” at the right side, then choose “Download”.
(7) Launch the app at the second device. Open the menu at the upper left corner, choose Settings, then Backup.
(8) Choose “Local” at the second tab (“Restore”).
(9) Press “Choose” and select the downloaded backup file. Only ZIP files will be displayed. When using Google Drive the download folder is: “/sdcard/Download”.
(10) Click “Restore” to import the backup file. Done!

Log-in and Server

How can I delete my own data from MyCalorieApp?

You can delete your data directly from the app: Top left menu, Settings, MyCalorieApp server, “Delete user generated data”.

In the same screen you can also lock your user account if needed: “Deactivate account”.

If necessary, you can irrevocably delete your user account and all associated data: “Delete user account”.

Why are Facebook and Amazon logins no longer supported?

We no longer want to cooperate with Facebook. Facebook has been in the headlines since 2018: Cambridge Analytica, influencing voters through targeted political ads, knowingly allowing lies and untruths to be spread. Facebook got a huge ethical problem.

Our apps have not shown any Facebook ads for a while. Now we’re going to take the next step and no longer support logging in with Facebook. From March 1st, 2021, it will no longer be possible to log into MyCalorieApp with Facebook.

We will also retire our Facebook page in March 2021. Follow us on Twitter for the latest news: https://twitter.com/digitalcure

The registration with Amazon was intended for the Amazon App Shop. MyCalorieApp should also be distributed for Amazon devices and therefore an Amazon login was mandatory. Unfortunately, it was never published on Amazon. Very few users currently use Amazon to sign in, which is why we decided to no longer support Amazon. From March 1st, 2021, it will no longer be possible to log into MyCalorieApp with Amazon.

Will my data be retained when the Facebook / Amazon log-in is retired?

Yes, basically no data is deleted when the Facebook and Amazon login is no longer available. The previous storage periods continue to apply. However, we recommend that you migrate your data to a new user account as soon as possible.

How can I switch from Facebook / Amazon to a different login without losing my data?

You can easily migrate your data yourself up to and including February 28th, 2021. Please log in to MyCalorieApp with your Facebook or Amazon account. On the dashboard you will find a new tile and a button to start the account migration. You can use an existing user account or create a new one. After the successful login, your data will be migrated automatically.

After the migration, your previous user account will be automatically deactivated in order to avoid accidental login. The app returns to the login screen and you can now log in with your new user account.

What happens to my Facebook / Amazon log-in after the change date has expired?

From March 1st, 2021, it will no longer be possible to log in with a Facebook or Amazon account, i.e. You can no longer migrate your data yourself. Please contact the support team and provide us with the email addresses of the two user accounts (retired account + new account). We will do our best to migrate your data as soon as possible.

Network and Battery Usage

Why does the app consume a part of my montly network traffic limit? (Calories!)

The network traffic is caused by ads, and the synchronization with the associated app store. We have to use ads to make this app freely available to all customers and we ask for your understanding. Since October 2013 there’s an ad-free version – please open the menu at the upper left corner and choose Shop.

Why does the app consume X percent of my battery?

The biggest energy consumer is the screen of the device. But without the screen the device is unusable, sadly… The app itself doesn’t do background activities, when it is invisible to the user – no calculations, no downloads, etc. If you’re using the app very intensively, the battery consumption rise. Just like every other app would do too.

Organizational Things

How to become a Beta Tester?

You have to click one of these links…

MyCalorieApp: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/org.digitalcure.ccnf.world
Calories!: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/org.digitalcure.ccnf.app
Purine!: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/org.digitalcure.ccnf.gout2

…and confirm your role as a Beta Tester. You’ll get the latest Beta version from the Google Play Store.

You may write your feedback directly to our support team using e-mail: support@mycalorieapp.de

You may cancel the Beta Test at any time and return to the regular version.

Can you please tell me something about your plans for the next versions of the app? When will feature XYZ be released?

Please contact us via e-mail, if you should have any questions concerning new features.

How long does the app still support my Android version?

In spring 2019 we discontinued the support for Android 4.x. Starting from summer 2020, we will discontinue the support of another Android version year by year. Our goal is to actively support every Android version for about 6 years.

The minimum requirements in detail:
from August 2022: Oreo, Android 8.0
from August 2023: Pie, Android 9.0
from August 2024: (no change)
from August 2025: Android 10
from August 2026: Android 11
from August 2027: Android 12
from August 2028: Android 13
etc.

Important: Even if the Android version of your device is no longer actively supported by us, you can continue to use the app as usual. You just don’t get any new updates anymore. Apart from that, nothing will change for you.

I have installed the free trial version of “Purin!”, but I no longer want to use it after the trial period. Do I have to cancel my subscription?

No. By installing the free trial version, you are of course not entering into any obligation. After the trial period has expired, the app functions can no longer be used and you will be automatically redirected to the store.

You will only be charged if you actively start a subscription or purchase the lifetime version. As long as you do not start a purchase or subscription yourself, there are no obligations. Consequently, you cannot cancel a subscription.

I want to contribute some of my user defined foods and make it available to all app users! (Calories!)

Please add supermarket foods to MyCalorieApp. We’ll update the offline database of Calories! on a regular base (at least twice a year).

Please create a recipe for your user defined recipes.

Which features have been moved to the free version or the Pro version? (Calories! version 9.1)

Since the apps “Calories!” and “MyCalorieApp” are getting closer and closer together, we would also like to adjust the availability of the individual functions in the free version and in the Pro version. This should make it easier for users to switch between the apps and at the same time it will reduce the maintenance effort at the source code level. Unfortunately, it’s unavoidable that some functions that were previously free of cost are now part of the Pro version. In return, however, other functions are no longer subject to a charge and are therefore available to all users.

The following features of “Calories!” are usable free of charge since version 9.1:

Current value of fructose,
Current value of vitamin D,
Current value and daily value of vitamin B3,
Current value of vitamin B12,
Current value and daily value of vitamin K,
Preview when adding a consumption for fructose, vitamin D, vitamin B3, vitamin B12, vitamin K,
Preview of foods and recipes for fructose, vitamin D, vitamin B3, vitamin B12, vitamin K,
Express input for consumption,
Express input for trainings,
Extracting recipes in “My Day”.

The following features of “Calories!” are in the Pro or Pro Platinum version starting with version 9.1:

Previous and next period in the analysis (Pro) (a single day in free version),
Free choice of start and end date for periods in the analysis (Pro),
Select any period in the analysis (Pro),
Evaluate meals (Pro Platinum),
Unlimited number of recipes (Pro) (25 recipes in free version).
Individual daily values (Pro).

If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact the support team.

Is the app available as an open source project and how can I create a fork of it?

Our apps aren’t open source and that’s why you cannot create a fork.