Counting the calories of the food you eat? Here are some better ways to do it
Are you a calorie counter? Here are some better ways to ensure you’re consuming both the right quantity and quality of food.
When it comes to maintaining a healthy diet, it is important to realise that calories are far from the only things that matter. The right balance of carbs, fats, and proteins is equally as important, and getting all the vitamins and minerals you need perhaps even more so.
If you’re looking to maintain or lose your weight, getting to know those calories can help. However, rather than doing all of the sums on the fly, there are much easier ways to plan and keep track of what you’re eating and how much it contributes to your daily calorie count.
Plan your meals
There are different ways that people tend to calorie count. Many people will eat throughout the day, before taking the time to then count up the calories they have eaten to find out how many they have left for the rest of the day.
This approach works for some people, but if you find that you accidentally eat too much at the start of the day and have to slim down your dinners, it can make evenings harder to get through, jeopardizing your commitment to the plan.
Use meal planning apps like Mealime to plan your meals ahead of time, making sure that they fit both your calorie counting needs and your nutritional demands.
Use apps that can help
If you are one of those people who prefers to count your calories as you are eating them, then there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as you can make sure you space out your calories throughout the day.
However, losing track is a habit that can be really damaging to any healthy eating changes you’re trying to implement. And the harder you make it to stick to it, the more difficult it can be to see it through.
The My Fitness Pal – nutrition tracking app can make it a lot easier. It allows you to scan in the foods you eat via a barcode or quickly find the calories and nutritional value by searching for them, counting your calories, macros, and nutritional intake.
Replace a meal
If you are looking for ways to reduce your calories, then introducing some uniformity into your diet can help a lot.
One of the big benefits of products like Shake That Weight – meal replacing shakes is that their calorie contribution to your diet and nutrition remains the same every time you take it.
Meal replacement shakes can replace one of your meals a day, ensuring that you don’t overeat if portion management has been a consistent problem for you.
What’s more, they add some consistency to your diet, so that you can always rely on them to keep your calorie counting relatively consistent, too.
Get rid of grazing habits
Why do you eat more calories than you should when you’re on a diet? The answer can change depending on who is answering it, but a lot of people are surprised that it’s not down to portion size alone.
You might eat meals of a reasonable size and still find yourself gaining weight and eating too many calories. Grazing is the almost unconscious habit of snacking throughout the day and it can really start to add up if you’re not careful.
One of the best pieces of advice you can follow is to make sure your home isn’t stocked with easy-to-reach snacks full of saturated fats and sugars. If you can replace them with healthy snacking, that’s great, but if you can get used to only eating at mealtimes with perhaps one planned snack a day, that’s even better.
Be a mindful eater
If you’re not a grazer, then the problem might just be that you’re overeating due to larger portions on your plate.
One of the first steps to address this is to give yourself a smaller plate. Not only should you keep in mind to reduce your normal portion sizes, but having a plate that is physically smaller can trick your brain into thinking that it is eating more.
However, learning mindful eating can be even more helpful, still. Mindful eating is all about taking the time to properly chew and slowly swallow every bite of your meal. Simply taking more time to eat the food that you’re already eating can help you feel a lot fuller after a meal that’s smaller than your usual.
We hope these tips will help to make it easier for you to count the calories of what you’re eating , and ensure that you’re getting the right quality of food, not just the right quantity.
Photo by Brooke Lark
