Nutrition Health Center

Best McDonalds Calorie Counter

By Terry Dunkle*

Believe it or not, the most accurate and comprehensive McDonalds calorie counter isn’t on McDonald’s website -- it's in one of the many independent nutrition programs that you can find on the Web or download and install on your own PC. (One example is DietPower, advertised on this page.) Here’s why these independent programs are better:

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

Nutrient Coverage

The official McDonalds calorie counter covers only a few nutrients in its foods -- the ones that are required on food labels. It doesn’t even list potassium (important for blood pressure control), folic acid (which prevents birth defects), or antioxidants (which retard aging and prevent cancer) such as selenium. Many independent calorie counters cover these and dozens of other nutrients that play a role in heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis, and more.

Weight-Loss Functions

An independent McDonalds calorie counter is likely to offer more than just food lookups. Typically, it will calculate a calorie budget for reaching a goal weight on a target date; tally the calories that you get from foods you eat at home and in many other fast-food restaurants; track calories you burn in exercise; and a lot more besides. In effect, it acts as a “diary” that guides you to weight-loss success.

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™.

“Smart” Features

It’s even possible to find an independent McDonalds calorie counter that “learns” your metabolism and adjusts your calorie budget to guarantee reaching your goal on your target date. DietPower also recommends foods you like (including McDonald’s foods) that are best for your nutrition. Sometimes, it will even highlight a McDonald’s food as your Smart Second™ -- the food that will help your nutrition the most if you double the amount already eaten. Other programs have built-in intelligence, too.

Cost

Although many independent calorie counters aren’t free (typical cost: $20 to $40), you can often try them out for a week or two without paying. In fact, this is true of the best of them. The best also offer money-back guarantees -- sometimes (as in DietPower’s case) up to a year after purchase.

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