Issue # 4 of Nu Connexions Nutrition Software News and Reviews
An occasional online newsletter - bringing you noteworthy news about food and nutrition software!
August 16, 2001
This issue written and edited by Steve Kinsley, RD

DietPower's Unique Features

When Terry Dunkle brought his company's software to my attention two years ago, I took a very quick look at the demo.  I must confess that at the time, I dismissed it as just another one of the myriad low quality, low cost nutrition software packages that all do basically the same thing.  

Since that time, I've heard a growing number of accolades about DietPower, from both consumers who are interested in weight management, and nutrition professionals who work with them.  DietPower has also added an impressive Scientific Advisory Board.  As a result, I've decided to review this software once again, but this time in more detail.  In a nutshell:

• I've seen some nice enhancements to the product (and I'm looking forward to what Terry describes as a "mini-upgrade this fall that has a more modern-looking interface as well as a good complement of
  chain-restaurant foods.")
• I've also found some truly unique features that do allow it to live up to its tag line, "Weight loss that can't fail."

The number one unique feature of DietPower is its ability to discover and adjust a person's unique metabolic rate based on the daily weight, dietary intake, and physical activity data the person faithfully enters.  It's not at all difficult to learn how to use the software, either, and the recommended (user-definable) main screen for the program nicely provides visual feedback of progress towards the goal defined through the Diet Designer screen.  The DietPower web site explains this unique feature using the following words:

Most weight-control programs assume that you have an average metabolic rate (the number of calories required to maintain your weight) -- typically 2000 calories per day. Your actual rate, however, may be far off the average. Even if it's only 10 percent off, a "maintenance" diet designed by those programs will lead you to gain or lose more than 20 pounds a year.

To get around this problem, DietPower monitors your true metabolic rate by comparing your weight changes with the foods you've eaten and the exercise you've logged. If the rate goes up or down, the program adjusts your calorie budget by just enough to cancel the difference. This self-correcting system guarantees that if you consistently record your meals and exercise and live within your budget, you will reach your goal on schedule.

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

The travel disk option also provides the following benefits:

• Users can install a copy of DietPower at the office, and easily transport and update their data between there and home.
• For nutrition professionals working with clients on weight management programs, the same principle could also be used during counseling sessions, provided the professional has also purchased a copy of DietPower’s Consultant Edition. Besides showing the professional what the client is doing at home, the Consultant Edition lets the the professional buy copies of the Personal Edition for his or her clients at wholesale.

As we said earlier, DietPower is remarkably easy to learn. This is no accident: Before DietPower and HealthScout, Dunkle was a top editor at Reader’s Digest, whose readership of 100 million made it the largest magazine in the world. “Behind those simple sentences lay a research department talking to leading authorities in hundreds of fields,” he told me recently. “We proved every month that it was possible to be lucid without ‘dumbing down’ the science or introducing factual errors. My aim at DietPower has been the same: to combine Readability with Reliability.”

If weight loss or weight management is your primary reason for using nutrition software, DietPower is well worth a look!  A free 15-day trial demo version of the software can be downloaded by clicking on any of the DietPower links on this page, or on the banner ad further up this page.