Nutrition Health Center

Best Calorie Counting Weight Loss Tools

By Terry Dunkle*

In the 20 years since my company developed its first calorie counting weight loss tool, I’ve seen hundreds of similar tools come and go. Most are poorly made, but you can find a good one if you pay attention to these five points:

Here’s what to look for in such a tool.

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Overall Approach

A calorie counting weight loss tool isn’t much good if it doesn’t approach your diet the same way you do: as a daily “diary.” It should let you log your foods and exercises, automatically calculate your net calorie intake, and compares that with a calorie budget for attaining your goal weight on a desired date. At the end of each day, it should put your uneaten calories into a “bank” for later eating.

The diary should also show you your intake of nutrients such as trans fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates, folic acid, and others important in heart disease, pregnancy (if you’re a woman), diabetes, osteoporosis, and other nutrition-sensitive conditions.

Food Count

Shun any calorie counting weight loss program that has fewer than 20,000 foods in its database. Beware of programs that exaggerate their total by listing differently named duplicates (“frankfurters” and “hot dogs,” “flapjacks” and “pancakes,” etc.). Even if the total count is huge, the program should let you add foods by typing in facts from labels.

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

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Tobacco user?

Height

Weight

Goal Weight

Target Date

Email Address

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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™.

Exercise Count

A good calorie counting weight loss tool should cover at least 500 kinds of exercise. These should include sports, leisure pursuits, household chores, and occupational activities. For many exercises, the program should also factor your calorie “burn” for your current weight and the speed or intensity of the activity.

Intelligence

A few calorie counting weight loss tools do a lot more than what I’ve described above. DietPower (advertised elsewhere on this page), continually adjusts your calorie budget to your personal metabolism, which it monitors by comparing your weight change with your eating and exercise histories. It also “knows” which of your favorite foods you should eat to drive your Nutrition Quotient™ higher. Other programs may have advanced functions, too. It pays to look for them.

Company Attitude

Don’t purchase a calorie counting weight loss tool without using a free trial first. Run the other way if the company doesn’t offer a money-back guarantee. And make sure you are going to get free support after the sale. Many companies are almost impossible to get on the phone, or even by email. (My company offers a one-year money-back guarantee and free phone and email support 365 days a year.)

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