Nutrition Health Center

Finding the Best Calorie Count List

By Terry Dunkle*

If you’re trying to lose weight, a calorie count list is one of your most valuable tools. Two types are available: lists that you can search directly on the Web (“Web-based)” and those that you can download from the Web and install on your own computer (“computer-based”). Here are five things to watch when choosing one:

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Number of Foods

Don’t bother with a list that offers fewer than 20,000 foods. That may sound like a lot, but the average supermarket contains 30,000. Make sure, too that you can add your own foods to the list by entering nutrition facts from the labels.

Accuracy of Data

Steer clear of any calorie count list that allows users to contribute foods for public use. User contributions are notoriously inaccurate.

Ask how often the data are updated. Some lists are large, but many years old.

Based on 20 years of research by DietPower, Inc., this calculator is accurate to 5 percent for most users. (It's not for people who are pregnant or have metabolic disorders. Always see a doctor before starting a diet.)

Birth Date

Sex

Tobacco user?

Height

Weight

Goal Weight

Target Date

Email Address

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?

ft. in.

lbs.

lbs. ?

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Close Goal Weight
Your Goal Weight is the weight you want to achieve. (If it's a lot different from your current weight, you might want to set a goal that represents only the first step. Even a 10-percent weight loss will significantly improve your health.)
Close Target Date
Plan on losing no more than a pound or two per week.  Otherwise, you may eat too little for good nutrition and your weight loss may be temporary.
Close Lactating?
If you are breastfeeding, check this box and the calculator will add calories for producing milk.
Close Tobacco User?
Nicotine speeds your metabolism, making you burn calories faster. (That's why people who quit smoking gain weight.) Check this box if you average more than one cigarette, one-half pipeful, one-quarter of a cigar, or one dip of snuff or chewing tobacco per day.
Close Email Address
Once a month, DietPower will send you the most important nutrition news of the past 30 days, selected by national award-winning editors covering hundreds of medical journals. You can cancel this free, no-obligation service anytime with a single click. We produce it only to promote our weight-loss software. It won't put you on other mailing lists—We're Not That Kind of Company™.

Search Speed

Some Web-based lists take five or ten seconds to find a food. That seems interminable if you’re looking up a lot of foods. A computer-based calorie count list will usually find a food in less than one second.

Extra Functions

Instead of looking up calories and tallying them by hand, choose a list that tallies for you. And while you’re at it, choose one that also calculates a calorie budget designed to take you to your goal weight on your target date. Some (including DietPower, advertised on this page) even adjust the budget to your metabolism to guarantee reaching your goal on schedule. Some also award extra calories for exercise, monitor dozens of nutrients besides calories, watch your water intake, and do a lot more besides.

Cost

Although it’s easy to find a free calorie count list online, its limited speed and functions may convince you to buy a computer-based program instead. Most cost between $20 and $40. Some offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. (DietPower offers a one-year money-back guarantee.)

Founder, CEO, and Editor-in-Chief of DietPower, Inc.