Whether you are trying to gain or lose weight, you will have a hard time meeting your goal without counting calories. Keeping track of your calories allows you to see if you are eating the right amount of food each day. Fortunately, you can find several tools and websites that make it easier to look up the calorie content of a certain food and to keep track of your totals.
Step 1
Locate the "Nutrition Facts" label on the food's package. The second line of the label lists the calories in each serving of the food. Write down this number and the serving size listed in the first line. Visit the Food and Drug Administration's website to find more information on reading product labels.
Step 2
Search for the food on a calorie-counting website such as calorieking.com, dailyburn.com or livestrong.com. These websites have databases preloaded with calorie totals and nutrition information for commercial and restaurant food items, along with user-submitted recipes. If you are looking for a fairly common food, check the United States Department of Agriculture's National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference website.
Step 3
Measure your food with a scale or measuring cup. Divide the total by the serving size found in the previous steps. Take this result and multiply it by the calories per serving to determine the total calories in your food. If you are using a website to count your calories, you can simply input the number of servings and let the website calculate the total.
Things You'll Need
- Calculator (optional)
- Measuring cup or food scale
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