Renal BudgetSeveral ways to log
Type, speak, take a photo, or scan a barcode. Favorites, repeat meals, and quick water entries make familiar routines easier to record. Review each estimate before saving.
Dialysis nutrition · By Dr. Q
Everyday food choices,
made clearer.
Understand your food and fluid intake. Explore a portion. Find ideas for what to eat next. Renal Budget brings these everyday decisions into one simple food diary.
An evolving educational prototype for fictional-data testing. Your dialysis care team’s individual plan comes first.
A look inside Renal Budget
Our purpose
A useful diary.
A meaningful next step.
Help people on dialysis make everyday food and fluid choices with less guesswork, while keeping adequate nourishment and individual goals in view.
A food diary can make patterns easier to see. Renal Budget connects those patterns with practical choices: a different portion of a familiar food, an idea for the next meal, or something to look for on a shopping trip.
We want each entry to be useful and the next visit to feel easy. A missed day is a chance to start again with the next meal.
What makes our approach distinctive
Designed around real daily choices.
The focus is the connection between logging, understanding a portion, and deciding what comes next.
Portions you can explore
Change a portion and watch all six estimates respond in the same review. Protein and energy stay visible alongside nutrient and fluid limits.
Hidden ingredient checks
Check ingredient text for recognized phosphate and potassium additives, or compare two products. Highlights flag names; they do not measure additive amounts.
Readability and consistency
Clear labels, generous tap areas, consistent graphs, and fewer steps guide the design. Narrated videos, captions, and interactive practice offer different ways to learn.
Context across the week
Review the food diary, daily notes, weight, and blood pressure alongside logged fluid and sodium. Print a weekly summary to support a conversation with the care team.
Transparent estimates and sources
Missing nutrients are marked as unknown. Reference links show where nutrition guidance comes from, with app design choices and evidence limits explained separately.
Beyond the diarySodium, potassium & phosphorus shopping guidesRecipe collectionsLocal backup & restore
See it in action
Learn at your own pace.
Actual app screens, visible tap cues, AI-generated narration, and captions. These existing walkthroughs use fictional entries; some details may differ as the app evolves.
2 min 50 sec · Narrated walkthrough
Your day with Renal Budget
Jump to a task
Read the transcript
- Your daily budget
Start on Today. Bars and rings drain from right to left as you log. They show what remains.
- Choose how to log
Choose a meal. Speak, take a photo, scan a barcode, or search. Always review the food match.
- Review before saving
Check the food and portion. Light shows before; dark shows after. Nothing saves until you tap Add.
- Keep the meal
Try changing one food’s portion. Compare protein and calories too. If already eaten, log the actual amount.
- Check hidden ingredients
Check the exact food’s ingredient label. Phosphate and potassium names are flagged. Their amounts are not guessed.
- What the asterisk means
An asterisk means totals are incomplete. Known amounts still count. The amount left may be lower than shown.
- Count fluid once
Review fluid already included. Edit the whole portion’s fluid amount. This replaces it; it does not add a drink.
- Sodium and thirst
Read the sodium and thirst tip. Compare options for next time. Follow your prescribed fluid allowance.
- What can I eat next?
Open suggestions in Log. Log earlier meals first; ideas depend on recorded amounts and your targets.
- Nourishment check
On Today, open Nourishment check. Finish logging before comparing goals. An unfinished diary cannot assess this.
- One change this week
With repeated foods, try one weekly shopping change. Missing amounts can change the picture.
- Weight and blood pressure
Record weight or blood pressure on Today. Check units, context, date and time. Use pre, post, or home as appropriate.
- Review your week
Open Trends to review your diary and health patterns. Missing days are not zero intake.
- Tools for shopping
Find shopping guides, label checks, recipes, summaries and backups in Tools. Try the separate shopping walkthrough.
- Learn and start again
Resources has short lessons. Your care team’s plan comes first. Missed a day? Start with the next meal.
1 min 20 sec · Narrated walkthrough
A closer look at shopping
Jump to a task
Read the transcript
- Start in Tools
Open the hidden phosphorus and potassium checker in Tools. Use the label on your current package.
- Paste the full label
Paste the full ingredient list. Check it against the package, confirm it is readable, then Check.
- Or use a label photo
Photo reading is optional and needs consent. Photograph the full ingredient list. Correct the copied text before checking.
- Understand the highlights
Highlights identify ingredient names, not milligrams. Reduced-sodium products may contain potassium ingredients.
- Compare another product
Check a second label and its Nutrition Facts. No recognized additive does not mean phosphorus-free or potassium-free.
- Keep it with the right food
Tools does not change your diary. In Log, check the exact food’s label and apply it before saving the meal.
Prefer to try it yourself? Open the app, then choose About → Try it yourself for guided practice with sample foods. Practice does not change your diary.
Open the app to practiceEvidence & transparency
See what informs the app.
Clinical guidelines, trusted websites, food-data documentation, and published research each serve a different purpose.
Evidence-informed, with clear limits. These sources inform our content and development. They do not validate every feature or establish health benefits for Renal Budget. Links do not imply endorsement.
Selected references reviewed September 7, 2026. We will expand this section as the app develops.
Nutrition guidance & patient education
- KDOQI nutrition guidance for chronic kidney diseaseAcademy of Nutrition and Dietetics / NKF · Clinical guideline · 2020
Informs individualized nutrition goals, nourishment, and assessment. Demo targets in the app are sample values, not prescriptions taken directly from this guideline.
- Eating & Nutrition for HemodialysisNIDDK · Patient education · Reviewed September 2016
Supports food and fluid awareness, the sodium–thirst connection, and attention to protein and energy. The appropriate plan is individualized with a renal dietitian.
- Phosphorus and Your CKD DietNational Kidney Foundation · Patient education · Updated July 16, 2024
Informs phosphate-additive education and ingredient awareness. Finding an ingredient name does not tell the app how many milligrams it contributes.
- Potassium in Your CKD DietNational Kidney Foundation · Patient education
Provides context for discussing potassium intake with the care team. It does not establish one daily limit that is right for every person.
Food data & calculation transparency
- FoodData Central documentationUSDA Agricultural Research Service · Food database documentation
Explains the food records, nutrient data, and serving information behind database estimates. Completeness and precision vary by food and data type.
- General tables of units of measurementNIST Handbook 44, Appendix C · Measurement reference · 2026
Reference for mass and volume conversions. The app’s quick-water cup uses a clearly displayed, rounded 240 mL convention.
How the app uses those numbers
- Portions: known nutrient amounts scale with the quantity of the same food. Missing amounts remain unknown.
- Daily totals: known amounts are added together; incomplete totals are marked. Unknown does not mean zero.
- Remaining: the entered target minus the logged amount, bounded at zero on the graph. Extra amounts are shown in text.
- Fluid: the app counts reviewed fluid entries. It does not automatically account for all water in solid foods.
- Targets and suggestions: demo targets and food-ranking rules are app choices. They are not validated clinical prescriptions or risk scores.
Self-monitoring & digital-health research
- Strategies to improve digital-health engagementJournal of Medical Internet Research · Systematic review & meta-analysis · December 19, 2023
Reported possible improvements in use and experience, with very low-certainty evidence. It informs questions to test, not a promise of sustained use in dialysis.
- Engagement strategies in nutrition apps for adultsJMIR mHealth and uHealth · Scoping review · May 12, 2026
Maps engagement approaches and measurement gaps, mainly outside dialysis. Useful for planning usability and retention evaluation.
- TELEKINESIS: digital support for phosphate controlBeer and colleagues · Kidney360 · Published randomized trial · 2026
A dialysis-specific study of a different intervention. The primary between-group phosphate result was not statistically significant. It does not evaluate Renal Budget.
- Mobile fluid-intake tracking in hemodialysisRocco and colleagues · Kidney Medicine · Published uncontrolled study · June 17, 2026
A small pre/post study reported lower interdialytic weight gain. The absence of a concurrent control group limits causal conclusions; this is not evidence about Renal Budget.
These entries describe published results and reviews. Renal Budget itself has not yet been evaluated in a clinical trial. Its usability, accessibility, accuracy, sustained engagement, and clinical relevance remain evaluation priorities.
The person behind the project
Created by Dr. Q.
A practicing nephrologist caring for people with kidney disease since 2009, building Renal Budget around the everyday questions that come up in dialysis care.
- Internal medicine residency at Rush University Medical Center
- Nephrology fellowship at George Washington University
- Dialysis medical-director experience with U.S. Renal Care
Professional disclosure: Dr. Q has ownership interests in joint-venture dialysis units with U.S. Renal Care and Fresenius Medical Care. Renal Budget is independently developed. These relationships do not imply organizational endorsement, sponsorship, or approval.
Before you explore
A few useful details.
Who is the app for right now?
The design is intended to support people receiving dialysis and conversations with their care teams. The current prototype is for testing with fictional information only. It is educational support, not a diagnostic tool or a replacement for individual medical advice.
Where does information go?
The app stores diary entries, notes, targets, and readings in the browser on that device. They are not automatically synced or backed up. Food searches and barcode lookups use external services; browser speech services may process audio. With permission, photo features send images to OpenAI for analysis. Provider retention policies can apply. This overview website does not collect a food diary.
How do I keep my entries?
In the app, use Tools → Backup & restore to download a copy. Clearing the browser’s site data removes locally saved entries. A different device or browser has a separate diary.
What does “designed for ease of use” mean?
Readability, consistent controls, convenient entry, and useful feedback guide development. Patient testing and formal accessibility review are still needed. We welcome specific feedback about anything difficult to read, tap, find, or understand.
Help shape what comes next
Your perspective belongs here.
Found something confusing? Have a useful idea? Dr. Q welcomes feedback from testers, caregivers, renal dietitians, and clinical colleagues.
feedback@renalbudget.com
Opens your email app for you to review and send. Please leave out patient names, health records, and identifiable screenshots. This inbox is for the project and is not monitored for urgent medical concerns.