Absolutely indispensable
I tried reading books that used complicated calculations for everything you eat, and they all disagree on what you can and can't eat--which would basically be water and twigs, according to some of these authors--but this app does all the calculations for me, and I'm learning quickly that I can eat most foods (albeit, very little animal protein), depending on what else I have eaten that day. Almost as importantly, I'm discovering what limits I have--4 oz of chicken put me over my protein allowance, so apparently, I've been eating way too much protein. I've also been drinking *too much* water, which surprised me.
I'm donating the books I bought to a clinic because not only were the calculations insanely complicated--and I'm a math-phobe--the recipes are depressingly bad, as well as their lengthy list of "verboten" foods, when in fact, they aren't verboten, it's just all a matter of perhaps eating smaller amounts and balancing that with whatever else you eat on that day, which this app makes super easy to figure out.
I only wish my nephrologist had been as helpful as this app. As far as negatives? I still wish they used calories instead of kilojoules, but I've bookmarked a converter online, so it's a very small inconvenience. Yes, compared to some apps, this one might be a bit pricey looking at first, but it's well worth the money!
Response from developer
Thank you for coming back to write this — reviews like yours are exactly why we built KidneyPal, and "I wish my nephrologist had been as helpful" made our week. One thing we'd love to fix: KidneyPal should be showing calories, not kilojoules. If you're seeing kJ somewhere in the app, could you email a screenshot to support@kidneypal.app? We'll get it sorted. Wishing you a long, healthy run at stage 3A!
Way too inaccurate
Response from developer
Thank you for the detailed feedback — a few of these have fixes we clearly need to make more visible. If the AI misidentifies a food, you can correct it: tap the food to edit its name, portion, and every nutrient number, or simply tell the chat "this is rainbow trout, not pork chop" and it will re-analyze. For home cooking, telling the chat "no salt added" adjusts the sodium. And for eating out: take a photo with your regular camera, then import it from your photo library in the scanner when you're back online — analysis does need a connection, but the photo doesn't have to be taken live. We'd genuinely like to dig into the misidentifications you saw: support@kidneypal.app.
Needs one more thing
Can't help but wonder, though--why aren't calories included? I hate having to pay for yet another subscription or go back and forth finding the calories on google. I mean, would it be that much more trouble to include calories in the breakdown? This would be especially helpful for diebetics.
Fast food options
Response from developer
Thank you — hearing this from a nephrology NP means a lot. Great news: fast food already works well with the photo scan and the "Say or Type" quick log (e.g. type "Taco Bell bean burrito" and it scores it against the user's kidney profile). Even better: we're currently testing a menu-scanning mode — photograph a restaurant menu or menu board and get a ranked list of the kidney-safest options for that person's stage. Your point about cost/energy constraints is exactly who we're building it for. We'd genuinely value clinician input — please reach out at support@kidneypal.app
Frustrated
Response from developer
We're sorry that experience isn't what we intended, and your feedback is helping us fix it. To explain what happened: the free plan includes 5 AI food analyses per day (they reset at midnight). Once they're used up, the photo/describe buttons show the upgrade screen — but you never have to accept the trial. You can close it with the X, and you can always log food for free using Manual entry, Saved foods, or Recipes from the + button. We agree the app should say this clearly instead of just showing the upgrade screen, and we're improving that in an upcoming update. We'd love for you to give it another try — support@kidneypal.app if we can help
