Tracking the calories you eat is an important part of controlling your weight. Whether you're trying to lose, gain or maintain your weight, you'll need to pay attention to how many calories you consume per day. Tracking your caloric intake can also help you examine the quality of the foods you are eating. Calculating caloric intake is as easy as learning the calorie contents of the items in each of your meals and tallying them up at the end of the day.
Step 1
Keep a food journal. A food journal is a daily log of everything you eat. Use this journal to also write down the calorie content of each food you enter into your daily record. At the end of each day, add calorie totals to get the day's total caloric intake.
Step 2
Read food labels. Food manufacturers list the calorie content of packaged foods on the labels. Pay special attention to the serving size, as many packages that would seem like single servings are actually multiple servings.
Step 3
Use a calorie counter, like Nutrition Data.com to figure out the calorie content of unlabeled foods, such as fruits, vegetables and grains. Try to be as exact and specific as possible about the type and quantity of foods. For example, margarine and butter can have vastly different calorie counts, as can a small apple and a medium apple.
Step 4
Write down the foods you include in each recipe you make. Don't forget to include any cooking oils, herb and spices you use, as leaving these items out can throw off your caloric intake calculation. Once you have the totals for each recipe written down, tally them and divide the total number of calories by the total number of servings. This makes it easier to track should you eat more than one serving or have leftovers.
Step 5
Consider using food tracking software or an interactive food tracking website such as The Daily Plate or Sparkpeople. These allow you to enter everything you eat by name or brand. They calculate your caloric intake for you. They also analyze what you eat for nutritional value.
Things You'll Need
- Food journal
- Food tracking software (optional)
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