Nutrition Health Center

What’s the Best Calorie Counter Calculator?

By Terry Dunkle*

Using a calorie counter calculator is one of the smartest things you can do if you’re trying to lose weight. Here’s what to look for:

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Large Food Database

Choose a calorie counter calculator that offers at least 20,000 foods in its database. Although that may seem like a lot, in fact it’s only about two-thirds as many as in a modern supermarket. Watch out for calculators that inflate their numbers by counting the same food under duplicate names -- "hot dog” and “frankfurter,” for example. Beware, too, of online counters that let users contribute foods by providing data from labels. These usually contain a lot of duplicates and incorrect nutrient data.

Large Exercise Database

Look for a calorie counter calculator that awards you extra calories for exercise. It should include at least 500 activities in its database -- not only sports and leisure activities, but occupational and household tasks as well. In addition, make sure it factors your calorie burn for your body weight. Obviously, a heavier person will burn more calories doing the same exercise as a lighter person. And finally, make sure the counter lets you specify the speed or intensity of your exercise.

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™.

Integrated Functions

Don’t settle for a calculator that doesn’t tie all its functions together in a “diary” approach. It should let you log your weight, meals, and exercise each day and continually show how many calories you can still eat today without going over your budget. It should also deposit uneaten calories in a “bank” so you can eat them tomorrow.

Intelligence

If you look hard enough, you can find a calorie counter calculator that does all of the above and also “learns” your personal metabolism and adjusts your daily budget to guarantee reaching your goal on your target date. (DietPower does this.) Good counters also monitor many other nutrients besides calories, so that you continually know how well balanced your diet is.

Guarantees

Run the other way if your calorie counter calculator doesn’t offer a free trial or a money-back guarantee. Many counters on the market today work poorly or give inaccurate advice. You don’t want to be stuck with paying for a calculator that you no longer trust enough to use.

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