Calories are crucial to your health, since your body uses them as energy to get you through your day. However, if you regularly consume more calories than your body needs for your lifestyle, the result is usually unwanted weight in the form of fat. Understanding how to count calories in your diet is a vital tool toward losing this weight in a fast, but healthy, way.
Step 1
Get organized by devoting a notebook for the sole purpose recording the calories you consume daily -- from breakfast to that late-night snack. A small, portable notebook or day planner is ideal, since you can easily take it with you throughout your day, at home or at work, seven days a week. Pick a day to start counting calories -- and if you want to lose weight quickly, sooner works much better than later.
Step 2
Set realistic, healthy weight loss goals so that you can adjust your caloric intake accordingly. For instance, to lose one to two pounds of fat per week, you will need to reduce your daily consumption of calories by 500 to 1,000, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Don't set unrealistic weight loss goals -- one to two pounds of fat melting away per week is a healthy starting point.
Step 3
Read the FDA Nutrition Facts labels on foods that you eat. For foods that you eat at a restaurant or that are prepared for you, refer to a guide such as the one included in the Resources section in this article. Pay close attention to the serving sizes of the foods you eat in relation to their caloric content -- a calculator comes in handy for quick multiplications or divisions of serving sizes by total calories if you eat more or less than a single serving. Record the amounts of calories you eat in your notebook.
Step 4
Choose healthy calorie sources for quicker, healthier weight loss. If your diet includes sugary soft drinks, greasy french fries or other unhealthy foods, replace them with healthier sources of calories such as whole grains, raw vegetables and fresh fruit. As you record the calories from these nutritious foods in your notebook, you may discover that you can eat more than you thought, while still shedding pounds. In your notebook, record not only the calories you consume, but the type of food you ate as well.
Step 5
Total your daily caloric intake each night before you go to sleep. At the end of your first week of careful calorie counting, examine your daily calorie consumption for each day, and use your calculator to get your weekly total amount of calories. Depending on your weight loss goals, you can now reduce your caloric intake with the help of your calorie count.
Tips and Warnings
- Get plenty of physical activity, by walking, jogging, strength training, or other exercise -- this will augment your calorie count into a full-fledged weight loss routine. Open a dialogue about your weight loss goals with your personal physician. Your doctor will be more than willing to help.
- If you are diabetic or have any other disease that impacts your diet, always talk to your doctor before adjusting your diet.
Things You'll Need
- Notebook
- Pen or pencil
- Calculator
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