US Gov outs Body Weight Planner to let you keep track of your calorie intake


Governments are increasingly doing their bid to ensure that its citizens stay fit and healthy. A new tool dubbed ‘Body Weight Planner‘ has been released by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), US to help dieters with the information on how much calories should be cut from their diet to shed off a few pounds.

The tool allows dieters to key in several bits of information about them including their weight, age, gender and level of exercise. Based on this information, the tool gives them a plan of how many calories they should eat daily, to achieve their goal weight within a certain amount of time. The tool also guides users on how to maintain their weight once they have reached their target.

Consider the case of a person wishing to knock of about 10 kilograms off their weight. Once the information is keyed in, the tool will be spell out the number of calories they should consume each day, in order to make their dream a reality.

The researchers behind the tool have revealed that their new system is based on latest evidence about factors leading to weight gain and it will help would-be weight losers set realistic goals.

The manner in which the tool has been designed is quite unique. Dr Kevin Hall, who is a mathematician at NIH and the creator of the tool, analysed a multitude of weight-loss studies out there and based on his analysis, constructed an algorithm that incorporated all the factors these studies proved impacted weight loss the most.

Dr Kevin Hall, who is also a senior investigator at NIH, said: “We originally intended the Body Weight Planner as a research tool, but so many people wanted to use it for their own weight management, that we knew we needed to adapt it with more information about how to achieve a healthy lifestyle.”

According to details provided by the NHS, UK has the highest obesity levels in Europe. NHS data reveals that obesity levels have more than trebled in the last 30 years and if the current trend of weight gain persists, more than half of the UK population could be obese by 2050.