Calorie Counter Diet and Weight Loss Software, by Diet Power

The Negative-Calorie Diet

Could celery be the ultimate diet food

By Elena Serocki

Diet Power Senior Editor

Every afternoon, a former colleague of mine would unwrap a small package of celery shed bought from the company cafeteria. Fills me up, she once explained, munching away, and burns off my lunch, too.

My co-worker believed in negative-calorie foods. The theory goes like this. Your body burns some of the calories in your food to run the chemical and mechanical processes that digest the food. But some foods

contain fewer calories than are needed to digest them -- so by eating such foods, you actually lose weight. Say, for example, youre eating a 1 1/2-ounce stalk of celery. It contains 7 calories, but maybe your body needs 30 calories to break it down. If thats true, eating a stalk will burn off 23 calories -- and if you eat five stalks a day, youll lose a pound a month. A pound of body weight is equivalent to 3500 calories.

Weight-Loss Programs, Drugs, and CookbooksUsing Diet Power with Other

Although its effective by itself, Diet Power can also be used with other weight-loss regimens, either to increase their power or to find out quickly whether you need to switch. Here are some of the diets and cookbooks that people use with our software.

- Active Wellness

- American Heart Association

- Atkins

- Cooking Light

- Diet Center

- DietSmart

- DietWatch

- eDiets

- Jenny Craig

- Mayo Clinic

- Mediterranean

- Nutri/System

- Ornish Plan

- Prism

- Pritikin

- Protein Power

- Richard Simmons

- Slim-Fast

- Somersizing

- Sugar Busters

- Thin for Life

- TOPS

- Weight Watchers

- Zone

There are many others. If yours isnt on the list, e-mail us.

You can also use Diet Power with Dexatrim, Herbalife, Meridia, Metabolife, Xenical, Xenadrine, and other weight-loss drugs. It maximizes any weight-loss system, because it exploits a truth that all diets must obey. You cant lose weight unless your net intake of caloriesthose eaten minus those burned in exerciseis less than your body needs to maintain its weight.

Diet Power works by learning precisely how many calories your body needs, so that you can eat slightly fewer or work off slightly more and lose weight at exactly the rate you want. It learns your calorie needs by comparing your weight change with your eating and exercise histories, which you record in your Food and Exercise logs. If it notices a change in your requirements, it raises or lowers your calorie budget to keep your weight loss on track.

To use Diet Power with another program, then, you need only.

1. Set the same goal weight and target date in Diet Power that youve established in the other program,

2. Eat and exercise as the other program advisesbut log both activities in Diet Power, too,

3. Adjust the amount of your eating and exercise to stay within the daily calorie budget that Diet Power calculates for you.

If the other program makes you too hungry or lowers your calorie needs too much, then it isnt right for you and you ought to switch. Whatever you choose as a replacement, however, it helps to use Diet Power as a monitor and adviser.

--andgt.

Diet Description

This is a special page in the Goal Setter that helps you decide whether you want to adopt the goals youve just specified. It describes the regimen you must follow in order to reach your goal weight on your target date. It reports the net daily intake of calories youll need to average, and translates that figure into an example of how your eating and exercise habits will have to change. It also predicts how easy or difficult those changes will be.

Caution

Adopting a new diet will automatically overwrite any diet already in effect. Once the old diet is gone, it cant be restored. You wont lose any records of calories and nutrients you consumed. Nor will you lose any of your daily weights, your projected weight, your calorie budgets, or your Calorie Bank balances. But Diet Power wont remember your old goal weight or target date, because the blue line describing your old diet on the Weight History will have vanished. The only vestige will be your old starting date, permanently marked with a vertical yellow line. The starting date will also continue to be displayed in blue in your Diet History.

To open the Diet Description.

From the Goal Setter, click the tab labeled Diet Description.

To adopt the diet as described

click the button labeled Adopt Diet. After asking you to confirm your decision, Diet Power will replace your current diet with the one in the Diet Description. It will also reset the balance in your Calorie Bank to zero, adjust your daily calorie budget to the new goal, and draw a fresh blue line on your Weight History that you need to stay under or over, if youre on a weight-gain diet in order to reach your goal on schedule.

To revise the diet.

1. Click either the Click-and-Drag Method tab or the Text-Entry Method tab.

2. Enter a new goal weight, target date, or both.

3. Click the Diet Description tab again, to see the results.

4. Repeat the process, if necessary, until you get results you like.

To keep your old diet instead

click Cancel or press the Escape key. Youll return to the Home Screen with your old diet still in effect.

To leave the Diet Description.

If you want to stay in the Goal Setter, click one of the other tabs. The other page will come to the top. This action wont cause the new diet to be adopted.

If you want to close the Goal Setter and adopt the diet as described, click the Adopt Diet button. After asking you to confirm your decision, Diet Power will replace your current diet with the one in the Diet Description and take you back to the Home Screen.

If you want to close the Goal Setter and keep your old diet, click Cancel or press the Escape key. After asking you to confirm your decision, Diet Power will ignore the new diet and return you to the Home Screen.

Note. If the Adopt Diet and Cancel buttons are not visible, see Taskbar, Hiding to Make Screens Deeper. --andgt.

Atkins Diet. Hope or Hype

By Janet Ford, Diet Power Senior Editor

The Atkins food pyramid. pile on fats and meat, but eat carbohydrates sparingly.

A strange thing has happened over the past couple of years. the whole world seems to think carbohydrates are bad. Restaurants, from fast-food to haute cuisine, are offering low-carb alternatives on menus. America West and Northwest Airlines are handing out low-carb candies to passengers. Many hotels feature low-carb programs for guests -- Sheraton even serves low-carb drinks and leaves a low-carb mint on pillows. In the supermarket,

low-carb products are elbowing others off the shelves. Last month, a California company introduced the nations first low-carb vending machines. People on the street and in the media -- even network news anchors -- talk of carbohydrates in the same tones once reserved for PCBs and mercury. What on earth is going on

Revolutionary or Quack

Robert C. Atkins, M.D., couldnt have known what a dramatic effect hed have on the nations eating habits when he introduced his diet back in September 1972. With the publication of his 300-page Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution, he mounted a startling challenge to the medical establishment. When everyone else was saying that a low-fat, high-carbohydrate approach was the proper way to lose weight, Atkins railed against carbohydrates, insisting that you could lose weight by eating all the fat you wanted. Whats more, with Atkins plan you could lose weight quickly. Never mind

waiting more than a month to drop 10 pounds. follow Atkins and you could lose that much the first week. Helped in part by excerpts that ran in Womans Day and Cosmopolitan, the doctor sold 900,000 copies of Revolution in the first seven months.

A study published the following year in the Journal of the American Medical Association dismissed the diet as junk. Atkins had also been accused at various times of quackery, including treating cancer patients with ozone and other alternative therapies. The doctor dropped out of the spotlight, and his diet joined a heap of others dismissed as fads.

Dr. Robert Atkins

In 1992 he roared back, however, with the publication of Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution. Again, the scientific and medical establishment greeted the book either by wagging its finger or ignoring it, hoping it would fade into oblivion.

It didnt. Atkins and his book persevered, and the updated version has sold over 10 million copies and remains atop the New York Times bestseller list. By some accounts, 30 million Americans have tried the diet.

Meanwhile, the diet has outlived its creator. Robert Atkins died on April 17, 2003, at age 72, days after slipping on an icy Manhattan sidewalk and hitting his head. News articles, citing death records, claimed that Atkins was obese at the time of death. His defenders were quick to claim that the drugs used to keep him alive in his final days swelled him up like a water balloon.

The controversy surrounding the man -- and the diet -- continues. Professional groups such as the American Heart Association, the American Medical Association, the American Dietetic Association, and the American Council on Preventive Medicine continue to attack Atkins theory, but no longer dismiss him as a fad. This has become almost a trend, concedes Dr. Bob Eckel, a spokesman for the Heart Association. Even the National Institutes of Health NIH has begun some studies looking at the diets long-term safety and effectiveness.

Help from the Press

Why are Atkins and other low-carb diets now at the center of attention A lot of things have come together, says Dr. Holly Wyatt, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Colorados Center for Human Nutrition, who is studying the Atkins diet for NIH. One thing that stands out

is the average citizens girth. Were now in an obesity epidemic, she says. America is gaining weight. Obesity wasnt on the radar screen twenty years ago.

The most recent figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC show that twice as many Americans -- 59 million adults -- were obese in 2000 than when Atkins first book came out. The numbers look even grimmer for children. 9 million, or 15 percent, were overweight in 2000, three times as many as 20 years ago. Soon, obesity will overtake

smoking as the top preventable cause of death, says the CDC. The stats defy the oft-repeated call for Americans to exercise more, adopt a low-fat diet, and eat more of the fruits and vegetables at the base of the Food Pyramid which is so often ignored that authorities are preparing to overhaul it.

Also working in Atkins favor were the publication of both scientific and lay articles that cast favorable light on the diet. Atkins dieters indeed lost weight, and in some cases they didnt raise their dangerous cholesterol levels as the alarmist heart doctors had warned -- at least in the short haul. There are no terrible things that we know of, says Dr. Eric C. Westman, lead author of one such study that appeared in the July 2002 American Journal of Medicine. In the same month, a cover article in the New York Times Magazine argued that Atkins may have been right all along. That a highly respected mainstream publication would run an article had some impact, says Eckel, a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

Positive word of mouth doesnt hurt, either, observes Eckel. When your neighbor has lost 10 pounds in seven days, you say, Isnt that amazing

The Four Phases of Atkins

Okay, whats so amazing about the Atkins diet And is the diet safe and effective According to Atkins -- and the company he founded, Atkins Nutritionals -- this four-phase eating plan will help you lose weight, keep it off, be healthy, and prevent disease. Heres how it works.

Phase 1. Induction

For a minimum of 14 days, Atkins dieters are instructed to eat only what can be found on Atkins Acceptable Foods list. This includes liberal amounts of protein and fat, specifically red meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, eggs, butter, mayonnaise, olive oil, safflower, sunflower, and other vegetable oils. Carbohydrate consumption is restricted to 20 grams per day, and must be obtained mostly from salad and other non-starchy vegetables. Absolutely no fruit, bread, pasta, grains, starchy vegetables, or dairy products other than cheese, cream, and butter may be consumed. Nuts and seeds are also banned the first two weeks, as are foods that combine protein and carbohydrates, such as chickpeas, kidney beans, and other legumes. Any drinks containing caffeine must be avoided.

According to Atkins, your bodys chemistry changes during this stage, from a carbohydrate-burning metabolism to a fat-burning one. Blood sugar stabilizes, and as a result you will feel less fatigued and moody. You will curb your food cravings and break any addictions to sugar, wheat, caffeine, and any other food.

Phase 2. Ongoing Weight Loss OWL

During the second phase, you increase your carbohydrate intake to 25 grams daily the first week, 30 grams daily the next week, etc., until you stop losing weight. Atkins suggests that during the first week of OWL you

add either a leafy salad, half an avocado, a cup of cauliflower, six to eight stalks of asparagus, or another vegetable each day. The following week you can try more greens and other vegetables, half a cup of cottage cheese, one ounce of sunflower seeds, or a dozen macadamia nuts. You can also eat blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and other fruits, depending on whether they trigger cravings. When you stop

This is healthful Typical low-carb lunch of veggies, protein, and high-fat dressing.

losing weight, you subtract five grams of carbohydrate from your daily allotment, so that slow weight loss continues. You stay in this phase until youre within five to ten pounds of your goal.

Phase 3. Pre-Maintenance

Now you increase daily carbohydrate intake by 10-gram increments each week to maintain weight loss of less than a pound a week. This phase typically lasts two to three months until you reach your goal.

Phase 4. Lifetime Maintenance

In the final phase, you can select from a wider variety of foods while still controlling your carb intake. According to the plan, each person can eat a certain number of carbs, called the Atkins Carbohydrate Equilibrium, before he or she begins putting on weight. If you stay at this level, you will not gain weight. If you go over it, your weight will inch upward and youll need to return to an earlier weight-loss phase.

What the Critics Say

Its important to remember that Dr. Atkins was a physician, not a scientist. He based his diet on years of clinical observation, not on experiments constructed to rule out any bias. This doesnt mean that his diet is hogwash. A few scientific studies performed after the diet became popular have given it a modicum of support. Still, it flies in the face of decades of mainstream nutrition research, and this makes it vulnerable to criticism from the scientific community.

For many professional groups, the problems with the Atkins diet are obvious. The Mayo Clinic, in its online analysis, states that eating a high-protein diet may mean consuming foods high in saturated fat, which raises your cholesterol level and increases your risk of heart disease. In its advice to dieters, the Mayo Clinic cautions people to avoid any weight-loss program that lists good and bad foods, reminding people that its the calories that count in losing weight.

Atkins claims that bad carbohydrates -- especially refined carbs found in white bread and pasta, jams, desserts, other sugary stuff, and potato chips -- create a rush in insulin, which tells your body to store fat, says Dr. Mary Vernon, a family practitioner in Lawrence, Kansas, and a staunch advocate of the Atkins diet. Other supporters say that the human body burns calories from protein-laden foods, which have been around for thousands of years, more efficiently than those from refined carbohydrates.

Over the past generation, however, these carb-rich foods have become a staple of the American diet. If you follow the medical establishments mantra and try to eat a low-fat diet, staying away from meats and junk food, the rest of the food is kind of boring, says Christopher D. Gardner, an assistant professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine who is taking part in one of the new NIH studies.

Gardner says that food marketers helped spur the obesity epidemic by relaying the wrong message about consuming less fat. Promoting the consumption of more whole grains was way too complicated, he says, so they went ahead with a simpler approach. They replaced it not with good things, but with low-fat crap, he says. Low-fat, but not low-calorie.

Calories appear to be the key to the success of the Atkins diet. Something suppresses appetite, Westman says. While you may be allowed to eat as much fat and protein as you like, chances are that you wont because you cant. Theres no magic, he says.

Jurys Still Out

Despite the claims of both sides, there have been no long-term studies to show the benefits and risks of the Atkins diet. Most research has looked at the effects of the diet over the course of months, not years. Even Westman and Wyatt, who have published favorable studies on the outcomes, say theyre not yet ready to give the diet a ringing endorsement over the long haul.

Wyatt co-authored an important study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine. It found that people on Atkins lost weight faster in the first six months, but there was no difference after a year. However, Atkins dieters fared better in controlling their cholesterol. That doesnt necessarily mean we know how Atkins works three or four years down the road, she says.

Theres no data showing that Atkins produces more weight loss, or that its safe, Westman adds. Theres really not enough information.

Dr. Dean Ornish

Telling people what they want to believe is part of the reason Atkins has become so popular, writes Dr. Dean Ornish, whose own diet restricts fat consumption. The Atkins dieters initial weight loss and cholesterol improvement are counterintuitive, he says, like watching a dog walking on its hind legs. It doesnt do it well, but its amazing that it can do it at all, he writes in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Like most authorities, Ornish believes people should cut fat, which is twice as rich in calories as carbs and protein are.

Calories are the villain, Eckel continues. Carbohydrates, in his opinion, are an innocent victim of the craze.

Heart Attacks and Bad Breath

Eckel warns that, over the years, the Atkins diet could cause more heart attacks because of increased fat intake. He says it can also create calcium losses that may lead to a decrease in bone mass. In addition, chemical compounds called ketones that it releases into the bloodstream may harm people with diabetes and underlying kidney disease.

Ketones can also cause bad breath. You may lose weight and start to attract people to you, but when they get too close, it may be counterproductive, Ornish writes with tongue in cheek. Vernon, the Atkins supporter, retorts, Are you willing to brush your teeth more often instead of being obese

Vernon doesnt see the health risks. If 30 million Americans are on Atkins, it should be causing an epidemic of problems. Where are those she wonders. She is on an Atkins maintenance diet, which for me would be a chicken, a pretty salad, squash with butter, fresh strawberries for dessert. Does that sound like an unhealthy diet

Gardner, who for the NIH is looking at the effects of the diet over the course of a year, calls his work in progress a stupid study. A year isnt long enough. But at least its longer than others. One reason for the lack of government interest, he says, is that people look at these things and say, Theyre fad diets. By the time youre done, the diet will be gone.

Eckel, the Heart Association spokesman, agrees that looking at the diet for an extended period is crucial. We still have no evidence that its better long-term than at three to six months, he says. A quick fix for obesity is not the answer.

What Is Diet Power

Most of the answers are on this page, in story form. You can learn about Diet Power in four other ways, however. All are free, no strings attached.

Download a free 15-day trial and start using Diet Power right now

Get the trial on a free CD-ROM in the mail.

Take the Picture Tour

Read our Frequently Asked Questions

You can also learn about Diet Power by simply buying it. Theres no risk. If you dont like the program, use our one-year money-back guarantee.

Weight Loss that Cant Fail

Youve seen claims like this before. In Diet Powers case, however, the claim is quite true -- not because of any magical ingredient, but because our software understands math and physics.

Most weight-control programs assume you have an average metabolic rate calories required to maintain your weight -- typically 2000 calories per day. Your rate may differ, however. It may also fluctuate over days or weeks.

Even if its only 10 percent off, a maintenance diet designed by one of those programs will lead you to gain or lose more than 20 pounds a year.

To get around this problem, Diet Power monitors your true metabolic rate by comparing your weight changes with the foods youve eaten and the exercise youve logged. If the rate goes up or down, the program adjusts your calorie budget by just enough to cancel the difference.* It does so daily. This self-correcting system guarantees that if you consistently record your meals and exercise and stick to your budget, you will reach your goal on schedule.

You have to supply the perseverance, of course. But most people who use Diet Power say its surprising how seldom they feel hungry. Thats because they can see which foods are healthful, yet filling. The program teaches good nutrition effortlessly.

*

You can also choose a constant calorie budget, if you prefer.

Makes Any Diet or Diet Drug More Powerful

Although its supremely effective by itself, Diet Power can be used with other weight-loss regimens, diet drugs, herbs, or supplements, either to increase their power or to find out quickly whether you need to switch. The program works with --

- American Heart Association Diet
- Atkins Diet
- Blood Type Diet
- Dexatrim
- Diet Center
- Herbalife
- Jenny Craig
- Mediterranean Diet
- Meridia
- Metabolife
- Nutri/Systems
- Ornish Plan
- Paleolithic Diet
- Prism programs
- Pritikin Diet
- Protein Power
- Raw diets
- Richard Simmons
- Slim-Fast
- South Beach Diet
- Sugar Busters
- Suzanne Somers
- Thin for Life
- TOPS programs
- Weight Watchers
- Xenadrine
- Xenical
- Zone Diet

-- and any other diet, drug, or supplement. If yours isnt on the list, ask us. It maximizes any weight-loss system, because it exploits a feature that every diet must have.

What All Diets Have in Common

The human body, for all its wonderful complexity, acts much like a machine. It burns fuel food and drink to do work moving and thinking. The fuel must be correctly formulated nutritionally balanced, or the machine will run poorly. The mileage metabolic rate depends on the year, make, and model age, sex, and individual.

Unlike ordinary machines, however, your body can accept a huge surplus of fuel by converting it into an onboard energy reserve known as fat. All weight-loss diets work by making your body burn off this reserve instead of adding to it. To lose weight, you need to expend more calories the basic unit of energy than you eat. There can be no exception to this rule. its an immutable law of physics.

Diets differ only in how they tune the engine. Low-fat diets, for example, substitute a leaner fuel -- mostly vegetables, fruits, and grains, which contain only half as many calories as fatty foods do. The Zone Diet uses a different scheme. keeping blood-sugar at a level that makes the engine burn hotter. Exercise does the same thing by putting a heavier load on the engine. A few diets and most diet drugs short-circuit the microchips that tell the engine when to demand more fuel -- the equivalent of driving with the CHECK ENGINE light on.

These all sound very clever. Yet most people who lose weight fail to keep it off permanently. Why

Meet the Governor

No diet can succeed if you shed the pounds too fast. Most experts recommend losing no more than two pounds a week. When you starve the engine of fuel, it responds by giving itself a tuneup that increases fuel efficiency. Dont you wish your car would do that Suddenly, even the skimpiest meals begin feeding your fat reserves. If you respond by cutting back further, you may lose the weight again -- but then your body gives itself a better tuneup that only makes matters worse. And so you become a yo-yo dieter.

What you need is a governor that enables you to keep the engine running at a perfectly even efficiency. Thats what Diet Power is. It shows you exactly how fast your body is using fuel, so that you can put in the right amount at the right time to keep the fat reserve shrinking at a constant rate. By canceling out the fluctuations, it keeps you precisely on target.

In short, Diet Power succeeds by mastering a truth that other programs overlook. Where they assume everyone is the same, Diet Power treats you as the individual you really are.

The Right Octane

Your metabolic rate isnt the only thing Diet Power monitors. It also watches your fuel mixture. By clicking the programs Nutrient History button shown at right, you can check your consumption of calories and 32 other nutrients for the past week,

month, quarter, or year. You can also see how your nutrient balance will be affected by any food choice. You can even make sure youre drinking enough water.

Here are the nutrients that Diet Power monitors.

Calories

Protein

Folate

Fat, total

Vitamin A

Vitamin B12

Fat, saturated

Vitamin C

Pantothenic acid

Fat, polyunsaturated

Calcium

Phosphorus

Fat, monounsaturated

Iron

Magnesium

Cholesterol

Vitamin D

Zinc

Sodium

Vitamin E

Copper

Potassium

Thiamin

Manganese

Carbohydrate, total

Niacin

Selenium

Fiber, dietary

Riboflavin

Water

Sugars

Vitamin B6

Alcohol

Examples of Use

Susan keeps her eye on the Nutrient History when planning meals. Because she has high blood pressure, her doctor wants her to cut down on salt and increase her intake of potassium. She usually decides on dinner just before she leaves work, using the copy of Diet Power on her office computer. She carries her records back home on a travel disk or by emailing them to herself.

Looking at her Nutrient History one afternoon, Susan discovers that the chicken bouillon she had with lunch has already blown her sodium limit for the day. Meanwhile, shes still behind in her potassium intake -- its been low for a week. She decides to do something about this.

Using a lightning-fast search of Diet Powers 11,000-food dictionary, Susan pulls up a list of items that are both low in sodium and high in potassium. Voila. The best choice for dinner tonight is grilled salmon with a baked potato -- and for dessert, fresh cantaloupe.

This nutrient-tracking feature comes in handy in myriad ways.

Bob is a semi-vegetarian. He uses Diet Power to make sure he gets enough vitamin B12 -- a nutrient often lacking in meatless diets.

Marie, whos pregnant, has raised her folate intake to help prevent birth defects. Shes also using the software for weight gain -- something Diet Power is equally good at. When she visits Dr. Lehman, she takes along a printout of her weight and nutrient histories.

Fred, worried about colon cancer, uses Diet Power to increase his fiber intake.

Joanna plans meals high in calcium, to avoid osteoporosis.

Joannas son, Garrett, uses the program to practice carbohydrate loading for marathon runs. Diet Power lets as many as nine people in a household use the program concurrently.

Neil learned about Diet Power from his cardiac-rehabilitation specialist, who recommended the program for losing weight while reducing fat and cholesterol intake.

To see and learn more about the Nutrient History, click here.

Help Thats Helpful

Most of the nutrition secrets described above are covered in Diet Powers 100,000-word Help system, which you can open by clicking the button shown at right. Diet Powers help is among the worlds clearest and easiest to read. Finally -- instructions

the average person can understand, said one reviewer. Written by a top editor of Readers Digest, the system offers advice on what youre doing right now, instead of forcing you to search. It also offers animated tutorials.

The Help system can also make you an expert on everything from Alcohol to Zinc. Heres a taste of what you can learn from it.

How many beers a day for a moderate drinker

The good fat that protects you against heart disease

Why eating sardines can help you adapt to cold weather

The nutrient that instantly increases physical strength

Which vitamin can improve night vision

How to tell if youre officially obese

A warning for women who take vitamin B6 for PMS

Depressed Maybe you need more peanut butter.

How to find your aerobic zone

The nutrient that causes poker face

A mistake doctors often make when treating anemia

The Smokers Vitamin

What to eat if your fingertips tingle

Why vitamin D can harm people who live in Arizona

If you meet a man with beriberi, should you offer him a drink

Sugars only proven health hazard its not hyperactivity

For the Health-Conscious Cook...

...Diet Power can instantly reveal the nutrients in any of its 11,000 foods --or in any recipe you create from them. You can find any food or recipe in seconds, simply by typing a few letters of its name. If it has two names, youll find it under both -- even if you misspell it. You can view its nutrient profile in either pie- or bar-chart form.

Creating recipes is a snap. Just drag and drop the ingredients into the Recipe Box, type in the directions, and give your concoction a name. Your recipes are listed right along with the other foods, ready for you to check their nutrients or make printouts for friends. You can e-mail recipes, too.

If you happen across a food thats not in Diet Powers dictionary, you can add the food to the dictionary by entering nutrition facts from the label. You wont have to do this often, however. The dictionary already contains 8500 generic foods -- everything from Abalone to Zabaglione -- and 2500 items from fast-food and restaurant chains. You can even find wild game and other exotica, complete with nutritional data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

For the Fitness-Minded...

...Diet Power awards extra calories for exercise, which you record by clicking the Exercise Log button shown at right. The program knows the burn rates of 1000+ activities, from conventional aerobics walking, running, bicycling, swimming to

competitive sports tennis, basketball, golf, to martial arts boxing, fencing, karate, to exercise machines stair climbers, exercycles, to occupations bricklaying, carpentry, to house- and yardwork mowing, wood chopping, laundry, to leisure pursuits such as skiing, dancing, mountain climbing, scuba diving -- and more.

Every burn rate is automatically adjusted to your current body weight. A 150-pound runner, for example, wont burn as many calories as a 185-pound runner.

If exercise raises your metabolic rate, Diet Power will notice this and increase your calorie budget accordingly. Similarly, if your workouts slow your weight loss by increasing your muscle mass, the program will decrease your budget to keep your weight on track. You may want to adjust your goal weight in that case, however. A lean and fit 170-pounder will look better, feel better, and be healthier than an out-of-shape 160-pounder of the same height.

Other Features

Here are just a few additional things you can do with Diet Power.

Use it to gain weight. The program can take you in either direction. Its also excellent for maintaining your weight once you reach your goal.

Eat only the foods you like. Diet Power never dictates your menus -- it lets you decide.

See a daily graph of your progress, complete with your goal weight and target date, all the actual weights youve logged, and a projected weight based on your recent eating and exercise.

Graph your intake of any nutrient to see how it changes over time.

Graph any homemade variable that youd like to track -- blood sugar, waist size, miles run, etc. See Custom Variables in the programs Help system.

Get an alert from the WaterMinder anytime you arent drinking enough water.

Customize the program for hypertension and other special health concerns.

Sort all of the food dictionarys 21,000 entries by their content of any nutrient, using the PowerFoods function.

Get a piece of motivational reading every time you log on, tailored to your current situation. Besides inspiring messages from the great thinkers, youll get surprising facts about nutrition and fitness, tips on using the program, and much more.

Plan your week, month, or year with Diet Powers electronic calendar and appointment book.

Print your diet plan, nutrient profile, or any other report -- or output it to a disk file for use with other software.

Read the latest nutrition and fitness news on our website.

Browse our online Health Shop for bargains in fitness equipment, food scales, and more.

Who Can Use Diet Power

Anyone at least 14 years old, between four feet and seven feet tall, and weighing at least 75 but no more than 499 pounds. People outside those ranges often have nutritional needs that the program doesnt cover.

Up to nine different people on the same copy -- provided all live in the same household. Larger groups can buy or license special editions. See Prices, below.

System Requirements

Diet Power works on any computer running Windows 98, NT, 2000, ME, or XP. The program performs best, however, on machines of the Pentium class or higher with at least 8 megabytes of RAM. You will also need at least 20 megabytes of disk space to install Diet Power on your hard drive. If you download the program instead of getting it on a CD-ROM, youll need 40 megabytes -- but this will shrink to 30 megabytes after installation and 20 megabytes if you then erase the file you downloaded.

A Note for Mac Users

Although Diet Power is a Windows-only program, we may create a Mac version if the market justifies the development costs. To be notified if a Mac version becomes available, send an e-mail to sales@dietpower.com.

In the meantime, you can run Diet Power on PC-emulator software such as Virtual PC.

Prices

These do not include shipping and handling if you order Diet Power on a CD-ROM. All s are one-time payments, not subscription fees, and are indicated in U.S. dollars. To convert to another currency, use the Universal Currency Converter at www.xe.net/ucc/.

The Personal Edition of Diet Power, which serves as many as nine users within a household, costs 49.99 when downloaded or 59.99 when delivered on a CD-ROM. If you already own an earlier version of Diet Power, however, you can upgrade to the latest version for less. See our upgrade page for details.

Other editions cost more.

The Consultants Edition allows a doctor, nutritionist, personal trainer, or other practitioner to buy copies of the personal edition at wholesale, prescribe them to clients, and read their histories from travel disks that they bring to office visits. Price. 250 plus the cost of each clients copy. Phone 800-852-8446* for details.

The Large Group Edition can handle dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of users. They cant access the program simultaneously, however, unless it is installed on more than one computer. This version is ideal for health clubs, schools, corporate wellness programs, and similar settings. Price depends on the number of computers on which the program is installed. Discounts are available for classroom use. Phone 800-852-8446* for details.

One-Year Money-Back Guarantee

For one year after purchase, if you are unhappy with Diet Powers personal edition**, we will cheerfully refund your money -- no questions asked. Just delete each installation youve made and return any disks or printed matter youve received.

**

Warranties differ on the consultants and large-group editions. For details, phone 800-852-8446* or e-mail sales@dietpower.com.

How to Order

Diet Power is not available in stores, but you can get it from this website in three ways.

Personal Edition

If youd like to buy the program outright remember, you can still get a refund if you change your mind, just order the paid version from our online Health Shop, where you can either download and install the program immediately or have it mailed to you on a CD-ROM.

If youd rather try the program before buying it, you can get a free copy that works for 15 days. Then if you like what you see, you can pay to make it work permanently by clicking the Buy Now button in the program itself. To download the trial version right now, jump to our free download page.

If youd rather get the free 15-day trial on a CD-ROM instead of by downloading, click here to send us your mailing address. We normally ship free CDs by the next business day.

Professional Editions

To get the Consultants Edition or the Large Group Edition, first try or buy the Personal Edition as described above. then phone 800-852-8446* to buy an upgrade to the edition you want.

*For hours and alternative phone numbers, see our feedback page.

Tour Diet Power to See How the Software Works

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Visit Our Frequently Asked Questions Page

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Download a Free 15-Day Trial of Diet Power

may not be what you think.

Until only recently, experts thought that sugar was to diabetics what kryptonite was to Superman. But the understanding of diabetes has progressed faster than a speeding bullet, and with that comes sweet news for people with the disease.

If youre a diabetic, its OK to have a cookie for dessert or accept a slice of Aunt Mabels fruitcake. In fact, according to the guidelines

Is candy off limits for diabetics

of the American Diabetes Association, which were first revised in 1994 and most recently in December 2001, you can eat just about anything you like.

Theres a caveat, however. You need to pay attention to your diet as a whole and monitor your blood sugar level two hours after meals to see whether any individual food elevates it.

Still, there is no longer any such thing as a diabetic diet.

A Carb Is a Carb

Sugar was once thought to spike your blood sugar more than any other food, but research now shows that it does no more harm than a potato. Both foods are carbohydrates, which are a major source of energy. Sugars are known as simple carbohydrates. Until about a decade ago, most experts thought that since sugars were more easily absorbed into the bloodstream, they did their dirty work sooner. Complex carbohydrates include dairy foods. starches such as potatoes, rice, and corn. and other fruits and vegetables.

Your body doesnt care where your carbohydrates come from, as long as you count them. How many you need depends on individual considerations such as how serious your diabetes is and your weight, which in turn will determine how many calories youll need in a day. Roughly half your calories should come from carbohydrates. So youll have a carbohydrate allowance each day. how you spend it is up to you, as long as you distribute the carbs evenly so as not to create any surges in your glucose levels. Carbohydrates are measured in grams, and one gram equals four calories. So if you opt for a slice of pie at lunch, you should think twice about having a second bowl of rice at dinner.

The ADA says your best bet is to get as many carbohydrates as you can from fruits, whole grain foods, and low-fat dairy products.

Diabetics are normally urged to eat meals and snacks at roughly the same time each day. Be careful about your alcohol intake. Beer and wine provide calories and carbohydrates, so they count, too. And if youre diabetic, when you drink alcohol you should also consume food.

If youre overweight -- a major risk factor for Type 2 diabetes, youll need to lose some pounds through diet and exercise. Heres where Diet Power can help. Diet Power is a computer program that keeps track of your intake of calories and 32 other nutrients as you record your meals.

Your Computer Can Help

Morgan Haiduk, of Dallas, Texas, who was diagnosed with the disease last October, has kept it under control with Diet Power as his only tool. How well has it worked Hes lost 68.5 pounds since his diagnosis. His dietitian could offer no additional advice. His doctor called him a stud.

Its a simple, simple program, he says. I dont count calories. The program does it for me.

Haiduk was diagnosed almost by accident. His sister, who had developed a form of diabetes unique to pregnant women, became obsessed with the glucose levels of her loved ones. On three occasions, she pricked his finger, only to find that his glucose was unusually high. He had had no other symptoms or family history of the disease aside from his sisters, but the 365 pounds he carried made him a prime candidate for Type 2 diabetes.

The diagnosis whipped Haiduk, a 32-year-old, unemployed salesman, into shape. Overnight, he decided to do away with his sedentary lifestyle and eat better. He bought Diet Power a day later.

Haiduk started walking several times a week and bought a NordicTrack machine -- one that actually gets used. He substituted fish and chicken for beef, and vegetables started outnumbering meat portions at every meal meat isnt a good source of carbs. I have a plateful of food, but most of it is carbohydrates, he says. He started using light pancake syrup instead of regular. he found no difference in taste, but the regular syrup had 10 times as many calories. Thats one problem with sugar. it provides lots of calories with no vitamins, minerals, or other nutrients in return.

He spends only minutes a day entering his exercise and what he eats into Diet Powers program. He can also click on a sneak preview of the carbohydrate and caloric contents of foods in Diet Powers Food Log. The nutritional values are right there in red, blue, and green, he says. Its hard to miss.

Haiduk knows that taming his diabetes will be a marathon, not a sprint. But hes managed to avoid using medication to control his condition. And with the help of Diet Power, his doctor told him he started out of the gate fast.

Of all the calorie counters on the market today, only Diet Power nutrition software can guarantee reaching your goal weight on a target date. Thats one reason critics marvel and users rave about our software. Turn your PC into a calorie counter with Diet Power. Click for a free trial.

Learns your calorie needs and adjusts your calorie budget for sodium intake, water loss, and monthly cycles. Other calorie counters use fixed estimates that can err by 20 percent.

Counts calories and 32 nutrients in 11,000 foods -- including fast foods and your recipes.

Works by itself or with any weight-loss diet, drug, herb, or supplement.

Recommends foods you like that fight heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, obesity.

Counts calories in 1000 kinds of exercise.

Endorsed by top fitness, nutrition, dieting, and behavior experts.

Rated worlds best calorie counter by leading health publications.

No other diet software is easier to use.

Try our calorie counter free by clicking here.

Graphs any variable you want. blood sugar, body measurements, blood pressure, walking speed and distance....

Costs 49.99 and has a one-year, no-hassle, money-back guarantee.

Unlike Most Calorie Counters.

Gives you daily, personalized advice and inspiration.

Lets you meet other calorie counters online.

Includes 100,000 words of help, brimming with facts on calorie counting, weight loss, nutrition, and disease.

Keeps your calorie counter records safely on your own computer.

Allows members-only discounts in Diet Powers Health Shop.

Brings you weekly nutrition news and a monthly ezine.

Offers a Diet Power Dealer program that pays you a 5 commission for each friend who buys our calorie counter.