How To Accurately Track Calories

Tracking your caloric intake is a fantastic tool to aid in reaching your body composition and training goals and better understanding your nutriton. Whether your goal is weight loss, weight gain, performance or you just want to get a better understanding of what each food contains and your bodies dietary requirements, then tracking calories can be super valuable.

I have seen many clients have huge success through tracking their calories and I do believe it is crucial for everyone to learn the nutritional needs of their own bodies! In order to make the most of the process, you do need to ensure you are tracking accurately and honestly so you get the results you desire.

While calorie tracking has many benefits, it should be noted that tracking is not for everyone as it can be time consuming and does require a baseline understanding of your bodies requirements. It can also be quite triggering and unsustainable for those with a history of disordered eating, so make sure you’re following the recommendations of a qualified nutritionist and chat to a health professional about whether this is right for you!

A guide on how you can accurately track your caloric intake

• Use a reliable app. Make sure to track calories using a reliable app which is regularly updated as new products come on the market. My favourite is My Fitness Pal, as it is one of the most user friendly, regularly updated and accurate apps. There are limitations with the free version, so if it is possible for you, invest in the paid version. Take the time to learn how to use the app, adjust servings sizes and search for products so you know how to accurately log your food. Keep in mind, the daily calorie intake and macro intake predictions all tracking apps provide you are a rough guide and are to be taken with a grain of salt, so chat to someone qualified to clarity your app is set up accurately for your goals and body.
• Weigh food. Get yourself a set of kitchen scales so you can accurately weigh your food. Guessing can be inaccurate and can lead to eating more or less than you thought.
• Be brand specific and scan products using My Fitness Pal where you can. Scanning barcodes of products where you can is the easiest way to make sure you are being accurate. Energy values within a food can differ drastically from brand to brand, or flavour to flavour, so scanning the barcodes where possible and making sure you are logging the specific brand of the food will ensure you are accurately tracking.
• Don’t forget about hidden calories. Often people forget about hidden calories and forget to log every component of the meal. Hidden calories are those little things we often don’t think about, such as cooking oils, sauces, spice mixes and dressings. These can all have significant amounts of hidden calories, so don’t forget to log them all!
• Include drinks. Majority of drinks other than water, herbal teas and black coffee contain calories, so make sure to include these as part of your daily intake.
• Create staple meals. Tracking calories can take time, so create staple meals that can be pre saved into My Fitness Pal to save time on busy days and make tracking easier.

While tracking calories is one of the most efficient ways to achieve your nutrition and body composition goals as it it the most accurate, it is not for everyone and there are other options that can be just as effective. If you find you struggle to stay accountable with regularly tracking or find it stressful and not something that works for you, reach out and we will create another plan!

Copyright © Tabi May Life