Dietpower on the web?

April 12, 2010 3:42 PM

Is there a web based service with similar functionality to DietPower? It's a food and exercise tracker but what I like about DietPower (as compared to DailyBurn or other tracking systems that I've seen) is that it doesn't just give you a set number of calories - you input your weight regularly and it does some calculations and either reduces your calorie level or increases it depending on where you are WRT your goal weight.

I haven't been able to find anything on the web that does a similar calculation - they all seem to just set your calorie limit at some number and you have to manually revisit it if it's not working for you. While I like DietPower, I use 3 to 4 different computers daily and there's no seamless way to transfer data between the systems (there's a manual export and import function but it's cumbersome and time consuming). Has anyone seen anything out on the web that would mimic DietPower functionality?

posted by macfly to health & fitness (8 answers total)

I'm not sure if it's what you're asking for, but Lose It! for the iPhone recalculates daily caloric limits based on your current weight and the amount of weight you specify you want to lose per week. Plus, it's free... but it's not web based.
posted by speedgraphic at 4:41 PM on April 12, 2010

This does that.
posted by availablelight at 4:51 PM on April 12, 2010

availablelight - I think that's not quite what I'm looking for but I realize I didn't do a good job of describing the feature I'm looking for. DietPower will do the type of calculation that the LiveStrong website will do and set a calorie level of, for example, 1600 calories to lose a pound a week when you start a diet. But if you log 1600 calories every day and you're not losing weight Dietpower will automatically adjust your calorie limit to say, 1500 and keep lowering it until you start seeing the weight loss you're looking for. As I understand it, it develops a picture of your personal metabolism and adjusts your calorie limit for you. Whereas, I think LiveStrong and most other trackers I've seen will just give you the 1600 number and never change it even if you never lose any weight. Or am I missing something about LiveStrong? I didn't see anything in the FAQ about adjusting the calorie limit automatically but I haven't played with it very much.
posted by macfly at 5:33 PM on April 12, 2010

sparkpeople.com will do this. There is an extra step--have to go into preferences--but it isn't onerous.
posted by liketitanic at 6:43 PM on April 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

Oh, the changing "even if you never lose any weight" part--I don't know about that. You'd have to change your goals to produce that kind of effect.
posted by liketitanic at 1:15 AM on April 13, 2010

You could use Dietpower + Dropbox (see this thread for the directories you'd have to link). It's less painful than that thread makes it sound, since dropbox automatically syncs files and directories every time they're changed.
posted by suncoursing at 10:16 AM on April 13, 2010

The Dropbox thing is a good idea - I looked into it a while back but Dietpower's file structure is pretty rigid and I couldn't figure out how to get the data files into the Dropbox folder but I've found the info on Dropbox (link if anyone else is interested) and it looks doable. Thanks suncoursing! I'd still love a web solution if one exists (simply for ease of access anywhere) but this will do the job for now.
posted by macfly at 10:19 AM on April 14, 2010

OH! LoseIt! which I just downloaded for the iPhone and is also on the web, automatically updates calories when you update weight
posted by liketitanic at 3:32 PM on April 25, 2010