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Calorie Counting in Dieting

There are a lot of diets to choose from, but most of them are built on the idea of counting calories. The basic idea behind counting calories to lose weight is to take in fewer calories than you burn. Calories are the energy in food, so you have to consume them in order for your body to function correctly. If you consume too many, however, the extra calories are stored as fat. Once you figure out the number of calories you should consume per day, you can begin to read labels or research nutritional facts to keep track of your daily caloric intake.

  1. What You Burn

    • Before you begin counting calories, it is important to know how many calories you burn each day. This is called your basal metabolic rate, or BMR. Your sex, weight and activity level all determine how many calories you should consume per day. There are a number of BMR calculators online, or for a more accurate reading, see a nutritionist or personal trainer.

    What You Need

    • After you figure out your BMR, set your target weight. Once you decide your goal weight, you can figure the amount of calories you should eat per day. One pound equals 3,500 calories, so cutting out 500 calories per day would result in weight loss of a pound per week. Increasing the amount of activity you do every day can also help you achieve results. If you burn 500 calories per day on top of cutting 500 calories from your diet, you will lose two pounds per week.

    Calorie Content

    • It can be difficult to figure the exact amount of calories you consume per meal. Nutrition labels will be your greatest asset, because they will have the specific calorie content per serving. A food scale to measure meats, vegetables or fruit gives an accurate reading of how much you are consuming. Some scales allow you to input the food type and will give you a caloric total based on the weight of the food on the scale. When dining out, check the restaurant's website to see whether there is nutritional information available.

    Food Journal

    • Keep a food journal so you can track everything you eat during the day. Writing it down can not only help you keep accurate records, but it can also show you areas where you could improve. If you see you are eating a lot of calories at a certain time each day, you could try to identify why and how to avoid doing so in the future.

    Small Changes

    • Cutting out one high-calorie item per day is a good starting point when counting calories. You can also start limiting your portion size and buying lower-calorie versions of your favorite foods.

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