Calorie Tracking

Track your daily caloric intake. It sounds simple enough. However, for some people this can be a daunting task. Most people are busy balancing their work life and their home life and adding a calorie journal to the mix doesn’t really sound feasible. Despite the barriers that may exist to doing so, tracking your calories is actually your first line of defense in the battle to lose weight. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to create a calorie journal that can easily fit into your daily routine. Many websites offer free calorie trackers and there are numerous applications that you can use to track your calories on your smart phone. Knowing your caloric intake can help you get a better understanding of the steps you need to take in order to lose weight. 


I had a friend recommend http://fatsecret.com/ for tracking and like this one. I like that it has barcode scanning and I like that I can find most things I eat. The app is easy to use as well. I have a sparkpeople account as well and like this one, but haven't used it in awhile. The problem I have is that I love my runkeeper but I have to manually key my exercising into fatsecret.com in order to have everything in one place. I wish I could find an all in one solutions that gives me all the things I love. 


The question is how many calories do I need. In order to lose a pound per week, you somehow need to cut 3,500 calories from your weekly caloric intake. You can do this either by decreasing your caloric intake (consuming less calories by restricting your diet) or by burning 500 calories a day. Or, you can combine these methods and both restrict your calories and burn calories through exercise. Being conscious of how many calories you consume daily will help you make healthier choices. That cake at Starbucks looks great but is it worth the 400 calories? I found a wonderful link online that has 100 ways to cut 100 calories from your diet. I found that some of these are simple and easy to do. http://www.prevention.com/100calories/


Many people are not able to reach their fitness goals because they are simply unaware of what they are consuming. Take control of your health by tracking your calories.