Calorie King
CalorieKing is an online weight loss club and software developer with a program centred around healthy eating and exercise ("calories in, calories out"). The company offers products and services tailored specifically for the United States and Australian markets. As well as offering help for people who wish to lose weight, there are also programs and support for those who want to maintain their current weight, or to gain weight. The web sites' resources also include forums, and an extensive library of recipes and health and weight loss related articles contributed by company staff as well as other organisations and contributors.
Counting calories is a common yet frustrating method of food monitoring, but now dieters and anyone interested in being knowledgeable about what they eat can turn to a convenient online resource: the Calorie King.
About Calorie King
This innovative website was launched in 1996 to help promote food awareness rather than mindless dieting. The philosophical goal to “set the food record straight” combines the idea of straightforward information with tools for lifelong weight control through healthier, informed food decisions. By offering visitors a rich diet of updated information and interactive resources, the company strives to alter society’s perceptions of food and encourages improved eating habits that lead to healthier lifestyles instead of just a temporary diet plan.
In 2003, a three month intensive program – Calorie King University – was introduced to educate users about nutrition, weight management, and lifestyle changes to promote better health. In 2004, that educational option was followed by the Nutrition and Exercise Manager desktop software, giving users another convenient tool to track their progress. Today, the website offers a wide range of materials to help users discover the many options healthy eating habits can encompass, as well as providing constant updates and ongoing support as users work their way toward better food awareness.
Available Tools
There are many online tools available for users to track not only the number of calories in their favorite foods, but also to monitor their eating and related lifestyle habits. Popular website features include educational materials, interactive tools, and the ever-growing food database.
Educational Materials
A successful dieter is one who understands what foods meet their nutritional needs, who knows how diets do and don’t work, and who is willing to learn more about diet trends and fads before blindly signing up for restrictive meal plans or alternative treatments. Calorie King provides a startling array of educational materials to help users learn more about their diets, including:
- Informational articles about diet myths, nutrition, children’s and teens’ dietary needs, and motivational topics.
- Illustrated portion guides for popular foods that demonstrate the increase in calories, fat, carbohydrates, and proteins as portion sizes increase.
- Recipes for any meal or taste preference with an emphasis on nutritional awareness and balance.
Food Database
The food database is undeniably the most popular feature. This comprehensive guide has information on more than 55,000 food items, including brand name products, restaurant menus, fast food calories, and general types of food, from alcohol and soda to soups, chocolate, bread, tofu, fruits, chips, and more.
Categorized entries make both searching and browsing convenient, and each type of food offers average data as well as specific information on calories, carbohydrates, fat grams, sodium, protein, and other nutritional components. Visitors can increase the serving size for an instant appraisal relevant to their eating habits, and each entry’s calorie breakdown includes the percent of recommended daily values for further comparisons.
Interactive Options
Users can personalize their online experience by taking advantage of the interactive features, such as:
- Simple quizzes to gauge grocery shopping habits, emotional eating tendencies, types of dieters, a chocoholic predisposition, and more.
- Calculators to provide personalized body mass index and exercise target heart rate results, as well as to help users understand how exercising contributes to the calories burned from a meal, snack, or treat.
- Forums, blogs, and live chats for members to share their triumphs and setbacks, building a supportive community of like-minded individuals.
- Success stories with a wide range of weight loss totals and before-and-after pictures to encourage both current and new users.
Learning More
Visitors can learn even more about dieting and nutrition by becoming website members for a modest fee (access to informational articles, most interactive tools, and the comprehensive food database does not require membership). A free e-mail newsletter is also available, as well as various shopping options for related merchandise.
How Calorie King Can Help Dieters
Unlike many calorie-oriented websites, Calorie King is not about dieting or losing weight through counting calories. Instead, the website promotes intensive awareness about the properties of food to help users make informed decisions about their eating habits. Rather than promoting dieting as a temporary measure, dieting is viewed as a lifestyle habit that helps determine an individual’s health and wellness, both things that can be improved with the tools and information available.
- Calorie King is a useful informational website with an extensive database of food entries, nutrition articles, and other resources to help everyone gain better control of eating habits through the most effective diet tool possible: education. With many interactive features and support options, every dieter can find the tools to help them succeed.
The CalorieKing Program
If you're like everybody else, you've lost weight before. What most of us aren't so good at, though, is keeping the weight off over time. The CalorieKing Program is a step-by-step, well-guided but self-driven series of levels structured to build a foundation for successful, permanent weight loss. You'll be given the basic science, practical steps and behavioral changes you need to lose and manage your weight for a lifetime.
For more information, visit CalorieKing com.
The Best Weight Loss Programs
How to choose the best Weight Loss Programs
Whether you are striving to lose five pounds or fifty pounds, there are keys to look for when choosing the best weight loss program. The following summary will help guide you through the vast world of diet plans so you can achieve your goals effectively and safely.
Some important questions you must ask before choosing a weight loss program:
- How much weight do you wish to lose? Setting a realistic goal is very important to keep you motivated!!! To lose 1 lb to 2 lb a week is more realistic than trying to lose 40 lb in a month!!!
- How much support will you receive from the program? any online weight loss classes? online personal weight loss counseling? support groups? chat rooms? etc
- What is the Total cost for the program? Will you have to pay extra on top of what you have paid? Does the total cost include foods?
- Will they consider your lifestyle before making a diet plan for you? Or do they simply restrict your normal eating habit so that it's tough to follow through? Is the program able to personalize your likes and dislikes?
- What kind of maintenance program is provided and at what cost? Find out what the maintenance program consists of, how long it lasts, and what you must do. Remember that the longer the program focuses on helping you change your eating and exercise patterns, the greater the chances of long-term success.
- What is the refund policy? If you are not happy, you should have every right to quit the program and receive your money back.
A Personal Approach
By far, the best weight loss program will incorporate the personal characteristics and needs of the individual. This approach utilizes the services of a nutritionist and an exercise trainer. The nutritionist should have sufficient education and experience with the countless issues of weight loss challenges. To begin developing an individual dietary program, the nutritionist will assess your current status, determine your daily caloric requirement for a safe progression of weight loss, and break down your meal plan into a healthful ratio of protein, carbohydrates, and fats. The nutritionist will also need to know about your lifestyle. He/She may ask questions similar to:
- Do you cook?
- Do you eat out?
- Do you live alone? With others?
- Are you a vegetarian?
- Do you do the grocery shopping?
- Do you travel?
- What hours do you work?
- When do you usually snack?
- Do you eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner?
- Do you eat fast?
- Do you eat in the car? Standing up? Watching television?
- Do you drink alcohol beverages? Number of drinks per week?
Besides these lifestyle inquiries, your nutritionist will ask you about your favorite and least favorite foods. With this information, meal plans can be created especially for you in order to develop the best weight loss program to satisfy your hunger, yet allow your body to lose the weight. The correct meal plans will offer foods from all the food groups in correct portion amounts, and give your body the nourishment and energy it needs to keep you satisfied and healthy.
Your personal trainer/exercise specialist will assess your current physical fitness level, as well as your present activity regime, if any. He/She will then create a suitable program in an effort to expend more calories than cutting calories alone. Your routine may involve at least three sessions per week at one hour in length. Strength training and aerobic activity are often the two major components of any weight loss and management fitness program.
The Best Commercial Weight Loss Programs
Most people have heard of Atkins, South Beach, Weight Watchers, Scarsdale, and others. While many are considered fad diets, offering quick, easy weight loss, not all take this approach at weight loss. Any commercial diet should take a practical look at what is going on with the customer. For example, Weight Watchers lets you, the member, decide whether or not you want to “spend” your food points on the cake or the chicken. In addition, you want to look for the following “ingredients” when choosing an advertised diet:
- Variety
- Wholesome foods
- Healthy choices (low fat, low cholesterol)
- Satisfying
- No elimination of specific foods
- Proper portion control
- Flexible
- Support
- Lifetime change in eating habits
- Slow, gradual weight loss (no more than two pounds per week)
- Long-term success rates
- Exercise recommendation
With these factors in mind, diets such as the grapefruit diet, the cabbage soup diet, Scarsdale diet, and the Atkins diet do not fall into the best weight loss program category to follow. These diets tend to be too restrictive. Initially, yes, you will lose weight. However, the long-term picture does not usually include keeping these pounds off for good. On the other hand, programs such as South Beach (except for the first two weeks or so), Weight Watchers, Ornish fit the criteria for the most part. Also, the more unconventional approaches seen with the Sonoma Diet and the Mediterranean Diet teach individuals how to enjoy food in a non-diet manner, but mostly via portion control and healthy choices.
Summary
No matter which plan you choose to embark on, persistence with your plan of action cannot be overstated. Continual monitoring and adjusting is mandatory in order for the best weight loss program to be discovered and utilized. Setting realistic, honest goals for yourself, both short-term and long-term, and reminding yourself where you are headed is almost certainly the most critical factor for success.