Calorie Tracker

Food is made up of calories that fuel your body throughout the day. The number of calories in each type of food varies immensely. There are small foods that contain a massive number of calories and massive foods that contain a small amount of calories. Everyone has an ideal daily number of calories to eat in order to maintain a healthy body balance. The first step in finding your number is to track the calories you eat every day.

Types

Calorie trackers can be set up many ways. If you don't want to write down the number of calories for everything you eat when you're out, and you happen to own a smartphone, there are multiple apps available that will track your calories for you. Another option is to create one on your own using a spreadsheet program. While this may require you to write down every meal when you aren't near a computer, it does come with a certain sense of accomplishment at the end of every day knowing that you tracked everything on your own.

Time Frame

Calorie tracking isn't a short-term hobby only for the obese; it's a healthy activity that's helpful to everyone. As time goes by, you may get a good handle on how many calories each meal has, which can certainly help lessen the hassle with tracking. However, unless you decide to limit your diet to the same 10 meals for the rest of your life, you are probably going to need some sort of ongoing tracker.

Considerations

Once you have determined what your "sweet spot" in daily calorie intake is, that doesn't give you a license to go eat exactly that number of calories in chocolate, donuts and wine alone. In order to maintain a healthy body balance, you need to split your calories into one or more servings from all six of the major food groups listed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture: grains, vegetables, fruits, oils, milk, and meats and beans. This doesn't mean you have to eliminate sweets or alcohol altogether. Those foods offer health benefits as long as they are used in moderation.

Benefits

Assuming that you are tracking your calories for healthy reasons, there are many potential short-term and long-term benefits to knowing what's going in your body. Eating healthy can reduce your chance of obesity, which in turn can lessen your chances of becoming diabetic. Cutting back on alcohol can reduce your chances of developing liver problems, and according to the Mayo Clinic, drinking alcohol in moderation can actually lessen you chances of developing heart disease, dying of a heart attack and suffering from a stroke.

Misconceptions

The idea that only unhealthy, overweight people should track their calories is false. It's never a bad time to find out exactly what goes into your body. Just because you may not be obese or diabetic doesn't mean you can't improve your diet. The old saying, "you are what you eat," certainly rings true, so what could it hurt if you tracked your diet for just one week? Take a look at the recommended intake of each of the major food groups and compare it to what you're eating. Who knows, you could add another couple years onto your life.