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.
Binge Eating
Binge eating is a pattern of disordered eating which consists of episodes of uncontrollable eating. It is sometimes as a symptom of binge eating disorder. During such binges, a person rapidly consumes an excessive amount of food. Most people who have eating binges try to hide this behaviour from others, and often feel ashamed about being fat or depressed about their overeating. Eating binges can be followed by so-called compensatory behaviour, acts by which the person tries to compensate for the effects of overeating. Examples of such acts are purging (induced vomiting or laxative abuse), fasting, and heavy exercising.
Although people who do not have any eating disorder may occasionally experience episodes of overeating, frequent binge eating is often a symptom of an eating disorder. Binge eating is a central feature of bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. It is also practiced by some people with an eating disorder not otherwise specified or anorexia nervosa.
What Is Binge Eating?
A binge is an uncontrollable urge to eat tremendous quantities of food, usually in a very short amount of time, and frequently in secret. Binge eating is an eating disorder in which a person repeatedly binges, usually due to a psychological trigger. Some binges focus on one type of food: sweet, salty, crunchy, or creamy, for example. Other bingers report the urge to "eat everything that isn't nailed down"--one binger said she would even eat the nails if given the chance. The tell-tale characteristics of a binge are:
- astonishing quantities of food
- short time span
- secrecy
- inability to stop eating
How Does Someone Know if He or She Has Binge Eating Disorder?
Most of us overeat from time to time, and many people feel they frequently eat more than they should. Eating large amounts of food, however, does not mean that a person has binge eating disorder. Doctors are still debating the best ways to determine if someone has binge eating disorder. But most people with serious binge eating problems have:
Frequent episodes of eating what others would consider an abnormally large amount of food.
Frequent feelings of being unable to control what or how much is being eaten.
Several of these behaviors or feelings:
- Eating much more rapidly than usual.
- Eating until uncomfortably full.
- Eating large amounts of food, even when not physically hungry.
- Eating alone out of embarrassment at the quantity of food being eaten.
- Feelings of disgust, depression, or guilt after overeating.
Episodes of binge eating also occur in the eating disorder bulimia nervosa. Persons with bulimia, however, regularly purge, fast, or engage in strenuous exercise after an episode of binge eating. Purging means vomiting or using diuretics (water pills) or laxatives in greater-than-recommended doses to avoid gaining weight. Fasting is not eating for at least 24 hours. Strenuous exercise, in this case, is defined as exercising for more than an hour solely to avoid gaining weight after binge eating. Purging, fasting, and strenuous exercise are dangerous ways to attempt weight control.
What Causes Bingeing?
Each binge-eater has a different trigger. Some are victims of emotional eating. This happens when strong emotions threaten to overwhelm them, their brains short-circuit and force them to eat to dull the pain. Others are compulsive eaters who, as the result of a chemical imbalance in the brain, engage in eating as a repetitive, obsessive behaviour, in much the same way that some obsessive-compulsives wash their hands repeatedly. Some bingers are so desperate to lose weight that they will binge because they are starving, but then they will purge in some way to "atone" for having consumed such great quantities of food.
What are the health consequences of binge eating disorder?
People with binge eating disorder are usually very upset by their binge eating and may become depressed. Research has shown that people with binge eating disorder report more health problems, stress, trouble sleeping, and suicidal thoughts than people without an eating disorder. People with binge eating disorder often feel badly about themselves and may miss work, school, or social activities to binge eat.
People with binge eating disorder may gain weight. Weight gain can lead to obesity, and obesity raises the risk for these health problems:
- Type 2 diabetes
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Gallbladder disease
- Heart disease
- Certain types of cancer
Obese people with binge eating disorder often have other mental health conditions, including:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Personality disorders
To Purge or Not To Purge
Some binge eaters simply binge and then return to normal eating patterns when the trigger for the binge has been resolved. Many bingers, however, choose one or more methods of purging to make up for the "loss of control" that they displayed by bingeing. Most people are familiar with the victim of bulimia, who purges by forcing herself to vomit after eating. That is the most common form of purging, and one of the most damaging. Other methods of purging include excessive fasting or stringent dieting as a form of self-punishment, excessive exercise, negative self-talk, or overuse of laxatives and enemas. All of these forms of purging can cause severe damage to the body and to the self-image of the victim of this disorder.
Treatment
Binge eating is treated by combining several different approaches. The patient must receive psychotherapy to address the underlying issues, medical treatment for the health disruptions, and nutrition counseling to help them learn to eat in a healthy manner. Of primary importance is discovering the triggers that lead to a binge, and teaching the binge-eater to find other ways of coping with the trigger. For example, emotional eaters must learn to face their emotions and work through them, rather than sedating themselves with food.