Nutrition Health Center

How to Choose a Diet Diary

By Terry Dunkle*

Over the past few decades, weight-loss researchers have conducted dozens of studies on diet diaries. In almost every case, diet diaries prove to be one of the most effective tools for weight loss. That's because a diet diary exploits this simple truth: If you can only see what any food will do to your weight and nutrient balance, you will naturally make better choices. (My company has a trademarked expression for this: "Eat With Your Eyes Open™.")

Calorie counter try free or buy Download and run DietPower's free trial Purchase DietPower risk-free

Over the past 20 years, I've tested hundreds of diet diaries. I like my own company's best, of course. But you won't go wrong with another diary if it meets these time-tested criteria:

Rule out any diet diary...

...that doesn't calculate a calorie budget similar to the figure you get from the tool below. This could mean the diary is inaccurate in other respects.

At Least 20,000 Foods in the Diet Diary

In an average supermarket these days, you'll find 30,000 founds. You don't need that many in your diet diary, because most people eat only 100 to 200 foods, over and over again. A 20,000-food database is likely to contain most of the foods you eat. And if your diet diary lets you add your own foods by entering data from their labels, you should be well covered.

12 or More Nutrients in the Diet Diary

At the very least, your diet diary should monitor calories, fat, saturated fat, trans fat, sodium, carbohydrates, fiber, sugars, protein, calcium, and vitamins A and C. Better yet, it should also include potassium, folic acid, zinc, selenium, vitamins D and E, water, and alcohol. All of these are important to disease prevention, as well as athletic and mental performance.

Does the Diet Diary Give Advice?

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

- -

?

ft. in.

lbs.

lbs. ?

- - ?

?

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™.

Besides showing you what's in your foods, a good diet diary will recommend foods that improve your nutrition. It should also award extra calories for exercise, as well as providing an overall grade that indicates how well you're doing. The best diet diaries can even tweak your calorie budget to cancel fluctuations in your metabolism, which they sense by continually comparing your weight change with your eating history.

Is the Diet Diary Guaranteed?

My diet diary, called DietPower®, offers a one-year guarantee. We return 100 percent of the purchase price, including shipping and tax. Many other companies provide a 30- or 90-day guarantee, although some refund only the base price and a few subtract a "restocking" fee.

Companies who make no guarantee are, unfortunately, plentiful. Avoid them.

Founder and CEO, DietPower, Inc.