Dieting Tools

Amazon Alanna asked the following question:

I'm wondering what fabulous scale you are using...I love crazy stats like the ones you are posting...

Amazon Alanna asks a great question which leads into a larger post about all the tools we are using at chez oinkstop for weight control. I've found a couple of really helpful tools that are worth sharing, and I'll no doubt update this post as I discover new things.

Here's my list so far:

• Bathroom scale - We are using the Homedics Tri-Fitness Health Station 560 with CaloriePredictor. The scale has several handy features, including the ability to estimate your percentages of body water, fat, lean muscle and bone. We chose this particular scale because we found a review on the web somewhere that said it gave one of the more accurate estimates of body fat. It measures these percentages by sending an undetectable jolt of electricity through your feet and calculates your values based on electrical impedance. When I bought the scale, I thought I would get a small shock from it, but so far I've felt nothing. It's powered by a 9-volt battery, and I've never heard of anyone being electrocuted from such a small power source.
  
  
• Calorie Calculator/Food Diary - Being the technogeek that I am, I like to try to find computerized toys to help me keep track of things. Back in the '80s, I was counting calories and had a calorie book. I was always frustrated by the fact that nothing I wanted to eat was in there. This time, I'm using the CalorieKing software. I use both the desktop version and the PalmOs handheld version, so I can sync data between the two. If you have to pick only one version, choose the desktop version as it's much easier to enter food into the food diary.
  
  
• BMI Calculator - As brilliant as our scale is, it doesn't know how to calculate your Body Mass Index. I calculate that myself using the National Institute of Health's BMI calculator. The CalorieKing software can also calculate your BMI, but I like NIH's calculation a little better. Their calculator rates me as 1 or 2 points healthier than CalorieKing does.
  
  
• Time Remaining Calculator - This I just calculate myself. To figure out the estimated date I'll be finished, I just plug the number of weeks I have remaining into TimeandDate.com's date calculator. I really shouldn't look at this statistic too often, though. When I think about how long I will be at this, it's hard not to get discouraged. My current estimate has me arriving at goal sometime in 2009.