How to Use RepTrack's Cycle Tracking: Setup, Check-Ins, and Symptom-Based Coaching

Most fitness apps treat every day of the month the same. Your hormones don't: estrogen rises through the late follicular phase and peaks around ovulation, then progesterone becomes dominant through the luteal phase and shifts fuel metabolism modestly toward fat. Those shifts are real, and it's worth understanding them.

What they are not is a reliable dial for your training. The strongest current synthesis of the research — a 2023 umbrella review by Colenso-Semple and colleagues, echoed by ACSM's 2026 guidance — finds that menstrual-cycle phase does not appreciably change acute resistance-training performance or long-term adaptation. Some earlier studies suggested things like a follicular-emphasis training block or a fixed 5-10% luteal strength drop, but those findings have not replicated consistently and the effect looks small or inconsistent. What does vary a lot is how individual people feel — cramps, sleep, energy, mood — and that variation is exactly what's worth tracking.

So RepTrack takes a deliberately honest position. It does not reprogram your training or your calories by calendar phase. It tracks your cycle, learns your individual symptom patterns, emphasizes iron during your period, and — only when you log real symptoms and opt in — offers a lighter session. Here is how to set it up and get the most out of every feature.

Getting Started

There are two ways to access cycle tracking:

Route 1 (Profile tab):

1. Open the Profile tab
2. Find Cycle Tracking
3. Tap See all

Route 2 (Dashboard): The Dashboard has a cycle top card with a Log action that opens the cycle detail and logging screen directly.

First-Time Setup

If cycle tracking is not yet active, the cycle detail screen shows an onboarding state with a "Set Up Cycle Tracking" button. Tap it to open the setup sheet.

The setup asks for four things:

Last period start date. A graphical date picker lets you scroll to the first day of your most recent period. The picker is bounded to recent history, so you are choosing from the last few months — not scrolling back to 2019.

Cycle length. A stepper control, adjustable between 21 and 60 days. The population average is 28, but normal cycles range widely. If yours is consistently 26 days, set it to 26. If it varies between 25 and 32, enter your best estimate of the average. You can adjust this later.

Period length. Another stepper, range 2 to 8 days. How many days your period typically lasts. This tells RepTrack when the menstrual phase ends and the follicular phase begins.

Irregular / delayed cycle mode. A toggle with explanatory text. If your cycles are unpredictable — varying by more than 7 days month to month due to stress, travel, PCOS, or other factors — enable this. In irregular mode, RepTrack relies more on your daily symptom check-ins and less on calendar math to estimate your current phase.

Tap Save and you are done. RepTrack immediately calculates your current cycle day, identifies your phase, and begins generating phase-specific coaching. The entire setup takes under 30 seconds.

Your Cycle Dashboard

Once tracking is active, the cycle detail screen transforms into a comprehensive dashboard. Here is what you see, top to bottom:

Cycle Ring Hero

A circular visualization at the top of the screen showing your current cycle day (e.g., "Day 14"), phase name (e.g., "Follicular"), and total cycle length. The ring gives you an instant visual of where you are in the cycle — think of it as a clock face where 12 o'clock is day 1 and you are currently at whatever position your cycle day represents.

Cycle Timeline Strip

Below the ring, a horizontal strip lays out your current cycle day by day. Phase transitions are visually marked. This strip makes it easy to see how far you are into your current phase and when the next transition is expected.

Today's Coaching Card

A context-specific guidance card that changes with your cycle day — and it's educational, not prescriptive. It describes what's typically happening hormonally, like rising estrogen through the follicular phase or the progesterone-dominant luteal phase, without ordering you to lift heavier on a fixed day or schedule a deload on another. Because training capacity doesn't reliably swing by phase, the card won't tell you to peak in the follicular window or back off by the calendar. The honest rule of thumb: train hard on the days you feel good, ease when symptoms bite. For the evidence behind cycle-based training decisions, see the menstrual cycle training guide.

Symptom Check-In Card

The daily check-in entry point (more on this in the next section).

Last 7 Days Weekly Strip

A tappable strip showing your logged data from the past week. Tap any day to see what you reported — useful for spotting patterns and comparing how you felt earlier in the week versus now.

Cycle Insights Section

Aggregated patterns and observations based on your logged data across multiple cycles.

Calendar Section

A monthly calendar view of your cycle with a Full View option for expanded viewing. Logged days, phase transitions, and predicted dates are all visible here.

Phase Forecast Card

Shows what is coming next: the Up Next phase and your Next Period prediction. Predictions run entirely on-device and show a window — earliest to latest — with a confidence label rather than a single certain day, because real cycles vary. This is where consistent tracking pays off: after 2-3 cycles of data, that window tightens and becomes genuinely useful for planning training blocks, travel, or events.

Nutrition This Phase Card

Shows any nutrition emphasis relevant to your current phase — and it's deliberately light-touch. During your period, RepTrack emphasizes iron, the one clearly evidence-backed cycle nutrition adjustment. If you've opted in, it can add optional luteal carb support on training days. What it does not do is quietly raise or lower your calorie target by the calendar — there is no automatic phase calorie change. For the full breakdown, see the luteal phase nutrition guide.

Cycle Details Settings Card

Quick access to edit your cycle parameters — cycle length, period length, and other settings — without leaving the dashboard.

Tracking Control

At the bottom: Disable Tracking and Delete All Cycle Data options. Disable keeps your data but pauses the feature. Delete is permanent. Both are clearly separated and require confirmation.

Daily Symptom Check-Ins

The symptom logging system has two levels, designed for different levels of time and detail.

Level 1: The Quick Check-In Card

Right on the main cycle screen, the check-in card asks for two things:

• Energy — a 1-5 emoji scale. How energized do you feel right now?
• Mood — emoji options for your current emotional state

Below these, a button reads "Log cramps, sleep, flow & notes" to open the full logging sheet. If you only have 5 seconds, just tap your energy and mood emojis and move on. That alone gives RepTrack valuable data.

Level 2: The Full Log Symptoms Sheet

Tap the button on the quick check-in card and a sheet slides up with the complete symptom log:

• Energy level — the same scale from the quick check-in
• Cramps — presence and intensity
• Bloating — presence and intensity
• Sleep Quality — a star rating
• Mood — expanded options
• Flow Intensity — including a "No period" option for days outside your menstrual phase
• Notes — optional free text for anything else worth recording

Tap Save and the log is recorded for that day.

Why Consistency Matters More Than Completeness

The cycle tracking system gets smarter with data. After 2-3 cycles of consistent logging, RepTrack can predict your energy patterns, correlate your symptoms with specific cycle phases, and adjust its coaching proactively.

For example, if your logs consistently show energy dropping to 2/5 in the days before your period, RepTrack surfaces that pattern so you can plan around it — and on the days you actually log those symptoms, it offers (never forces) a lighter session. It's your pattern driving the suggestion, not a calendar rule. But this only works with consistent input. Logging 5 fields every other day is less useful than logging 2 fields every day. Frequency beats completeness.

How RepTrack Uses Your Cycle Data

This is what separates RepTrack from a period-prediction app — but not in the way most "cycle-syncing" apps claim. RepTrack does not reprogram your training or your calories by calendar phase. Instead it responds to the individual data you log: your symptoms, your readiness, your iron needs during menses. Population averages set the backdrop; your own logs drive anything the app offers.

Nutrition Emphasis

The Nutrition This Phase card reflects RepTrack's honest nutrition stance. A systematic luteal calorie increase — the "eat +100 to +300 calories because your metabolism speeds up" advice you'll see elsewhere — is not well supported by the evidence, so RepTrack does not do it. Eat to your targets and honor genuine hunger; don't add calories by the calendar.

What RepTrack does emphasize is evidence-backed:

• Iron during your period. Menstrual blood loss is a real, repeated iron drain, so RepTrack biases toward iron-rich foods while you're bleeding.
• Optional luteal carb support. If you opt in, RepTrack can add roughly +0.75 g/kg of carbs on luteal training days — modest support for the mid-luteal glycogen-utilization shift, offered rather than imposed.

Beyond that, magnesium and B6 may help some people with PMS symptoms, hydration matters, and cravings are real information worth noticing — but none of it is a mandate to eat more by the calendar. Your standard targets apply across every phase.

What the Coaching Actually Says

Today's coaching card describes the physiology of your current phase without prescribing a workout for it:

• Follicular: Estrogen is rising. A fine stretch to train hard — if you feel good.
• Ovulatory: Estrogen peaks. Some people feel strong here; many notice nothing.
• Luteal: Progesterone dominant, metabolism shifts modestly toward fat, and this is when PMS symptoms tend to appear. Watch how you feel; there's no scheduled deload and no automatic calorie bump.
• Menstrual: Emphasize iron. Train if you're up for it, rest if you're not.

The key word is describes. Because capacity doesn't reliably change by phase, none of this is a rule to lift more on day 12 or back off on day 24. Over multiple cycles the card calibrates to what YOU actually log — your symptoms and readiness — rather than a textbook average.

Apple Health Sync

RepTrack can sync cycle data with Apple Health. You will find the connection option in the Cycle Details settings card on the dashboard.

What syncs: Period start and end dates, cycle length data, and related symptoms can flow between RepTrack and Apple Health. If you already track your cycle in another app that writes to Apple Health, RepTrack can pull in that existing data so you do not start from zero.

Reconnecting: If the sync disconnects (permissions change, app reinstall, etc.), the settings card will show a status like "Previously synced 1 day ago" so you know it is not current. Re-enable the connection from the same settings card.

What it means for data: Apple Health sync uses Apple's encrypted Health framework. Data is shared only with the specific apps you authorize. RepTrack does not sync your cycle data to any other server or service.

Managing Your Data

Editing Cycle Parameters

Your cycle length, period length, and other settings are accessible from the Cycle Details settings card at the bottom of the dashboard. As your cycle changes — which it naturally does with age, stress, fitness level, and other factors — update these values. More accurate inputs mean more accurate phase predictions and better-calibrated coaching.

Disabling vs. Deleting

Two options live at the very bottom of the dashboard:

Disable Tracking pauses the cycle tracking feature but keeps all your logged data intact. Your symptom history, cycle records, and learned patterns are preserved. Re-enable any time and everything picks up where it left off.

Delete All Cycle Data is permanent. It removes your cycle profile, all logged symptoms, all cycle history, and all learned patterns. This cannot be undone. RepTrack asks for confirmation before executing.

Privacy

All cycle data stays on your device. It is stored locally in SwiftData, not uploaded to any server, and not included in analytics. If you enable Apple Health sync, data flows only through Apple's encrypted framework. If you delete the app, locally stored cycle data is deleted with it.

Cycle data is health data. RepTrack treats it that way.

Building the Habit

The most effective way to use cycle tracking is to make it a 15-second daily habit. Here is a minimal routine:

1. Open RepTrack in the morning
2. Tap your energy emoji on the quick check-in card
3. Tap your mood emoji
4. Done

That is it. Two taps, five seconds, and RepTrack has enough data to start learning your patterns. On days when you have a bit more time or something notable to report — bad cramps, great sleep, unusual fatigue — tap through to the full Log Symptoms sheet and fill in more detail.

After 2-3 cycles of this, the predictive features start earning their keep. Phase-forecast windows tighten. Coaching calibrates to your own logged symptoms rather than population averages. And when you log a rough day, the lighter-session offer and readiness nudges are grounded in your real patterns rather than a calendar rule. The system gets better because you gave it data to learn from.

For a deeper dive into what the evidence really says about training across your cycle, see the full menstrual cycle training guide. For specific nutrition strategies during the luteal phase, see the luteal phase nutrition guide. And for understanding how to interpret the symptoms you are logging, check out the symptom tracking guide.