This article is going to entirely dedicated to showing you tips and tricks on how to make calorie counting easier.
I get it, it can be hard at times.
You have to weigh every single thing out, use a food scale, keep track of what you are eating.
Sometimes it may seem a bit too time consuming or whelming.
Not to worry though because today you are going to learn the best strategies to make calorie counting easier.
The only caveat is, you have to read the entire article.
You can’t skip around or lackadaisically read it. Make sure to to continue reading each line left to right.
We as humans skim around, I get it. We don’t like waiting!
Yet I promise you if you stay locked into reading this, you will find some insanely useful tips you can take with you today to start making calorie counting a bit easier.
Sound like a fair trade? Cool, then let’s get right into it.
How To Make Calorie Counting Easier
How To Count Calories
If you are reading an article on “how to make calorie counting easier”, then clearly you must be either currently counting calories or looking to start.
( Shocker Eric, way to really go investigator to figure that one out! ).
With that being said, I need to make sure you and I are on the same page before moving forward.
The amount of people who I talk to on a daily basis, whether instagram, Tik Tok, emails, wherever.
Who claim that they are counting calories…
Then I come to find out they aren’t using a food scale, they aren’t weighing out their food, they aren’t tracking the weekends.
Is nothing short of insane and astonishing to me.
Which is why I need to make tis very clear up front first and foremost.
If you are not
- Using a food scale to weigh out all of your food in grams ( not cups, or tablespoons, or ounces)
- Tracking every single bite and snack and drink you consume
- Tracking 7/7 days, including the weekends
You are not counting calories accurately or correctly.
Just because you scan the barcode of your food and put it into my fitness pal, that doesn’t mean you are tracking calories.
Because if you aren’t actually weighing that food on a food scale, and you are just guesstimating the portion size.
Well guess what chief, you are guesstimating the calories. You really have no clue how many calories you are eating.
If you are guesstimating the calories, you are going to get guesstimating results.
Therefore before I dive into anything else here, PLEASE don’t be that person.
Make sure you can confidently say you are counting calories correctly.
I have an entire free video on step by step how to count calories, I can link that HERE. ( This is legit the same video I send my online coaching clients who pay me money to coach them ).
I also have an article HERE I wrote on the most common calorie counting mistakes.
I am harping on this because it is really, really important. Make sure you are doing all of the right things in order to see the progress you want to see.
How To Make Calorie Counting Easier : 7 Tips
Now that we are on the same page on how you need to be counting calories to see progress, let’s dive into 6 ways on how to make calorie counting easier.
Again, be sure to read through every one and make sure you are crystal clear on how to implement that into your daily routine.
Tip # 1 – Start Small
This is going to be something I steal right from what I do with my online coaching clients .
Especially if you are first starting off with counting calories or even if you have been for a while but are struggling, you need to find ways to make this less overwhelming.
It can be a lot at times to track your food, weigh it on your food scale, put it into your app, the whole 9.
I get it.
That is why one thing I have done religiously for any of my clients is the first week or two of working together, I simply just have them track their calories with no calorie goal.
No number they have to hit.
The goal is simply just to track calories as accurately as humanly possible. I don’t care what the number is at the end of the day, the main goal is to track!
This can help because oftentimes if you are fixated on hitting a calorie number, while you are already struggling to count calories to begin with, it creates a lot of stress, anxiety, and feeling of failure.
You are stressed about hitting a number or going over that number, while adding on top of this you don’t even know if you are doing it right!
Then if god forbid you do go over your calories a day or two ( don’t even get me started.. news flash, you won’t be perfect with your calorie count everyday! ), you feel even more like a failure!
This is why the first step I always tell people is to just TRACK.
Don’t worry about a number to hit or what the number comes to at the end of the day.
For a week or two, just get damn comfortable with the process of counting calories.
Using your food scale, weighing in grams, tracking every bite, using your app, etc.
Then after that, once you feel comfortable, then shoot to hit your calorie goal ( knowing you won’t be perfect still! ).
This way you aren’t putting so much unnecessary pressure on yourself, causing you to feel like a failure, and quit.
By the way, if you need or want to know how many calories you should eat to lose weight, you can head HERE for my free calculator.
Sound good?
Tip #2 – Eat Similar Foods
Here is where I am going to remind you the title of this article is “How To Make Calorie Counting Easier” not “How To Make Calorie Counting Sexier”.
Because this tip is certainly not going to be “sexy” but it is damn sure going to make your life easier.
One of the best tips I can give you to save you a whole lot of time, effort, and decision making, is to eat similar foods on a day to day, week to week basis.
If you want to take it even steps further, eat them in the same quantities.
When you eat similar foods every single day, what happens?
Number one your calorie counting app is going to remember them. Let’s say every morning you are having a certain type of oatmeal that you weighed out as 40g.
You won’t have to go in and re scan the oatmeal every single time, nor will you have to adjust the serving size.
If you wake up every morning and have 40g of oatmeal, your calorie counting app is going to remember that.
( Myself and my clients use the app My Fitness Pal to track our calories ).
You can just head to your app and plug it in the same as the day before or even the week before. Again your app should remember it.
Therefore that is one less you will have to worry about and save you some time on your end.
Also, you will start to know how many calories that is going to come out to each morning.
This will help with calorie counting but also it will help you start to visually see how many calories something comes out to be, what the portion size looks like, etc.
Or let’s say everyday you are having some watermelon.
If you consistently eat watermelon on a daily basis ( which, you should, it is amazing!! ) you will have to spend much less time counting the calories on it because it should be like clockwork at that point.
Let Me Say This…
I often get pushback on this because “ I don’t like to eat the same thing everyday!”.
Which, I get it.
I will ask you, do you like seeing results?
Haha… kidding… kind of.
Second, I am not saying you need to eat the same exact things everyday.
Of course you can have variety, but eating a lot of similar foods throughout the course of the week can save you a tremendous amount of time.
They also don’t have to be foods you hate, btw. They can ( and should! ) be foods you enjoy.
For example, everyday for me I have
- Steak
- White rice
- Spinach
- Watermelon
- Protein shake ( I LOVE Legion Athletics. Best tasting protein ever. You can head HERE and save 20% on your first purchase by using my code “ERIC” at checkout if you wanna try).
- Watermelon
- Bananas
- Greek Yogurt
Pretty much every single day. Yet, I enjoy all of those foods, thoroughly enjoy!
My favorite meal of all time is steak and rice. I can eat that everyday forever!
So it isn’t like I hate my life doing it and you don’t have to either.
Find foods you enjoy, eat them often, and make your calorie counting journey easier.
Tip # 3 – Eat Simple Foods
Again, another not so sexy one, as well as one I get pushback on, but again it is going to help tremendously.
Let’s be honest, if you are cooking a dish that has 69 different ingredients in it… Good luck tracking that.
Good luck doing the math equation of calorie counting that.
Now, you could ( and I actually have a whole article HERE on how to do that if you need to check that out ) but again, it is going to make it harder.
Not easier.
This article is on how to make calorie counting easier and less time consuming, not harder or more time consuming.
Eating simple foods are going to help you do just that.
By simple foods I mean one ingredient foods.
Oatmeal for example. That is a one ingredient food. It is just that, oatmeal.
Strawberries, one ingredient.
Steak, one ingredient.
Banana, one ingredient.
Do you get the trend here?
Now of course you can mix food. For example, if you wanted to throw some bananas into your oatmeal.
That is fine! Yet those are two one ingredient foods being combined.
That is still insanely easy to track and count. You count the banana, you count the oatmeal, perfect.
As opposed to making a dish that has all of these extravagant ingredients that make it impossible to count the calories with.
Now again, if that is something you enjoy doing, you can tell me to F off, I get it.
Yet if you are still reading this searching for how to make calorie counting easier, eating simple one ingredient foods is going to help you tremendously.
Save the complex dishes for maybe once a week, or for after a few weeks passes of you consistently counting calories, seeing results, changing your habits, etc.
Also, not for nothing, these one ingredient foods tend to keep you fuller longer as well as more satisfied.
So they are going to actually make sticking to your calorie count easier as well, which will help you see better results.
See? Helping you in anyway I can here.
Tip # 4 – Have 3-5 Go To Meals
This one is big.
This is something I use all the time with my coaching clients. I make them sit down and give me 3-5 breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack options that they are going to have no matter what.
This is going to do a few things.
Number one it is going to take the decision making and guesswork out of it.
Oftentimes people deem calorie counting as “hard” because they are trying to figure out what to eat on the fly.
There is no plan or no rhyme or reason. Just throwing slime at a wall and hoping it sticks.
You can’t live life that way and expect to be successful.
You have to have a plan.
Therefore taking some time to plan out 3-5 meals and snacks you can have and go to no matter what is going to give you that security blanket.
No matter what, you know you can have these go to meals and rock it.
Number two is going to be you will know the calories of these meals and can work it into your schedule!
If you have a meal of let’s say
- 150g of steak
- 100g of rice
- 50g of watermelon
- 50g of spinach
And you know that meal comes out to call it 550 calories.
Then you won’t have to wonder how many calories you are about to eat, if it is going to fit into you daily limit, or figuring out the calorie count.
You know exactly what you are going to eat and exactly how many calories it is.
No decision making, no guess work.
You can’t tell me that isn’t going to make your life easier.
One of the most important things I can stress to you about nutrition is you have to take out as much decision making and guesswork as you can.
The more you know and plan ahead of time the better.
Having 3-5 go to meals can help with that tremendously.
Not to mention, once again, you can save these meals in your calorie counting app.
If you want to have the same breakfast, just pull up the saved meal, and have it in there.
You won’t have to rescan or re enter the information, just literally click 3 buttons and you are good to go.
You still have to weigh your food out to make sure it is a proper portion size, but it can’t be much easier than that.
Pro Tip
Something I do, and a ton of my online coaching clients do to be successful, is what I am about to tell you.
We pick one meal a day and we eat the same thing damn near everyday.
Now obviously there are days where we switch up, again if you have a list of 3 breakfast options.
Maybe one week you do option one, next week option 2, next week option 3.
Whatever, but the point being, make one meal the same each day.
For the majority of my clients it is breakfast.
For me, it is breakfast.
Every. Single. Day. I have
- 1 greek yogurt
- 1 scoop of legion protein powder mixed with water
- 150g of watermelon
- 1 banana
Everyday.
Again, I love it. It gives me good energy, it is high protein, I feel great when I eat it.
But point being I eat that same thing everyday. Do you know how easy that is for me? I have the calorie count memorized by heart.
I would strongly encourage you to pick one meal a day and make it the same or very, very similar.
Make it something you like and enjoy, but there is no denying the fact that almost everyone I see who is successful at losing weight and changing their body does something like this.
By the way, I did an entire video on how to come up with your own specific meals. Again, this is essentially the same thing I do with my online coaching clients.
I will link that video HERE if you want to create your own!
Tip # 5 – Pre Portion Food
When it comes to how to make calorie counting easier this tip is great because this can apply to regular food or pre packaged food.
Let’s talk pre packaged food for a second.
Let’s take the greek yogurt I eat. I will put a pic of it here.
This greek yogurt is pre packaged, I know exactly how many calories are inside this container.
This portion size is already done for me. I know one container is x amount of calories, perfect!
Or let’s take my protein powder for example.
^^ this flavor is INSANE by the way. You can get that HERE and use my code “ERIC” for 20% off if you want to try.
Again, I know one scoop of protein is x calories for 22g of protein.
No wondering there, no guessing. The portion size is already done for me, I just follow it.
This can make your life a hell of a lot easier if you can find quality pre packaged foods.
Or let’s say you are making chicken breasts for example.
What you can do is before you cook them, cut the fat off, separate the breasts, with them on your food scale one by one, and put them into zip lock bags.
This way if and when you go to cook said chicken breast, you know exactly how much you are eating because you already pre portioned it out.
We can use watermelon as an example.
Let’s say you cut up a nice juicy watermelon. You can get some containers and say for every container I am going to put 100g of watermelon in these containers.
You weigh it out, make sure it is 100g, then put it in the container. Honestly you could even put a sticky note on it reminding yourself it is 100g.
Put it in the fridge for later and you are golden.
This way, you don’t even weigh the food later on! You know exactly the serving and how many calories it is because you did the work up front.
Just input it into your calorie counting app and you are good to go.
Less guesswork, less decision making, easier to follow.
You could do this with literally any food, not just watermelon or chicken breast.
Oatmeal in the morning, rice at night, whatever!
Tip # 6 – Pre Enter Your Day Of Eating
This one I won’t harp on too much because I basically already touched on it above.
Yet it is so important I just couldn’t leave it out.
We talked earlier about getting 3-5 meals, pre entering those meals and saving them in to my fitness pal.
Also talked about eating the same foods that will it will stay in my fitness pal.
You could take all of this a step further and do what a lot of my clients who are incredibly successful do.
This being, the night before, pre input you food into your calorie counting app for the next day.
Pre log your breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, all of it.
This way, during that day, you won’t have to log anything. You already know exactly what you are going to eat.
At this point you just make sure you eat that, not think about anything else, and you are good to go.
I cannot emphasize enough how much this has made an impact on my clients who are the most successful in their journey.
This is the quintessence of taking out the guesswork and decision making. You literally know exactly what you will eat in what quantity you will eat it in.
Does it take some planning and time up front? Yep, sure does.
Does it make things easier in the long run? Yep, sure as hell does!
If you are not already, I would strongly, strongly encourage you to pre log your food into your calorie counting app for the next day ahead.
You are basically guaranteeing success. Again, so many people try to fly by the seat of their pants, not going to work honey bunches of oats. Not going to work.
Tip # 7 – Eating Out & Tracking Calories
One thing that can be tough when counting calories is eating out.
You aren’t in 100% control of your food, you can’t weigh it on your scale.
So what do you do? Say f*ck it? Quit? Say since you can’t be perfect just throw your hands up and eat everything?
No Silly Goose!
You do the best you can!
I have an entire article on how to eat out at restaurants and track the calories in them so I won’t go super in depth.
I can link that HERE if you want to check it out.
Yet what I will say is once again, planning ahead.
Do they the menu online? If yes do they have the calories listed? ( Most chain restaurants do! ).
if no, what can you get to still be mindful of calories? Can you guesstimate given what you see on the menu?
Basically, yes your calorie count might not be perfect that day, and that is okay.
You don’t need to be perfect, you just need to be consistent.
Don’t freak out if here and there you have to guesstimate on calories, that shouldn’t be what you always do, but it is inevitable at times.
Make the best of the situation you can and keep things moving!
How To Make Calorie Counting Easier : Think About This…
Okay so you just read over 7 different tips you can immediately take into action today on how to make calorie counting easier.
Now, I want to talk about this.
I often get pushback from people saying something to the effect of “calorie counting takes too much time”.
Listen.
Yes, you are right, it does take extra time and effort from you.. Most things in life worth having normally do?
Therefore I would ask you.
Do you think it is worth it?
Let’s truly analyze how long it takes per day to use your food scale, use a calorie counting app, and count calories.
From doing this for a long, long time now, I would say anywhere from an extra 5-15 minutes per day, MAX.
There is no way in gods green earth you are spending more than 15 minutes counting calories per day, that I know for a fact.
Now, before I go into anything else, think about that.
15 minutes.
You probably spend more time scrolling on your social media feeds each day by FAR.
Or watching Netflix.
Or doing any various things not getting you closer to your fitness goals.
So, that being said, is 15 minutes a day worth it to you?
Is it reaching your goals worth 15 minutes?
Is feeling more confident, losing weight, fitting into a bathing suit, having your partner look at you actually excited to have sex, improving your blood pressure.
Improving your relationship with food, getting stronger, having more energy.
All of those things.
Is that worth 15 minutes of your day?
Idk, to me, and a lot of my clients, it is.
To you it might not be, I don’t know. But I do know it comes down to weighing out your costs vs benefits.
The benefits of you feeling physically and mentally better about yourself and your body, do those outweigh the costs of taking 15 minutes a day max to count calories?
I don’t know man, to me, the answer is hell yes.
I will let you decide that for yourself.
How To Make Calorie Counting Easier : The End!
Well you did it, you got through the whole thing!
See, it wasn’t that bad right?! Plus I know if you got this far you will at least take home one thing you can put into practice today to make calorie counting easier.
I hope you enjoyed the article.
If you are interested in coaching with me or my team, you can head HERE to fill out our application form.
All the best, and chat soon,
-E