Nutrition Health Center

Best Carb Calorie Counter on the Web

By Terry Dunkle*

A carb calorie counter is ideal if you’re on a low-carb diet, have diabetes, or are trying to avoid diabetes. In fact, though, it’s useful if you’re on any diet -- because carbs and calories play a role in your health no matter what you eat.

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

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A Large Food Database

Skip any carb calorie counter that doesn’t cover 20,000 foods or more. Make sure, too, that it lets you add your own foods to the database by keying in nutrition facts from the labels. Although most people get most of their calories by eating the same 100 to 150 foods over and over again, even 20,000 foods are unlikely to include all of your favorites.

Besides carbs and calories, look for a counter that covers other important nutrients such as protein, calcium, fat, cholesterol, sodium, various vitamins, folic acid, and others that play a role in heart disease, cancer, diabetes, birth defects, and other nutrition-related risks.

A Large Exercise Database

Similarly, choose a counter that includes at least 500 kinds of exercise. That means not only sports, but also types of work and leisure pursuits. Logging these will earn you extra calories to eat. Make sure they let you log not only the nature of the activity, but also its speed or intensity, which can greatly affect your calorie burn.

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™.

Ease of Use

Often, a carb calorie counter is difficult to learn. Usually, that’s because the programmers don’t understand how ordinary people think. Take a test drive -- and if the company doesn’t offer one, run the other way. Within a few days, you should be able to log all your meals and activities in only five to ten minutes a day. To make this happen, the counter must do such things as remember foods you’ve logged before, overlook your misspellings, and display your options in quick, easy-to-read form.

Intelligence

Rarely, a carb calorie counter will go even farther than what we describe above. DietPower, for example, “learns” your metabolism by comparing your weight change with your calorie history, and tweaks your budget every day to guarantee reaching your goal on your target date. It also recommends foods that are best for your nutrition if eaten right now. A few other programs also have built-in intelligence. It’s worth looking for.

Support

Tech support is one of the first things you should check when deciding which carb calorie counter to choose. That’s because most companies offer unusually poor support. See if your candidates can top DietPower’s policy: free email or 800-number phone support from 9 a.m. to midnight Eastern (U.S.), 365 days a year -- by native English speakers who use the program themselves.

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