Interactive Website to Help Patients and Families Plan for Success

We are constantly on the lookout for resources that can help patients and their families reach their goals. The website Calorie Counter Database: Free Online Diet Program (http://caloriecount.about.com/) has a lot of features which could be helpful to Healthy Weight Clinic patients and their families. Additionally, members of the Healthy Weight teams might find other tools on the site to be helpful in their interactions with patients.

Users can create an account and then develop personalized plans for their caloric intake as well as utilizing tools like journals and exercise guides. Patients should use this in concert with their physician and other providers at the Healthy Weight Clinic to ensure consistency. The web site is broken down into topics including Food, Exercise, and Tools. Under Foods, there are not only healthy recipes but also a recipe analyzer where one can type in a favorite recipe and get an analysis of its nutritional value. There are also coupons for a variety of products and in addition users can enter their zip code for local coupons.

Under Exercise, specific activities that breaks how many calories are burned during different activities . The activities run the spectrum from traditional exercise such as running to other daily activities like playing a musical instrument or house cleaning to show users how many calories they are already burning in their current lifestyle, and how they could increase their physical activity.

The Tools section has features that tell folks roughly how many calories they are burning daily and how many calories they would need in order to maintain their weight, lose weight, etc. This seems especially beneficial as parents are typically trying to change their habits to support the child in the Healthy Weight Clinic.These features and others on the site could be a great resource for patients as they are looking to make all aspects of their lives healthier and would support the work done in clinic. Families might really find it helpful to have access to some of the tools and knowledge at this site, so please share it with them as you see fit.