Gaining, losing, or maintaining weight is a simple matter of calories in/calories out. If you eat more calories than you burn, you'll gain weight. If you burn more calories than you eat, you'll lose weight. If the numbers on both sides are equal, your weight stays the same. Simply guessing how much you're eating is often wildly inaccurate, and can result in unwanted weight fluctuations. Your best option is to keep a journal that includes the foods you eat and your calorie intake. Seeing everything on paper may even help you make healthier choices overall.
Step 1
Designate a small notebook as your calorie diary. Use it only to record your calorie intake and output, not to record miscellaneous notes. It should be large enough to write comfortably in, but small enough to take with you when you need to.
Step 2
Record the day and date at the top of the page. Separating days by page keeps the record neater and easier to read, and leaves room for notations. If one day's record goes beyond the first page, make a note of it so you don't exclude the other data when calculating your total.
Step 3
Measure your food portions. If you are cooking at home, you can measure with cups and spoons or a small kitchen scale. If you are eating elsewhere, visual references come in handy. For example, a 3-oz. serving of meat is the size of a deck of cards, and a 1/2 cup serving of pasta or rice is the size of a tennis ball. It is most helpful to weight foods raw, because preparation techniques vary.
Step 4
Record the name of the food in your journal. Be very specific -- for example, instead of writing "pasta", write "whole-grain penne." If the food is a packaged or prepared food, record the brand and flavor as well. The more specific you are, the easier it will be to look up the calorie content later.
Step 5
Write down each individual component of the dish separately. Instead of writing "cheeseburger," write "ground beef, hamburger bun, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, ketchup and mayo."
Step 6
Record the amount of each food next to the name. The more specific you are, the more accurate your number will be.
Step 7
Look up the calorie content of each food. LIVESTRONG.COM's My Plate or other online calorie calculators are good sources for food you make at home. Prepackaged foods have the calorie content on the nutrition label, but make sure you take the serving size into account. Many restaurants publish their nutritional information on the company's website, or you can contact the restaurant by phone to request the information.
Step 8
Look at the serving the calorie count is for. For example, if a granola bar was labeled as having 200 calories but the serving was one half of a bar, you actually ate 400 calories if you ate the whole thing. Food labels can be tricky that way -- they want their food to appear to be low-calorie, so they use a tiny serving size as their reference.
Step 9
Record your calories eaten next to the name and amount of each food, and total the calories. You can wait until the end of the day and total the calories at the bottom of the page, but totaling after each meal gives you a better idea of where you stand, and may help you avoid overeating as the day goes on.
Tips and Warnings
- If you have a smartphone, there are many apps available that make recording on the go simple. They generally have a built-in database, and allow you to store foods you eat frequently.
Things You'll Need
- Notebook
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Food scale
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