Counting Calories

Calorie counting is the act of keeping track of the number of calories you eat.

By keeping track of the number of calories you eat on a daily basis you are better able to maintain and/or lose weight. If you have no idea how many calories you are taking in you have no way to know how many you need to burn each day.

Tracking your caloric intake is not as difficult as it may seem at first. It will take you some time to get the hang of it and remember that everything you put in your mouth needs to be tracked, including drinks, gum, etc. You will have to start measuring every ingredient when you prepare meals at home. Most packaged items have the nutritional information right on the packaging. For items like fruits, vegetables, etc. you can use our Food Calorie List to look them up. If you are eating out you may have some trouble determining the actual number of calories in your meal. Many restaurants provide nutritional information on their website but others do not and you will have to request it.

Once you have the information about the calories in your meal you need a way to track them. A simple notebook and pen will do the job but what do you do when you are at work and your notebook in on the counter at home? This is where our Online Calorie Tracker comes into play. You can login to your account from any computer that has internet access. Once you login you can enter the calories for each meal and snacks. You can easily go back and compare how many calories you have been eating through the month or past months.

You should be careful of restaurant or other meals not prepared by you. There have been reports of restaurant meals actually having 18% more calories than what they claim. This may not be a big deal if you only eat out occasionally but if you eat out frequently this could have a drastic effect on your caloric intake.

If you are going to the gym to work out and depending on the number of calories burned shown on the machine's display you may be a little disappointed as well. As it turns out most exercise machines regularly miscount the number of calories burned.

Despite the fact that many restaurant meals and exercise machines may not be totally accurate at least having a general idea about the number of calories you consume on a daily basis can help. In fact if you actually stop and look up some of the foods you eat on a regular basis you may be surprised about the number of calories that are actually in them. If nothing else counting calories will make you more aware of the food you choose to eat.