Creating a calorie deficit---eating fewer calories that your body uses---will help you to lose weight. An effective way to make sure that you're sticking within your calorie range is to track the calories that you are eating along with any activities that you are involved in. Calorie trackers, either online or as a software program, make this easy to do.
Tracking Your Meals
Measure the amount of food that you are eating. For example, you might measure a one-cup serving of cereal, along with a half cup of milk. Enter this into the calorie tracker, which should have a database with the nutritional information for most common types of food; this will save you from spending time searching for these details. Additionally, track the calories that you burn when working out. Through diet and exercise, aim to have a 500 to 1,000 calorie deficit per day.
Why Calorie Trackers Work
Tracking calories keeps you accountable for your actions. You will know whether you have enough calories to incorporate a favorite treat into your diet, or whether you will have to work out more to make up for it. Many people eat larger portions than they should. When you track calories with a calorie tracker, you must measure your portion sizes for accurate readings.
Making It Easier
Look for a calorie tracker that has customizable options. This allows you to enter in your specific recipes and meals. For example, if your typical breakfast is a bowl or oatmeal, a banana and a cup of coffee, you can combine all of these into a custom meal called "Oatmeal Breakfast." Whenever you eat that meal for breakfast, you can add all of the foods to your daily log by selecting that one custom item. Initially, you will have to spend time creating these custom meals or entering the nutritional data for foods that are not in the database, but it will get easier after awhile.
Breaking a Plateau
If you hit a weight-loss plateau, use your calorie tracker to find out what's going wrong. For example, you may need to start eating less to accommodate your smaller body size. Alternatively, you may have resorted to "guesstimating" your serving sizes, and you might need to go back to measuring accurately.
Warning
Some calorie trackers allow you to track every activity that you do, including "sitting at a desk working," or "doing the dishes." This can give you an inflated sense of how many calories you are burning. For better results, track only the exercises that you do on top of your everyday activities.
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