Best Diet Software?

Nutrition Health Center

Review of My-Calorie-Counter.com

By Terry Dunkle*

My company (DietPower) has published a study of my-calorie-counter.com and 22 other dieting programs at http://www.dietpower.com/reviews/compare_diet_software.php. Although we are a competitor, our study was carefully controlled to minimize bias. (I’m a journalist by background; my business is telling the truth.) Using a 5-star scale, we rated My-calorie-counter.com as follows:

Overall Rating: 1 Star

My-calorie-counter.com might merit two stars if it offered a free trial and a money-back guarantee. Last time we checked, it didn’t. (Although it lets you log your foods for free, you can’t see your calorie and nutrient totals without buying a subscription.)

Versatility: 2 Stars

My-calorie-counter.com is moderately versatile. Competitors who ranked higher in versatility were DietPower, CalorieKing, and FitDay.

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

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™.

Accuracy: 1 Star

Instead of the Recommended Dietary Allowance for your age, sex, size, and reproductive status, my-calorie-counter.com assigns you the Daily Values used on food labels to represent the average person's needs. Frequent typographical errors (“Register now by selectin one of the following options”) imply carelessness with details. My-calorie-counter.com's Calorie Calculator uses the term “Basal Metabolic Rate” to cover all activity levels. (In fact, your BMR is the minimum number of calories required to keep you alive in a vegetative state.)

Ease of Use: 3 Stars

My-calorie-counter.com is moderately easy to use. Competitors who ranked easier to use were DietPower, Diet Organizer, Perfect Diet Tracker, Self Diet Club, and SparkPeople.

Onboard Help: 3 Stars

My-calorie-counter.com’s help system is short, but illustrated with animated tutorials.

Email Support: 1 Star

My-calorie-counter.com answered our first couple of emails in about 36 hours. Our third took 47 hours.

Phone Support: 1 Star

My-calorie-counter.com’s support page used to advertise toll-free help from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern, weekdays only. (You couldn't leave a voicemail.) Checking recently, however, we were unable to find a phone number on the site.

Company Attitude: 1 Star

We complimented my-calorie-counter.com for displaying its “How do I cancel?” link at the top of its Contact Us page, instead of burying it as most competitors do. However, a more recent check shows that the link is gone – and in fact, there is no Contact Us page.

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

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