Calculating your daily caloric intake is helpful when trying to manage your weight. Whether your goal is to maintain your weight, gain weight or lose weight, balancing the amount of calories you consume with the amount of calories that you burn is essential. If you are unfamiliar with the amount of calories in the foods that you commonly consume, you may be surprised at the nutritional content of your favorite foods. Like many other things in life, knowledge is power when it comes to good health and weight management.
Step 1
Write down everything you eat and drink throughout the day. Include the portion size along with the actual foods that you consume.
Step 2
Input the foods that you ate into an online dietary assessment tool, such as My Pyramid Tracker or LIVESTRONG's My Plate. These tools will calculate the amount of calories in each of the foods that you consume and will calculate the total amount of calories you consumed throughout the day.
Step 3
Look up the calorie content of foods that are not listed in your dietary assessment tool and manually add them to the online tracker. Calorie databases are available both online and in print, such as the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference.
Things You'll Need
- Pen
- Paper
- Calorie database
References
- "Contemporary Nutrition"; Gordon M. Wardlaw and Anne M Smith; 2007
- "Handbook of Obesity Treatment"; Thomas A. Wadden PhD and Albert J. Stunkard MD; 2004
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