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Healthline diet score: 2.4 out of 5
Diabetes is a metabolic condition that causes high blood sugar. It can lead to various health complications (1).
Managing the condition through medication, diet, and lifestyle modifications is important in limiting negative health effects (1).
Klinio is a diabetes and weight management app designed to help people with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, as well as prediabetes, manage their condition through diet and lifestyle changes.
This article will provide an in-depth review of Klinio, including an overview of how it works, how much it costs, and its benefits and drawbacks.
Diet review scorecard
- Overall score: 2.4
- Weight loss: 4
- Adherence: 2
- Whole body health: 2
- Nutrition quality: 3
- Health promotion: 1
BOTTOM LINE: Klinio may be effective for weight loss and blood sugar management because it promotes low calorie meal plans. But it can be very restrictive and may be too low calorie to sustain long term.
What is Klinio?
Formerly known as MyDiabetes, Klinio was founded in 2019 by Gary Scheiner, a Certified Diabetes Educator and Exercise Physiologist living with type 1 diabetes.
Klinio is a subscription-based app that’s designed to help you lose weight and keep track of your blood sugar levels, glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), medications, and more.
The app includes workouts, educational resources, tracking capabilities, and personalized meal plans. The meal plans provide targets for calories and macronutrients.
To support health-promoting eating patterns, the app also includes thousands of recipes that are designed to be quick and easy to prepare.
Pros and cons at a glance
Pros
- helps with meal planning
- may be effective for weight loss due to calorie restriction
- promotes physical activity
- allows for easy tracking of key metrics (like blood sugar)
Cons
- may be too restrictive and unsustainable long term
- Weight Loss Fuel supplement detoxing claims and fat-burning promotion
- labels foods as “good” and “bad”
How much does Klinio cost?
Klinio offers both an app and a weight loss supplement. Here’s a pricing breakdown for each.
App subscription
Subscription lengthCost2 months$33 ($16.50 per month)3 months$39 ($13 per month)4 months$66 ($16.50 per month)6 months$99 ($16.50 per month)12 months$156 ($13 per month)There are also promotional offers. For example, the website currently offers the 6-month subscription for $66, but the next 6 months after that will continue at the regular price of $99.
All subscriptions renew automatically unless you choose to cancel.
Weight Loss Fuel supplement
Supplement purchasing options include:
- $69.99 for 1-month supply
- $54.99 for 3-month supply
- $44.99 for 6-month supply
Alternatively, the supplements can be ordered with an ongoing subscription:
- $69.99 per month
- $44.99 per month for 3 months
- $39.99 per month for 6 months
Cancellations can be made at any time but must be done before the renewal date to avoid being charged.
How to get started
To get started with Klinio, you’ll take a short quiz about your current health and lifestyle. The quiz asks what diabetes diagnosis you’ve received (type 1, type 2, prediabetes, or unsure) followed by questions about:
- your food preferences and allergies
- any other medical conditions you have
- the number of meals and snacks you’d like to eat each day
- your activity levels
- your age, height, current weight, and goal weight
Next, you’ll enter your email to receive your quiz results. These include a suggested plan for getting started as well as information regarding your current body mass index (BMI), metabolic age, and weight loss forecast.
Lastly, you can finish signing up and receive your personalized plan by choosing your subscription length and entering your payment information.
How does Klinio work?
Klinio offers three meal plans:
- 28-days no junk food challenge
- Ketogenic diet
- Moderate–carb diet
Each plan includes recommended targets for calories and macronutrients. These are personalized based on your health status and goals.
Once you choose a plan, you’ll log in to the app daily and track your food and activity levels against the suggested targets.
Additionally, you’ll have access to thousands of easy recipes, grocery lists, and educational resources to help you succeed with the program.
Tracking blood sugar levels is another important aspect of Klinio. You can either log your blood sugar information manually, or you can connect a compatible glucose tracking device with the app. Compatible devices include several from these brands:
- Accu-Chek
- CareSens
- Dexcom
- One Drop
Lastly, Klinio offers a supplement called Weight Loss Fuel, which can be purchased separately. According to Klinio, it’s designed to decrease appetite, increase weight loss, decrease low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (commonly referred to as “bad” cholesterol), and more (2).
What can you eat on Klinio?
The food you can eat on Klinio will depend on which meal plan you choose. For example, someone following the keto meal plan would need to avoid most carb sources. But some carbs are allowed on the moderate-carb and 28-days no junk food meal plans.
That being said, there are some general guidelines suggested on the Klinio website.
Foods to eat
Regardless of the meal plan you choose, the program emphasizes whole foods. These include healthy fats like vegetable oils, nuts, seeds, and fish, as well as what Klinio considers “good” carbs, which tend to be higher in fiber. These include foods like whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.
Foods to limit
According to a blog on the Klinio website, it’s recommended that individuals avoid “bad” carbs, or carbs that tend to cause higher increases in blood sugar levels (3). These include sweetened and processed foods.
In general, Klinio recommends avoiding or limiting:
- foods containing trans fats
- fruit-flavored yogurt
- dried fruit
- sugar-sweetened beverages
- rice, pasta, and white bread
- french fries
- honey, maple syrup, and agave syrup
- flavored coffees
- fruit juice
- sweetened cereals
- packaged snacks
Sample 3-day meal plan
Below is a sample 3-day meal plan from the Klinio website (4). Klinio notes that it was “designed to fit the needs of a specific customer,” a woman with type 2 diabetes.
Day 1
- Breakfast: Greek Yogurt Chocolate Mousse with Raspberries (121 calories)
- Lunch: Lunch Wrap with Chicken and Avocado (395 calories)
- Snack: Peanut Butter Toast (168 calories)
- Dinner: Blueberry and Raspberry Smoothie (200 calories)
Day 2
- Breakfast: Overnight Oats with Blackberries (266 calories)
- Lunch: Corn Tortilla Wrap with Turkey (220 calories)
- Snack: Rice Cakes with Avocado and Egg (456 calories)
- Dinner: Immune Boosting Orange and Strawberry Smoothie (145 calories)
Day 3
- Breakfast: Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Mozzarella (481 calories)
- Lunch: Turkey Kebab with Veggies and Egg (578 calories)
- Snack: Blueberry and Strawberry Smoothie (127 calories)
- Dinner: Zucchini Parmesan Rounds (155 calories)
Is Klinio effective?
According to the website, the average Klinio customer loses 30 pounds, exercises an additional 35 minutes each week, and experiences a 0.5% HbA1c reduction (5). But there’s no evidence presented to support these claims, and a timeframe for these results is not disclosed.
Below is an overview of how effective Klinio may be for both weight loss and diabetes management, as well as the potential effectiveness of the supplement.
Weight loss
While Klinio offers 3 different types of meal plans, they all emphasize calorie restriction to support weight loss.
Research shows that a calorie deficit is one of the most important factors when it comes to successful weight loss (6). It’s reasonable to expect that sticking to a reduced calorie meal plan would cause you to lose weight.
But it’s worth noting that some Klinio meal plans are very low in calories.
For example, the 3-day sample meal plan available on the Klinio website adds up to 884 to 1,341 calories per day. This may be too low for some people and may make the diet difficult to sustain in the long run.
Diabetes management
Another focus of the Klinio app is diabetes management.
Prediabetes and type 2 diabetes are typically managed through medication, blood sugar monitoring, and lifestyle factors like regular physical activity and a diet high in fiber and antioxidants and low in saturated, trans fats, and sugars (7, 8).
For both prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, maintaining a moderate weight is also important (7, 8).
Type 1 diabetes is typically managed with insulin therapy and blood sugar monitoring. It may also be responsive to some lifestyle changes, such as increases in physical activity, though weight loss is not indicated unless a person has overweight or obesity (9, 10, 11).
Some research does support the use of low carb and keto diets in managing type 2 diabetes (12). But adherence to these diets can be difficult for many people. Additionally, it’s unclear whether these diets are safe for people with type 1 diabetes (13).
Ultimately, there’s no specific research that confirms the effectiveness of Klinio for diabetes management. However, because it may help individuals lose weight and encourages physical activity and blood sugar monitoring, it may be effective.
If you choose to try Klinio as a part of your diabetes management, it’s important to continue working with a healthcare professional as well. Do not stop any medication or other part of your treatment plan without first talking with your doctor.
Weight Loss Fuel supplement
Klinio’s Weight Loss Fuel supplement is a strawberry-flavored powder that’s meant to be mixed with 10–12 fl oz (300–360 mL) of water and consumed 1–2 hours before your first or last meal of the day.
Klinio says this supplement helps with (2):
- bloating (including colon cleansing)
- skin health
- sugar cravings
- weight loss
The powder is made up of glucomannan and cellulose.
Glucomannan is a dietary fiber that may help promote weight loss, but the research on this claim is a bit mixed. While some studies suggest glucomannan may help reduce body weight in adults with overweight or obesity, studies involving children do not have the same findings (14, 15, 16).
Cellulose is another fiber, but research on its use for fat-burning is lacking.
While fiber overall may help improve digestion and offer other health benefits, there is no research to suggest it promotes fat-burning in the body (17).
Additionally, there are no evidence-based reasons to use supplements intended to cleanse the colon or body in any way (18).
What are the benefits of Klinio?
There are several potential benefits of using the Klinio app.
Meal planning and cooking
One benefit is the emphasis on meal planning. Meal planning can be helpful for people looking to lose weight and improve their nutritional intake (19).
Additionally, Klinio meal plans use simple, easy-to-follow recipes. If you’re looking to improve your health-promoting cooking skills, this could be helpful.
Promotes regular physical activity
Klinio includes beginner, equipment-free workouts and encourages users to increase their physical activity. According to the website, the average user increases physical activity by 35 minutes per week (4).
Physical activity is an important aspect in the management of diabetes and can also help promote healthy weight loss and maintenance (7, 8, 20).
Emphasizes progress tracking
Logging food, activity levels, blood sugar levels, medication, and overall progress is another cornerstone of the Klinio app.
Research suggests that self-monitoring as well as food and activity logging can help increase adherence to a weight loss plan (21).
Potential downsides and other factors to consider
While there are some potential benefits from Klinio, there are also some downsides to consider.
Meal plans may be too restrictive
While Klinio’s use of calorie restriction may promote weight loss, it also may be too restrictive for some people.
A sample meal plan on the Klinio website includes a day of fewer than 900 calories total. While the number of calories a person needs depends on their age, sex, and activity level, 900 calories is likely too few for most adults.
Additionally, while counting calories can be effective for weight loss, it does have the potential to lead to disordered eating patterns for some people (22, 23).
The meal plans themselves also may be too strict for some. For example, the keto diet severely restricts carbohydrates, which may not be realistic or sustainable for many people.
Klinio also labels foods as “good” and “bad,” which can further perpetuate negative feelings around food and make it hard to stick to the diets.
Recommended supplement with big health claims
The Klinio Weight Loss Fuel supplement claims to promote fat-burning and cleanse the body, which is not supported by clinical evidence.
What’s more, there’s no evidence to support the use of a cleansing or detoxing supplement (18).
No coaching support
Unlike apps such as Noom or WW, Klinio does not offer the guidance and accountability of a coach.
Some people may do well holding themselves accountable and sticking to their plan, but others may find support from a coach or virtual community helpful.
Customer reviews and brand reputation
Klinio has a 4.2 out of 5 rating on Trustpilot with many reviewers stating that the program helped them manage their blood sugar and lose weight.
Still, the reviews overall are a bit mixed.
Happy customers mention that they appreciate the wide variety of recipes and the fact that they’re mostly quick and easy to follow. Many are also happy with the workouts included in the app.
Still, others feel that the recipes include too many expensive and difficult-to-find ingredients. They also note that it can be challenging to add custom foods to the food log.
Other unhappy customers also mention difficulty with canceling subscriptions and disappointment in the company’s refund policy.
Who is Klinio for?
According to the website, Klinio is for individuals with prediabetes, type 1 diabetes, or type 2 diabetes but can also be used by those looking to lose weight or manage their high cholesterol.
The app is not for people under age 18 years. Additionally, if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, Klinio suggests talking with a healthcare professional before using the app.
How does Klinio compare to other programs?
KlinioNoomWeight Watchers (WW)Basics• meal planning• food and activity logging
• workouts
• blog• food and activity logging
• color-coded system• food and activity logging
• points-based systemMeal plan• yes• for additional cost• yesPrice• starts at $33/month• starts at $39.75/month• starts at $20/monthSupport• none• 1:1 coach
• community
• group coach• 1:1 coachOther resources• blog
• recipes• daily lessons
• blog
• recipes• blog
• recipesPros• promotes meal planning
• promotes physical activity
• allows you to log key data
• may promote weight loss due to caloric restriction• allows you to log key data
• includes access to 1:1 coach
• offers a virtual community• allows you to log key data
• includes access to 1:1 coach
• offers a virtual communityCons• may be too restrictive for some
• promotes “cleansing”
• no coaching aspect
• labels foods as “good” and “bad”• calorie goals may be too low for some
• can become expensive• points system may involve a learning curve
Should you try it?
If you’re looking for an app to help you manage diabetes and weight loss, you may be considering Klinio.
Keep in mind that while the app may be beneficial in helping you meal plan and lose weight, it may be too restrictive to stick to long term.
Still, the Klinio website includes instructions for adjusting your own calorie and macronutrient goals. Doing so may help make the program more realistic.
Because the Weight Loss Fuel supplement promotes the idea of cleansing and fat-burning, which is not backed by research, we do not recommend it.
Regardless of the approach you decide to use to as you work toward your goals, no app can replace the care of a healthcare professional. It’s important to continue working with your doctor, especially if you have a diabetes or other diagnoses.
Frequently asked questions about Klinio
How much does Klinio cost?
A Klinio subscription varies according to the terms you choose.
For example, a 2-month subscription costs $33, while a 12-month subscription costs $156. That breaks down to $16.50 and $13 per month, respectively.
What is the Klinio plan?
Klinio offers three different types of meal plans:
- 28-days no junk food challenge
- Keto diet
- Moderate–carb diet
All three meal plans include personalized calorie and macronutrient goals to aim for to lose weight and improve health.
Is Klinio a keto diet?
Klinio offers three different meal plans, one of which does follow a keto diet. The other two plans include what’s labeled as a moderate amount of carbs. But the specific amount will be customized based on your health status and goals.
The bottom line
Klinio is a diabetes and weight management app that focuses on meal planning, self-monitoring, and physical activity.
You can choose to follow one of three different types of meal plans, which are customized in terms of calories and macronutrients.
While Klinio may be effective in promoting weight loss and helping to manage diabetes, the plans may be too restrictive and difficult to sustain long term.
Lastly, Klinio should not be used as a replacement for a healthcare professional for managing diabetes.
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