More than 63 percent of Americans were either overweight or obese as of 2009. The most effective way to lose weight is to reduce your caloric intake. If you cut 500 calories from your diet each day, you should lose about 1 lb. a week. Keeping track of calories in your head is a skill that comes with practice. Once you develop this skill, you will be able to quickly gauge the number of calories in the foods you eat, so you can stick to a weight loss or maintenance plan, whether you're dining at home or away.
Step 1
Write down the calorie count per serving -- and the amount that makes up one serving -- of all of the foods you normally eat. Get this data from the Nutrition Facts panels on your packaged food labels. Measure out your food each time you eat it so you become familiar with what one serving of your food looks like.
Step 2
Look up the number of calories in your favorite unpackaged foods by navigating to Livestrong's MyPlate tool. Once at MyPlate, enter your food item in the "What did you eat?" search box. Look at the results and choose the item that most closely matches your food. Make a note of the serving size, found in the first column to the right of the food. The next column lists the number of calories per serving. Record and make a mental note of this value.
Step 3
Refer to your recorded calorie and serving size values as needed when cooking. Continue to collect this information for new foods. Over time you will begin to remember the amount of calories in foods you most commonly eat. You will also be able to gauge what a serving size looks like.
Step 4
Calculate, in your mind, the number of calories in your food as you prepare meals. Do this once you are comfortable with your knowledge of the calorie content of foods you commonly eat. Start by multiplying the calorie content for a single serving by the serving size of the food item you plan to consume. For example, a slice of whole wheat bread has 60 calories. If you planned to make a sandwich with two slices of whole wheat bread, you could quickly calculate in your head that 60 calories multiplied by 2 slices of bread equals 120 calories. You can use this technique for each ingredient in your meal.
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