Entries

An entry records what you ate and when.

food greek-yogurt "Greek yogurt, nonfat"
    170 g = 150 kcal 11 carb 0 fat 26 protein

food peanut-butter "Peanut butter"
    1 tbsp = 95 kcal 3.5 carb 8 fat 3.5 protein

2026-10-01
    08:14  greek-yogurt  255 g
    08:14  peanut-butter  1 tbsp
    15:00  "Office cake"  1 slice = 350 kcal 45 carb 16 fat

2026-10-02 08:20  greek-yogurt  1.5 x 170 g

Anatomy of an Entry

Each entry has a time, a handle, and a portion, e.g. 08:14 greek-yogurt 255 g.

Time

The time is 24-hour local time, HH:MM.

Handle

The handle of a food or recipe. It can be anywhere in the diary, before or after the entry.

Portion

The portion is how much you ate. Write it as an amount, e.g. 255 g, or as a count of a serving, e.g. 1.5 x 170 g.

Chow matches the portion to one of the food’s servings and scales its nutrients. For example, 255 g and 1.5 x 170 g of the yogurt above are the same amount.

If no serving has the same unit, Chow converts between weights. It does not convert volumes, so 1 tsp of the peanut butter above doesn’t work.

Days

To start a day with multiple entries, write the date on a line by itself. Each indented line below it is for that day.

You can also put the date on the entry’s line, e.g. 2026-10-02 08:20 greek-yogurt 1.5 x 170 g.

Inline Entries

Instead of defining a food for a single entry, you can put the nutrients inline with the entry.

15:00  "Office cake"  1 slice = 350 kcal 45 carb 16 fat

In the app, Quick Add in the + menu makes one. If you leave the name empty, the entry is called Quick Add.

On the command line, give the nutrients as options:

chow add Thai dinner --kcal 900 --carb 80

Or write the serving and its nutrients yourself:

chow add "Office cake" "1 slice = 350 kcal"

Unresolved Entries

If Chow can’t find a handle or match a portion, the entry is unresolved. The app marks it so you can fix it.

Chow ignores unresolved entries. The rest of the diary still loads. Chow qualifies the nutrient totals for that day, for example “>= 400 mg sodium” instead of “= 400 mg sodium”.

Make a recipe.

Chow Guide