Tracking your weight, calories and activity helps you achieve your goals. Whether you need to lose weight, gain muscle or improve athletic performance, self-monitoring gives you a means to log your efforts and view your progress. Online weight-loss tools offer a means to calculate calorie intake and expenditure. Free options for tracking include LIVESTRONG.COM's MyPlate tracker and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's MyPyramidTracker.gov. Keeping a notebook also works for tracking. Writing down your goals and viewing your progress can help you stay motivated.
Step 1
Weigh yourself in the morning and write down your weight. Weigh yourself regularly at the same time of day, for example, every Monday morning.
Step 2
Register to use online tools by entering your email address and answering the questions about your height, weight and goals on the site of your choice. The site will provide you with the number of calories you need for your goal. Alternatively, MayoClinic.com offers a calorie calculator you can use to estimate your calorie intake, if you prefer to keep a hand-written notebook. You need to know how many daily calories to aim for to make your tracking effective.
Step 3
Track the calories of all of the foods and beverages you consume for at least five days. Enter the name of the food and the amount you ate in an online tracker or keep a notebook. If you track your calories in a notebook, look up calories on food labels or in calorie guides. Check the total calories consumed for all of the food and beverages you consumed for the day.
Step 4
Simplify your calorie counting by saving the information on meals you consume regularly. For example, LIVESTRONG.COM's MyPlate allows you to save specific meals, so that you can retrieve the information to add to the tracker on future days. In a notebook, create a section to save the calorie totals of meals and snacks. For example, if you eat a green salad with 4 oz. of skinless chicken breast and 1 tbsp. of Italian dressing twice a week, write down the name of the meal and the total calories in your meal section and you can use the calorie total each time you eat it.
Step 5
Select the activity you performed on LIVESTRONG.COM's MyPlate online tracker or on MyPyramid Tracker. Enter the time you spent on the physical activity. Alternatively, write down your activity and look up the calories expended on a calorie expenditure chart, activity calculator or in a book that includes information on the calories burned in physical activities.
Step 6
Calculate your calorie intake information regularly. As you lose weight, your body requires fewer calories because it takes less energy to move a lighter body. Likewise, if you gain muscle or increase the intensity or duration of your weekly physical activity, your calorie needs increase. Prevent a plateau by re-calculating your calorie needs regularly as your weight changes and keeping an accurate record of your exercise time and intensity.
Tips and Warnings
- Write down you motivations and your short-term and long-term goals in your meal and activity record. Having specific goals and periodically reminding yourself of your motives gives you the means to monitor your progress and encourage yourself to continue when you have setbacks. Weighing yourself on Mondays may help you resist temptation on the weekends.
- Consult a doctor before beginning an exercise program.
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