DietPower takes a unique approach to weight loss

DietPower

$49.99 download, $54.99 CD-ROM (Windows only) http://www.dietpower.com
Pros: Excellent interface, great help site, unique metabolism feature, easy to use.
Cons: Much less community support than competing products, some features are not intuitive.

DietPower takes a unique approach to weight loss. Most weight loss and diet software packages assume that you are burning calories at an average level in other words, that your basal metabolic rate is the same as everyone else’s. This is most likely not true.

Some of us have slower or faster metabolisms than other people. Therefore, while one person can eat 2,000 calories per day and exercise for 30 minutes a day and lose weight, another person at the same weight eating the same foods and exercising at the same rate will not. Assuming you’ve entered your calories, exercise activities, and weight correctly, DietPower will determine your true metabolic rate and adjusts your calorie needs accordingly.

Of course, you need to enter your foods and activities accurately, and the weight loss and diet software takes some time (at least a week) to get a feel for your metabolic rate. It then constantly adjusts your caloric need based on your input. DietPower includes a database of more than 21,000 foods and tracks up to 33 nutrients. Its WaterMinder feature bugs you to drink enough water, and its Exercise Log tracks your exercises.

Plus, user forums are included on the DietPower Web site to provide support and encouragement along the way. An online store allows users to buy health-related products at a discount. DietPower also comes with a great help system (100,000 words) that provides lots of nutrition information and tips to help you lose weight. It includes context-sensitive help and animated tutorials to make learning more fun. It also answers many more questions than a typical weight loss and diet software help system, including questions such as:

If you’re a moderate drinker, how many beers can you have each day?
Which fats protect you against heart disease?
Why does eating sardines help you adapt to cold weather?
How does peanut butter fight depression?
What vitamins do you need if you smoke?

It’s easy to find foods in DietPower’s database. Type a few letters of the food’s name, and the weight loosing program will go directly to the correct food. Then you can view nutrients in either pie or bar chart form. You can also easily enter foods into the database by entering the nutrition facts from the food’s label.

Logging foods is very easy. DietPower claims that you can easily enter a meal in less than two minutes. Its database is very accessible and easy to use, and entering foods is a snap. Simply copy the information on the Nutrition Facts label on the box, or go on the restaurant’s Web site and get the nutritional information.

Exercises are logged as well, with more than 1,000 activities in the database. The burn rates for these activities are adjusted based on your current weight. If exercises increase your metabolic rate, DietPower adjusts your calorie budget accordingly.

DietPower also gives you a nutrient summary for the day, which shows at a glance all of the nutrients that you’ve consumed that day. The weight loosing program also grades you with a Nutrient Quotient based on your food choices.

DietPower includes a number of reports, including your intake of any single nutrient over time, and a daily progress graph, which includes your goal weight, the target date you set for reaching that weight, the weights you’ve entered, and a date for reaching your goal weight based on your diet and exercise. You can print a diet plan, a nutrient profile, or any other report.

You can also create custom goals, such as not eating more than 1500 mg of sodium per day, or drinking 15 glasses of water per day.

DietPower’s Web site includes a store where you can get bargains on health products, lots of information about the weight loss and diet software, a newsletter providing tips and health news, and a great feature called Diet Killers, which lists 29 foods that are almost guaranteed to sabotage your diet, along with tips on avoiding those foods. My favorite diet killers and their comments include the following:

Alcohol. Alcohol is a major diet killer. At 199 calories per fluid ounce, it provides ten times as many calories as whole milk and 16 times as many as carbonated soft drinks. DietPower also shows how much weight you’ll gain in a week if you drink one of these per day. A 4-ounce martini each day will make you gain a half pound per week. DietPower recommends that if you must drink, drink light beer. It has lots of water in it and it fills you up so you don’t overeat.
Bologna. Bologna is one of DietPower’s ten worst foods. Eighty percent of its calories come from fat, it’s loaded with sodium, and it includes nitrites, which possibly cause cancer. DietPower recommends avoiding bologna entirely.
Brownies. Brownies are 132 calories per ounce. This is thirty percent more than chocolate cake! They call brownies a great food if you’re trying to gain weight.
Cookies. DietPower says “cookies are to dieting as land mines are to a picnic.” Funny but true. At more than 100 calories per ounce, you’ll find yourself eating 300 or more calories at a sitting. Avoid them. DietPower recommends low-fat oatmeal cookies if you must eat them.
Cream. If you drink two cups of coffee per day and use one tablespoon of cream per cup, you can lose seven pounds in a year by switching to half-and-half. You can lose another three pounds by switching to skim milk.
Donuts. DietPower reminds you that donuts are just lumps of dough boiled in oil. (Sounds great, huh?)
French fries. Big fat fries usually have fewer calories and sodium than thin fries. (Oh, that’s why they don’t taste as good!) Of course, most dieters today are on low-carb diets, so french fries are pretty unpopular these days.
Potato chips. High in sodium, fat, and calories, potato chips are a horrible food. Switching to pretzels is a good idea.
Slim Jim. Slim Jim is DietPower’s candidate for the world’s worst food, at 50 percent fat and 500 milligrams of sodium per ounce. Also, it’s a mystery as far as what part of the cow it comes from.

You can try a fully functional version of DietPower on your PC for free for 15 days.

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DietPower takes a unique approach to weight loss

DietPower

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