How to Find Your Caloric Intake

There are many reasons why you might want to find out what your daily caloric intake is. You might want to lose or gain weight; you might be training for an athletic event and need to ensure you are receiving sufficient nutrition; or perhaps you're just curious. Whatever the reason, calculating your daily caloric intake is simple and useful.

Things You'll Need

• Food scale
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Food journal
• Food calorie book or website

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Instructions

• 1

  Record your daily diet. Write down everything you eat for five days. In order to have maximum accuracy, you must measure all your food. Use a food scale to find out how many ounces of protein you are eating at each meal, and use measuring cups to find out how much starch or vegetables you eat. If you eat a piece of fruit, weigh it as well.

• 2

  Look up the foods you eat in a calorie counting book or website. It might be easiest if you divide your food into categories such as proteins, carbohydrates and fats, and then look up each category. Find a total for each day.

• 3

  Now calculate your average calorie intake. Take your daily totals for all five days and add them up. Divide that number by five (because you measured for five days). This number is your average daily intake. It's normal for some days to be higher than others; that's why it's helpful to have an average.