Calorie King is a website that offers insight to maintaining health, conscious eating habits, and weight control. They have been in business for over 40 years, and the founder is Allan Borushek. Borushek was a health educator and clinical dietician back in the 1970’s. He published the first carbohydrate and calorie counter in 1973 in Australia. Fast forward to 1996, and CalorieKing.com launched. The website has over 80,000 different foods in the data base. [1]
Back in the early 2000’s when there were not a lot of online dieting programs available, the company started the first online diet program called CalorieKing University which is now known today as the Calorie King Program. Their motto is lifelong weight control, and they want to see people take control over their weight so that the viscous dieting circle stops.
How Does Calorie King Work?
Any entry into the database means tracking is happening. This is primarily a tracking website. The user can have an in depth look at what they are eating on a daily basis. There are free recipes offered on the main website, to give the dieter an idea of healthy meal ideas if they feel like they need a push in that direction. Each recipe is made with wholesome ingredients. You can click onto the different food groups to see the nutritional breakdown of each item.
The Website
The Calorie King website has a user forum where they can chat back and forth about topics of importance.(Nice to see that there is support on this site). There are blog posts written about different health topics and an online store with items to help a person lose weight. It was the first of it’s kind years ago, but today it is easily duplicated and done better across all fronts.
Sure, it’s a food and weight loss database, but they also sell a book on the site called “Calorie Fat and Carbohydrate Counter.” On top of this book, they sell a food and exercise journal and both products are fairly cheap around $10.00. [2] The website offers 4 different calculators to use on the site all for free:
- Body Mass Index
- Target Heart Rate Zone
- Waist To Hip Ratio
- How Many Calories Should You Eat?
Lastly, there is a mobile app called Control My Weight for free that allows you to track on the go. This goes hand in hand with the Calorie King Program costing $49 which includes this app, your own blog for journaling, a community of support, challenges to join, and tips and tricks from nutritional experts. [3]
Is Calorie King Safe?
There is nothing dangerous about tracking your health and nutrition whether it be on this platform, or the app they have created. The only dangerous thing about Calorie King is getting infatuated with losing weight. Getting into the habit of looking up food items might cause an unhealthy relationship with food. Other than that, there is nothing dangerous about this company and the products they offer to the public.
The Bottom Line: It is safe if you use it as directed and do not go overboard researching food items.
back to menu ↑Pros and Cons of Calorie King
This is a really basic website, with little to no instructions on the home page. It is bland, and this is a con. It also takes a lot of organization, motivation, and discipline to track everything you are eating on a daily basis, and could cause an unhealthy relationship with food. The price is free, which is a pro and it was the first of its kind in the diet space which is also a pro! They have an extremely easy interface when it comes to looking up a food item so this is another pro. Overall, they have a few up sells with the books and the paid membership but it is nothing that makes the customer feel like they are getting barked at.
Conclusion
Calorie King was the first to market, and their website appears that way. It seems outdated and old but it still does the job of tracking many different things like BMI, Heart Rate, and different food items. They do offer a program to join in on, but there are many other programs on the market today that may be more flashy and worth your time with a bigger database of dieters to get support from. Not a bad option by any means. Calorie King will tell the user all about their diet and their health if they do a diligent job of making entries.
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