Counting calories is a wonderful way to lose weight and keep it off. According to Legion Athletics, “To lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than you expend over time.” Compared to other weight loss strategies, counting calories provides you with a way to accurately track your progress and adjust what you are eating to further your success.
Finding Your Baseline
In order to lose weight, you need to eat less and exercise more. This means reducing your calorie intake and starting an exercise program. Before you can reduce your calorie intake, you need to know how many calories you are consuming currently. Many people will use a journal to keep track of how much they eat, but this can be quite inaccurate if they aren’t measuring every serving precisely.
By counting calories, you are giving yourself something to focus on. One needs to read nutrition labels as well as do some research as to how many calories do produce and meats have. A small food scale and a calorie calculator for weight loss can be a very helpful tool throughout your weight loss experience.
Identifying Your Eating Patterns
Many people fail at losing weight because they don’t have anything to track their progress, such as calorie intake. They know they probably shouldn’t have eaten that extra helping of dessert, but this is simply speculation. When you count calories, you have something concrete to determine if you have consumed too much in a 24-hour period, and you will begin to see patterns in your eating habits.
This information, along with your baseline, allows you to create a plan that reduces the calories you would normally consume. As you learn more about serving sizes and how many calories each serving of your favorite foods has, you’ll be able to replace high calorie count items with low-calorie options. Those that closely monitor their calorie intake, body weight, and physical exercise experience the greatest weight loss.
Helps Maintain Your Eating Behavior
Continuing to count your calorie intake as you lose weight can keep you on track. Use the information you gather on your eating habits to create meal plans. Meal planning is a great way to stick to your low-calorie diet. Set aside some time to make out daily menus.
Do the research needed to ensure you are not exceeding your daily calorie limit. You can even spend a day preparing meals and packaging them in the correct serving sizes. Keep these in the freezer throughout the week when a busy schedule can derail your diet. You’ll find fruits and vegetables are low in calories and make you feel full while reducing cravings. Use these as snacks. By counting calories, it will become clear as to which food to enjoy and which to avoid.
Before you try the next trending diet, consider counting calories. This tried and true approach to weight loss provides people with a way to eat the foods they enjoy without overindulging.
