Have you been jumping from diet to diet, struggling to lose weight, or struggling to keep weight off and now you’re sitting here feeling defeated wondering what’s next? Well, what if I told you there was a way you could lose weight, while eating all the foods you love, and you’d be more likely to keep that weight off? Sounds like a pretty good deal, right?

So what’s this magic I speak of…

No magic at all actually, just a calorie deficit – achieved by counting your calories.

I’m going to teach you how to count calories for weight loss, I’ll explain your body’s energy balance, and I’m going to help you have a better understanding of the food you’re eating. Let’s get started!

Why You Should Learn to Count Calories

First off, why should you learn to count calories? The short answer is simple – it works! It’s a fantastic tool to have in your weight loss toolbox, but there’s much more to it than that. Tracking your progress and the actions you’re taking to reach any goal is essential for your success. There’s a quote you may have heard “What gets measured gets improved” – there’s definitely truth in that. Tracking your calories along with your weight or body composition is a great way to be sure you’re headed in the right direction. Studies also show that individuals who tracked calories for weight loss typically lost more weight and were more likely to keep that weight off, when compared to those who didn’t.

Along with tracking your progress, tracking calories allows you to gain a better understanding of what you’re eating and how much you’re actually eating. People in general are bad at estimating what they eat. Your eyes will often deceive you. Knowing how many calories are in your food and knowing how many calories you’re eating each day will let you fit all the foods you love into your weight loss plan. This means no more shitty diets and no more eliminating your favorite foods.

Having an understanding of what you’re eating, like I mentioned earlier, is a great “tool” to have at your disposal. Counting calories is not meant to be, and should not become an obsession that controls your life. It’s not something you have to do forever, it’s simply another tool to help you achieve your weight loss goals.

What is a Calorie? And Your Body’s Energy Balance

A calorie is a unit of measurement. Scientifically a kilocalorie, or large calorie, is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1 degree celsius. For the purpose of this article, it’s the measurement of how much energy your body could get from eating or drinking something. We use this energy for everything we do. The majority of the energy you get from eating is used for vital bodily functions, some is spent in digestion, and the rest is burned through physical activity.

When you consistently eat more calories than you’re burning your body stores that extra energy, mostly as body fat. This also works the other way around when you’re in a calorie deficit. When you consistently eat less calories than you’re burning each day your body needs to get the remaining energy it needs from another source. This means at some point you will be burning fat as fuel, resulting in weight loss.

How Many Calories Should You Eat to Lose Weight?

Before deciding how many calories you need to be eating to lose weight, you need to have some idea or estimate of what your daily maintenance calories are. You can download my free calorie calculator here, and get an estimate for your maintenance calories as well as deficit recommendations. If you don’t want to do that you can search for one online or start by multiplying your bodyweight in pounds by 15. For example if you weigh 160 pounds, 160 x 15 = 2400, so your maintenance calorie estimate would be 2400 calories daily.

When setting your calorie deficit you will want to consider any upcoming events or goals you may have a timeframe for, but in general slow and steady is the way to go. Aiming to lose anywhere from a half pound to a pound a week is a good sustainable rate for weight loss. A pound of fat is around 3500 calories. If your goal is to lose 1 pound each week you would need a daily calorie deficit of 500 calories (7 x 500 = 3500). Using our previous example, if your daily maintenance calories are 2400, you would set your goal at 1900. You don’t need to be perfect, but eating around 1900 calories a day would result in around a pound of fat loss per week in this example. Set yourself a goal, and let’s start counting!

What You Will Need

Once you’ve set yourself a goal, you’ll only need a few things: a food scale, a calorie counting app, and your favorite foods!

I’m not going to recommend a specific food scale, but whatever you get just be sure it can give you a measurement in grams. Weighing your food in grams is going to be the most accurate way to measure what you’re eating. When you measure your food in another way, by volume or just estimating, you’re going to have inaccuracies. Food packaging labels will have a serving size or portion size listed in grams. This makes getting a quick weight in grams fast and simple, and it doesn’t require any measuring cups either.

Along with your new food scale, you will need a calorie counting app. Two that I would recommend are My Fitness Pal and Mike’s Macros. There are plenty of others available, give some a try and find one that fits your needs. 

Weighing & Recording Your Food

Step 1: Grab your food scale and be sure it’s set to grams. Your scale should have a unit button or something that lets you cycle through the different weight options.

Step 2: Be sure your scale is zero’d, so your weight will be accurate. If you are weighing your food directly on the scale, go ahead and zero it out. If you are putting your food on a plate or bowl, put your plate or bowl on the scale and then zero the food scale. Your scale should have a tare button to do this.

Step 3: Add your food to your zero’d scale and get a weight in grams.

Step 4: Record your food in your calorie counting app of choice. Some apps will have the ability to scan the barcode on your food’s package or search for specific brands and types of foods. Once you’ve found your food in your calorie counting app you can input the weight and it should calculate everything for you. Other times you may need to input things manually after getting the info from the food label. For any fruits, vegetables, or other foods that don’t have labels you should be able to search for the food in your app and get some weight or serving size options.

Step 5: Repeat! Record everything you eat and drink throughout the day. There’s no point in tracking if you’re not recording everything and you end up leaving calories out.

What if you can’t weigh your food?

There definitely will be times when you aren’t able to weigh and measure your food, and you may need to just get an estimate instead. Homemade meals are one thing that can be difficult to track. If you’re cooking a big meal or dish, you can weigh and record each ingredient, and come up with the total calories and weight for the dish. Then get the weight for each serving you have and calculate your calories from that. If you aren’t cooking, you can just search in your calorie counting app (or google) for the dish and get an estimate that way.

Eating out can also be a little difficult when you’re tracking calories. Many large chain restaurants will have their nutrition information readily available, and their food options will already be in your calorie counting app. When that’s the case it’s nice and easy. If you’re eating somewhere local or anytime nutrition information isn’t available you can try a quick google search or search in your app and get the best estimate you can. When you do end up estimating or guessing the calories in something I would recommend overestimating slightly, especially when your goal is weight loss.

Start Tracking!

Now that you know how to count calories for weight loss, it’s time to grab your food scale and get started! Counting calories really does work – whether you’re looking to lose or gain weight. And having an understanding of your body’s energy balance and your caloric needs, as well as what you’re eating is extremely valuable. If you haven’t done it before give counting calories a try, and if you have any questions let me know in the comments below or contact me here.

Thanks for reading! And don’t forget to grab your FREE copy of 34 Metabolic Workouts: Build Strength & Burn Fat!