Buzz
If you're interested in monitoring your calorie intake—for weight loss, muscle gain, or simply out of curiosity—here’s a quick introduction. Calorie tracking becomes quite manageable once you familiarize yourself with it, but getting started may be a bit tricky. With the right resources and habits, however, you’ll soon master tracking your personal calorie intake.
What exactly are calories, and why do we track them?
Calories represent a unit of energy. For instance, the more physical activity you engage in, the more calories your body requires to power those actions. Every food item contains a calorie value (whether listed on the packaging or not). Generally speaking, we consume roughly the same number of calories as we expend through daily activity.
Remarkably, our bodies have the ability to maintain a relatively stable weight by increasing our hunger when we haven't consumed enough calories, or making us feel satisfied when we've eaten more than enough. Ultimately, if you consistently consume fewer calories than you burn, you'll lose weight; if you eat more than you burn, you'll gain weight.
How can I determine the right amount of calories to consume?
Typically, you should aim to consume roughly the same number of calories that your body burns each day. This varies from person to person. For instance, a 4'9”, 100-pound woman with a light exercise routine may burn around 1,440 calories daily, while a six-foot, 280-pound man who exercises intensely twice a day could burn approximately 4,309. Most people fall somewhere in the middle, burning between 2,000 and 3,000 calories.
I discuss calorie burn in more detail here. While food labels use a 2,000-calorie diet as the basis for their 'daily values' of nutrients, the reality is that our individual calorie burns differ, and many of us burn more than 2,000. (The average for adults was once estimated to be 2,350, but the FDA chose 2,000 because it was seen as a more convenient, rounded number.)
If your goal is weight loss, you should consume slightly fewer calories than your body burns. Conversely, if you aim to gain weight—particularly muscle mass—you should eat more calories than you burn. A simple rule is to subtract 200-500 calories from your daily burn for weight loss, and add more if you're working to gain weight.
Now that you have the basic understanding, all you need is a rough estimate of your calorie burn. If you're already tracking your calories, you can likely deduce this from your usual intake when your weight is stable. Alternatively, you can use a TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) calculator, such as the one at tdeecalculator.net. Keep in mind that any calculated figure is just an estimate, and the real test will be observing how your weight changes when you stick to that number.
If you’re using a Fitbit or another device that tracks your daily calorie burn, that can be a great starting point too. Just remember, this is still an estimate, and it may be off by a few hundred calories either way.
How can I determine the calorie content of a food item?
The simplest way to find out the calorie count for a food is by checking its label. If there's no label, search for the food's name followed by “calories” and be mindful of the serving size and the source of the information. For instance, searching “apple calories” provides the information that a medium-sized apple, about 3 inches in diameter, contains 95 calories. The source of this data is the USDA, which has a comprehensive database of common foods. Here’s the entry for apples. The default serving size is 100 grams, but you can adjust the 'portion' dropdown to match the medium apple.
At restaurants, calorie counts are sometimes listed next to menu items. If they're not, check the restaurant’s website or search for the restaurant's name along with “nutrition information.” Often, there’s a PDF hidden on their site with detailed calorie counts, and sometimes additional info like protein and carb content.
That said, there's an easier method most people use when tracking calories: a calorie tracking app.
Which calorie tracking app is the best?
There are many decent (or at least tolerable) calorie tracking apps available. Cronometer is my favorite: it offers all the essential features in the free version, and it remains neutral about goals, so you can use it whether you're aiming to gain weight, lose weight, or maintain your current weight.
The most popular calorie tracking app is likely MyFitnessPal, which is puzzling because it’s arguably the least effective. The calorie information it provides is often inaccurate, the interface overly emphasizes weight loss even if that’s not your goal, and basic features like the barcode scanner are only available in the paid version. We’ve compiled a list of alternatives to MyFitnessPal here.
When you use a calorie tracking app, you’ll search for the food you’ve just eaten (or plan to eat) within the app. At first, this can feel awkward: You’ll need to pick the correct item from the database and estimate the portion size. Packaged foods are easier to track, which complicates things if you’re focusing on eating more whole or homemade meals. Stick with it, though: Habits are skills, and over time, the mini-skills involved in calorie tracking will become second nature.
How do I determine the correct serving size for the food I’m tracking?
As you get more experienced, you’ll develop a strong sense for estimating serving sizes. But while you’re still learning, try to measure or weigh your food whenever possible. For instance, I can now easily tell the difference between a cup of rice and a half-cup, and I know that a three-ounce portion of meat is roughly the size of a deck of cards—or a little smaller than the palm of your hand (depending on your hand size). A ‘serving’ of peanut butter is two tablespoons, so measure this once to get a sense of whether your usual portion is more or less than that.
For even greater accuracy, consider using a food scale. It will make many aspects of tracking easier. For instance, you can:
Place your toast on the scale, zero it, then spread the peanut butter. Weigh the toast with peanut butter, and you’ll know exactly how many grams of peanut butter were used.
Weigh out portions of chicken, vegetables, or anything else you’re eating.
Portion a meal by weighing the entire dish and then dividing it into portions, each containing ¼ of the total (for example, if you’re making a four-serving meal).
Weigh a container of yogurt, zero it, and then scoop out yogurt into your blender as you prepare a smoothie. This requires a ‘negative tare’ function, but it’s helpful when adding ingredients to containers like a blender or a pot that can’t be weighed directly. Simply weigh the container the food is coming from.
How do I calculate the calories in homemade meals?
Your calorie tracking app should allow you to create a recipe. Add the ingredients, and make sure to specify how many servings the recipe produces, especially if you’re cooking for a group or prepping meals for the week. Don’t forget to include every ingredient, even cooking oils and condiments.
How do I track calories in a meal made by someone else?
If you’re unsure about the exact contents, you can make an educated guess. The simplest method is to search for a similar dish from a restaurant and estimate the portion size.
What if there’s oil or sauce with my meal, but I didn’t consume all of it?
Unfortunately, there’s no straightforward way to account for this. You might be leaving behind a significant number of calories, but it’s difficult to isolate that from the rest of the meal. In cases like this, I usually assume I ate the entire portion, sauce included. If there’s a lot of sauce and I’m confident I didn’t consume much of it, I’ll log it as 0.9 servings instead of a full serving.
Do I really need to track everything, every day?
There’s no calorie tracking authority (thank goodness), so no, you’re not required to track everything. However, if you’re aiming for a reasonably accurate estimate of your daily calorie intake, it’s best to log as much as possible. If you snack on something like a cookie, make sure to log that in your app.
There are times when I might skip tracking an entire day, but I never log part of a day. For instance, if I’ve consumed 1,200 calories before dinner, but then go to a party and have 15 different snacks that are hard to track, I might say “forget it” and delete the whole day. I wouldn’t just leave it at 1,200 because that would make it appear as if I only had 1,200 calories for the entire day. If I know I ate more than usual, I’ll use a placeholder like a restaurant meal (my app actually has an entry for "Thanksgiving") and log whatever gets me closer to, say, 3,000 calories for the day.
Similarly, it’s easy to avoid logging foods you feel you “shouldn’t” be eating, but that can backfire. For example, if I’m eating 2,500 calories but only log 2,000, I’ll think I’m eating 2,000 calories and not losing weight. This can make me feel like I need to eat even less than 2,000, and I could fall into a vicious cycle of restricting my food and then bingeing on untracked “cheat” meals. This isn’t a healthy approach, and it usually gets worse over time. Instead, I log everything. That way, if I know I’m eating 2,500 calories and not losing weight, I can recognize that my body is effectively using those calories every day. I would then try eating a bit less—maybe 2,200 calories—and see if that approach works better and is more sustainable.
In other words, by logging everything, you allow yourself to be honest and kind to yourself. The key is to treat the numbers as neutral data, not a judgment of whether you’re being “good” or not.
