Weight Management Nutrition

Tracking Calories: Keeping Tabs on Caloric Intake

 

No matter what your goal is (losing weight, maintaining your current weight, or just trying to eat healthier) your best bet is keeping track of the calories you intake. It’s easy to say “eat less, move more” but without tracking your intake of calories it can be more of a hit and miss than effective dieting. While the endeavor of tracking your calories may seem like a hassle, the benefits truly do outweigh the inconvenience. So how do you track your calories properly? I can give you some insight into the proper way to track your calories and some tips for ensuring you stay on your healthy path.

What You Need to Track Your Calories

It may seem like keeping track of the calories you intake is a nuisance, confusing, and even difficult but with the right tools it can be made easier. To properly keep track of your calories it’s important to consult the nutrition label of whatever you’re eating and to accurately measure what you’re intaking. To properly track your calories, you will need:

• Digital food scale
• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons
• Food diary/journal
• Calorie tracking app (for the tech savvy)

A healthy diet is not just a matter of total calories eaten but what type of calories. Your focus should be on overall nutrition, not just the total number of calories eaten/drank per day. Let’s face it, a diet that includes 100 cal in candy is definitely worse than 100 cal in vegetables!! Also, pay careful attention to carbohydrates, saturated fats, and other nutritional items such as protein when determining your diet. Foods that are high in calories from simple sugars can lead to medical problems over a prolonged period of time such as:

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Type II diabetes
• Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
• Sleep apnea

Calorie Tracking Steps

After consulting your physician and tracking calories has been what has been recommended, what steps should you take in order to track your calories? Your doctor, dietitian, or nutritionist will determine the best way to achieve your goal and they may include:

1. Your caloric needs: To determine the amount of calories you need daily does require some math. One easy way to determine this is to multiply your current weight by 15. That gives you roughly the amount of calories needed to maintain your current weight with moderate activity. If you want to lose weight, your target should be taking in calories less than that number.
2. Weigh/measure your food: Once you have determined your target caloric intake, you should weigh and measure any food or snack you ingest. Be sure to reference the nutrition label on any food you are eating to determine its calories. It’s important that you use food scales and measuring cups/spoons to be accurate.
3. Determine your food’s caloric count: Figuring out the caloric intake of the food you are eating may seem difficult or confusing. Be sure to consult the nutrition labels on packaged foods/beverages for the calories per serving information. Pay careful attention to serving sizes!!
4. Add ‘em up: Simply take the total number of calories per serving that you consume and add them up for a total calorie intake. Again, it is crucial to pay attention to serving size. For example, if the serving size is 1 cup and you consume 2 cups you need to double the total calories.

While counting calories is important, it’s not the end-all be-all of healthy eating. One example is the choice of eating food high in fiber which will keep you feeling fuller for a longer period of time. This can help avoid reaching for other foods when you are hungry. Also, choosing food that is lower in fat, such as fruits and vegetables, you actually get more value for your caloric intake. Proteins and carbohydrates can have 4 cal per gram while fats can have more than twice as much. So, this means what foods you choose can help you budget your daily caloric intake wisely.

Supplements That Helps Your Calorie Intake