The National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the government of US has released a new tool dubbed 'Body Weight Planner' as part of its efforts to ensure that the citizens start healthy and fit.

The new tool is expected to help people on diet to access information on how much calories should be cut from their diet in order to reduce certain amount of weight. It will allow users to provide several bits of information about them including their weight, age, gender and level of exercise and use that information to provide a plan of how many calories must be consumed on a daily basis to achieve their goal weight within a given timeframe.

The tool will not only advise people on how to reduce weight to a certain level but also offer guidance on how to maintain that weight. The researchers that developed the tool have said that the new system is based on latest evidence about factors leading to weight gain and will help people set realistic goals.

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."