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ONE OF SEVERAL programs from Keysoft for the home and office is The Dietician for the 48K Spectrum. It claims to be designed scientifically to help you lose weight at your own pace and on the diet of your choice.

The first step in using the program is to enter personal details such as your age, height, sex and activity level. You will be told what your ideal weight should be and you then have several options. The program will calculate how many calories you are allowed on the basis of how many weeks you wish to diet, or vice versa, and what your weight will be at weekly intervals if you stay with your calorie allowance. It will also indicate how many units of various food groups you can eat to shed the requisite amount of pounds - or kilogrammes, for that matter, as you can choose to operate in either metric or imperial measure.

If you prefer to keep a computerised record of your diet, rather than written notes, and like to have simple calculations performed for you, you might find the program useful. Otherwise, it appears to have several shortcomings. Unless you already know something about dieting and calorific values, you may be deterred by the program's estimation of what is an ideal weight, which seems to take more account of fashion than common sense.

The various diet plans, too, are oversimplified and it is no easy matter to discover from the program how many ounces or grammes of each particular food your diet allows. It is also easy to get lost in the program, which does not always offer a simple route back to the main menu - if you will forgive the expression.

The Dietician is available from Keysoft, Freepost, London N17 6BR.

Memory: 48K Price: £6.95