Read the serving information on the label, weigh your food with a scale instead of measuring cups, and multiply servings by calories per serving. Track as you eat, log foods raw when possible, and count the small bites. When you eat out or have no label, estimate and add 10 to 20 percent, or choose not to track that meal.
Calories and fat loss get plenty of attention, but very few explanations show you how to track calories step by step. Dr. Joey fills that gap, and ends with the three mistakes that most often cause people to eat far more than they think.
Start With the Food Label
Almost every packaged food has a label with three key pieces of information: the serving size, the calories per serving, and the nutrient breakdown. The calories listed are for one serving, not the whole package. A food with 280 calories per serving and four servings per package contains 1,120 calories in total.
Weigh Your Food
Use a food scale whenever you can. A cup of white flour should weigh about 125 grams and contain around 450 calories, but if the flour is packed tightly or sifted, a measuring cup can hold noticeably more or less. A scale gives the right amount every time.
Do the Math
To keep a running tally, use a tracking app such as MyFitnessPal, Carbon, or MacroFactor, or a simple spreadsheet.
No Scale or No Label? Estimate Smartly
It is better to guesstimate than just not do anything at all.
When you don't have a scale, use your hand. A fistful is about one cup, a palm-sized portion of protein is roughly three to four ounces, and a cupped hand is about half a cup. Because people tend to underestimate how much they eat, add 10 to 20 percent to your guess.
For foods without a label, like steak from the butcher or fresh produce, look them up in the USDA food database, which is far more precise than a general web search. Pick the entry that most closely matches what you're eating, such as raw or cooked and how trimmed it is. The exact entry matters less than using the same one each time.
What About Eating Out?
Restaurant meals are the biggest limit of tracking, because you can't know the recipe or portion. Dr. Joey gives three options.
Guess using single-ingredient meals like grilled chicken, rice, and vegetables, ordered without extra oil or butter. Dishes like fried stuffed rice balls are very hard to estimate.
Enjoy the meal without tracking. If you eat out about once a week and follow your plan otherwise, it won't derail your progress.
A middle path is to set aside 1,000 to 1,500 calories for the dinner by eating less earlier in the day. That may sound like a lot, but an appetizer, entree, drinks, and dessert can easily reach it. If you eat out several times a week while trying to lose weight, skipping tracking for every one will affect your results.
Three Common Tracking Mistakes
Logging from memory at the end of the day. You'll forget the handful of chips after breakfast or the oil you cooked with. Track as you go.
Mixing up raw and cooked weights. Cooking changes water content. An 8-ounce steak loses water and becomes more calorie-dense by weight, while boiled rice gains water and becomes less dense. Since this varies so much, track most foods raw, before cooking.
Ignoring the little things. A bite of cookie, a bit of butter, or a sip of a drink seems minor, but together they can add up to several hundred untracked calories a day.
- Food label calories are per serving, so check how many servings are in the package.
- Weigh food with a scale because measuring cups vary with how food is packed.
- Without a scale, use your hand to estimate and add 10 to 20 percent to account for underestimating.
- For foods without labels, use the USDA database and stay consistent with the entry you choose.
- Track as you go, log foods raw when possible, and count the small bites and sips.
Tracking doesn't need to be perfect to work, but it does need to be honest. Weigh what you can, estimate sensibly when you can't, and avoid the three mistakes above.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you read a food label for calorie tracking?
Look at the serving size, the calories per serving, and the number of servings per container. The calories shown are for one serving, so multiply by the number of servings you actually eat.
Should you weigh food or use measuring cups?
Weigh it. Volume measurements vary depending on how food is packed, while a scale gives the same amount every time.
Should you track food raw or cooked?
Track raw whenever you can. Cooking changes water content, which changes calories per unit of weight, and the change varies between foods.
How do you track calories at a restaurant?
Estimate using single-ingredient meals, or choose not to track and enjoy it, or set aside 1,000 to 1,500 calories for that meal by eating less earlier in the day.
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