Nutrition Health Center

Which Nutrition Calorie Counter Is Best?

By Terry Dunkle*

In the 18 years since my company released its first nutrition calorie counter, I’ve watched hundreds of others spring up. Most are dreadful, because their makers don’t know much about software design, nutrition science, human nature -- or all three. Here are five features to keep in mind when comparison-shopping.

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Foods

If a nutrition calorie counter doesn’t have at least 20,000 foods in its database, rule it out. The average supermarket contains 30,000 foods. You don’t want to spend a lot of time adding foods to the database yourself (by keying in facts from their labels) -- although you do want that capability, even in a program with a huge database. No database includes every food you might encounter.

Food Data

Don’t bother with nutritional analysis software that covers fewer than 20,000 foods -- and make sure those are distinct foods, not dupes under different names. You should also be able to add your own foods by keying in data from labels. Avoid online programs that let other users add foods, however, as these are often inaccurate.

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™.

In addition, make sure your nutrition counter covers at least a dozen nutrients. Watch for trans fat, cholesterol, calcium, folic acid, selenium, and others important in preventing or fighting nutrition-related diseases.

Steer clear of online databases that let other people add foods for the public to use. These put you at the mercy of everyone else’s typographical errors. They also tend to be littered with needless duplicates.

Exercise

Choose a nutrition calorie counter that tracks calories you burn in exercise. It should cover at least 500 kinds of exercise. It should also factor your calorie burn for your current body weight and the speed and intensity of your workout.

Diary

A nutrition calorie counter is a real time-waster if it expects you to tally your intake and expenditure of calories and nutrients by yourself. Choose one that does this for you. It should also calculate a calorie budget for reaching your goal on a schedule, show you which of the four energy nutrients (fat, carbohydrate, protein, and alcohol) is providing most of your calories, alert you to dangerous shortages or surfeits of particular nutrients, track your water intake -- and more.

Intelligence

If you look hard enough, you can find a nutrition calorie counter that not only does what I describe above, but also “learns” your preferences and gives you special information that depends on these. DietPower, for example, actually monitors your metabolism and tweaks your budget every day to guarantee reaching your goal on your deadline. It also recommends foods you like that are best for your Nutrition Quotient (NQ)™, and even shows your Smart Second™ -- the food that will raise your NQ the most if you double what you’ve already eaten.

Value

A nutrition calorie counter typically costs $20 to $40. The best offer a free trial for at least a week (DietPower’s is 15 days) and a money-back guarantee (DietPower’s is one year, no questions asked).

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