How to Use

Quick Start Guide, HERE!

The weight loss tracker is a combination of tools designed to help men/women reach their weight loss goals with clear and useful information. Losing weight should not be a part time job so the weight loss tracker does all the math and formula leaving you to concentrate on living life and losing weight.

A. Create Weight Loss Plan

  1. Create Weight Loss Plan: Enter your details in this section to formulate weight loss targets and calorie limits over your desired period of time. The details required are fairly straight forward; there is an explanation when you hover over "Activity Level" to help you choose the one that is appropriate to you.

  2. Length of plan: We have made the amount of weight you wish to lose and the period of time to lose it within quite flexible. However, we have also added a feature to provide you with suggested healthy weight goals.
    • Suggested weight: This feature provides you with suggested weight goals based on your current BMI (Calculated from the personal statistics you have already entered). They can range from a "suggested goal weight" that is calculated on your BMI at 25 right down to a suggested goal weight which is equal to your BMI at 18.5. Selecting one of these suggested goal weights will automatically set the amount of weight you wish to lose and the suggested amount of time to lose that weight within.
  3. Preview Plan: pressing this button will formulate a weight loss plan for you to assess (explained in the next section"Understanding Your Weight Loss Plan").
    • Red Calories indicate a negative calorie limit, which is not possible.
    • Orange Calories indicate a calorie limit that is below the recommended daily minimum; 1200 calories for woman and 1600 calories for men. It is not out of the ordinary for calorie intake to drop slightly below the recommended daily minimum as you near your weight loss goal. You should also take into account that these calorie limits will change on a week to week basis so there is the possibility that they will move up into recommended limits if your progress is above and beyond the original targets.
  4. Save Plan: Pressing this button will save the current plan in the preview pane and set that plan into motion.

Reset Weight Loss Plan

For various reasons members may need to terminate their plan. All previous weight loss plan and weighin data will be erased and the user will be able to start a new plan at week 1. Wall comments and followers will however remain.

Understanding Your Weight Loss Plan

After pressing the "Save Plan" button you are taken to your tracker page. The "Weight Loss Plan" guides you through the requirements of achieving your Weight Loss Goal.

Target Weight

The weight loss calculator takes your desired time of weight loss and splits this into the weekly target weights required to reach your ultimate weight loss goal.

Calorie Limits (per day)

  • The most valuable information we calculate here is the number of daily calories you should limit yourself to in order to reach a specific target weight each week.
  • It is very important for calorie limits to be reduced for weight loss to continue. This is because the lighter you weigh the fewer calories your body requires to maintain a stable weight and consequently, fewer calories are required to lose more weight.
  • The Weight Loss Calculator recognizes this, making the necessary adjustments to your calorie limits at each target weight.

B. Limit Your Daily Calories (Food Diary)

A very valuable tool for tracking your calories and sticking to your calorie limit is the Food Diary which consists of the following components

  • Food Database - The database is starting with 7,000 foods with the intention of rapidly expanding it with member entries and custom food features.
  • Food Diary - Foods are added to the daily food planner from the Food database
  • Today's calories are displayed prominently on users profiles.

Adding Food to your diary

From our database

  1. Typing a food name into the search box of the Food Database will automatically produce a list of results matching your food.
  2. Selecting a food will display the all-important calorie information according to the serving size you specify.
  3. After selecting the appropriate meal type for your food, selecting "Add to diary" will add this to the food diary displayed on the right hand side of the database.
  4. Didn't find your food in our database results? Simple press the "Quick Add" button" to add your own food (explained next)

The calorie total of all your meals is displayed at the bottom of each day.

Quick Add

If you want to add a quick estimate or already know the calories for your food, all you need to do is enter a food description, meal type, calorie amount and press the "Add to Diary" button.

Add a Custom Food

Coming Soon...This feature will allow members to save their own foods and also for members to grow the healthyweightcalc food database.

Calories Today

Today's calories are displayed prominently on users profiles. It shows today's Calorie Limit and (according to entries made in the food diary) keeps a running total of

  • Calories eaten
  • Calories Under/Over for the day.

C. Enter Your Weekly Weigh-in

To re-assess your plan and calorie limits each week all the Weight Loss Calculator requires you to do is enter your weight in the weekly weigh-in.

Using the Weekly Weigh-in

  1. Your weight loss program will start when you have established your weight loss goal and pressed the "Save Plan" button.
  2. Weigh yourself at the end of each week after sticking to the calorie limit specified by the Weight Loss Calculator; enter this weight in the "Weight:" text box of the Weekly Weigh-in section.
  3. Regaradless of when you start your plan, weekly weigh ins will be due by Sunday Midnight (UTC/GMT). Do not worry if your first week is considerably shorter than 7 days, your plan will readjust with minimal negative impact.
  4. You will be able to enter and edit your weight as many times as you like by the end of the week. There is a countdown indicating how many days you have remaining to do this before your weight for the week is locked and the next week begins.
  5. If you fail to enter a weekly weight by the end of the week, it will register as the weight of the previous week. This is not editable.
  6. Each time you submit your weekly weigh-in, the amount of weight loss (indicated by a green down arrow) or gain (indicated by a red up arrow) is displayed in the column "Weight (kgs) Gain/Loss" of the Weight Loss Plan.

When to weigh yourself

Your weight can fluctuate a fair bit depending on what is in your stomach, what you are wearing, the time of the day and the day of the week. For the most accurate results weigh yourself:

  • The same time each day (we recommend in the morning before breakfast)
  • Wearing the same amount of clothing each time
  • The same day of the week (we recommend on the last day of weigh in each week)

Assessing your weight loss plan

Weight Loss Calculator recognizes that your weight loss is not predictable and there will be differences between your target and actual weights. You will notice that when you enter your weekly weights, your weekly calorie limits and weight targets will change according to how much you currently weigh. These are the newly assessed targets and limits you need to aim for in order to achieve your final goal weight.

This allows you to assess your weight loss plan as you progress and to help you decide whether you want to make changes to your plan.

Your Profile & Progress

Profile / Weight Loss Summary / Calories Today

  • Profile: At a glance your profile will provide you with the clear important statistics about your weight loss. Your current weight, week of weight loss, how much you have lost, how much you have left to go, current Calorie limit as well as your current BMI (Body Mass Index). You can also choose to submit a photo of your choice here.
  • Calories Today:The all important "Calories Today" is displayed here
  • Progress Bar: simply showing how much of your goal you have achieved (percentage wise).

Weight Loss Progress Chart

This is quick & straight forward; it gives you a very clear at a glance view of your goal and how your weight loss is fairing.

Community Features

One of the most valuable features of a successful weight loss plan is the support of other people who have gone, or are going through, the weight loss journey with you. Healthy Weight Calculator has a number of community features that allow you to discuss weight loss, make friends, share information, tips and to support each other towards reaching weight loss goals.

Shoutbox - Chat & ask your questions...

The shoutbox is a good place for members to introduce themselves, meet other people and talk about weight loss and the calculator.

Profile Wall

All members have a wall at the bottom of their profile page where they can talk with other members; conversations here are more personal and relevant to each member than the Shoutbox. It is a good place for messages of support, advice and general talk.

There is the option to subscribe to other members walls so you are notified of new posts via email or RSS.

Following members

Members may start chatting with other members or find other weight loss plans of interest. You can follow the progress of fellow members by clicking the "follow" button next to any member's profile name. The name of these members will be added to a list under the heading "Following" and the button next to their profile name will then be an "unfollow" button. When a member on your "Following" list updates their weight, a red label "updated" is displayed next to their username. Members can also see who they are being followed by underneath the heading "Followed By".