Calorie Counting to Lose Weight

Losing weight is a tremendous challenge. Many people think that they can take off extra pounds when they put their minds to it, only to discover that the pounds are a lot harder to shed than they were to gain. The most successful way to lose the weight is to monitor your calories. This article will give you some tips on calorie counting to lose weight.

Check the Label

• In the United States, every food item is required to have a nutrition panel with a breakdown of the item's nutritional content per serving. This will tell you how many calories are in that item per serving. Take special note of what a serving is! Many times the serving portion on the label is much smaller than the serving you would normally consume. In order to count your calories accurately, you will need to measure your serving size.

Intake versus Output

• The simple math of weight loss stated you have to burn more calories that you take in. Sounds simple? It isn't. Considering that you can walk for an hour and only burn a couple of hundred calories, and that candy bar you just ate in less than five minutes has 280 calories, you can see how burning more calories than you eat may be harder than you think. To burn more than you take in, you need to cut your caloric intake. You also need to increase the calories you burn if you want to see results.

Write It Down

• The best way to count your calories is to keep a food journal. Write down everything that goes into your mouth and count the calories that go with these foods. At the end of the day, add up your caloric intake. Subtract the amount most people use to exist--a rough average is 1,500 calories a day--and tally the calories you spent exercising. If you find yourself with a negative number, you lost some fat that day. If your number is positive, you actually put some fat on. Don't get discouraged--just remember you always have the next day to meet your calorie goal.