A Calorie Counting Guide(counting calories)

counting calories

Calorie counting sounds like a very time consuming pain in the behind. Though it is easier not to count calories, the benefits for weight management far out weight the hassle. Imagine you need to save some money for a big purchase. It becomes much easier to save if you know how much you are spending and what you are spending your money on. Then you can more effectively find places to cut, and your savings can grow much faster. Calorie counting is like budgeting for weight loss. You can lose weight without it, but not nearly as well.

Here are the steps i use to make calorie counting less time consuming.

1. Use a food logging program. There are plenty of free or low cost applications available for helping you count calories. There are website, desktop applications, and smartphone apps. All capable of logging every calorie you consume in a day.

2. Change your eating habits. So it seems difficult to count calories, but if you change your eating habits a little you can make it easier. Get a list of a few simple meals that you can eat regularly for breakfast and lunch. Figure out the calorie counts of these staple meals and 2/3rds of your calorie counts are easy for the day.

3. Save your frequently eaten foods. With these staple meals picked out, use an application that will allow you to save frequently eaten foods. Then you can just select a few things from a list, and you are done.

4. Eat Less. That's what its all about anyway right? This tip comes in 2 parts. Don't snack throughout the day. Basically eating less means logging less. Also don't drink any calories. I would suggest drinking water, or other zero calorie liquids to avoid having to log your drinks.

5. Forget the small stuff. Things like mustard, pickles, and celery have a few calories per serving, but I would suggest ignoring things that are 20 calories or less. These items aren't worth the time. You can choose for yourself how much you log. Just try to keep a balance between what makes it easy for you and what makes calorie counting useful.

That's it, those four steps should make calorie counting much simpler. The calorie counting guide is everything you will need to start being effective at counting calories.

counting calories