Counting Calories: The Bane of Any Fitness Program

Let’s face it. None of us like to do it. Some of us don’t know how to do it. Some of us know how, but aren’t any good at it … all those numbers and conversions and deciding when to add, subtract, multiply or divide! Some of us are pretty good at it, but get really tired of all the time it takes to count everything that goes into our mouths every day. To overcome this kind of bad calorie karma, there must be a very strong “why” behind the need to do it. Fortunately, there are several, very good whys.



Like any other goal we want to achieve, the outcomes are strongly tied to what we put into it. Our pets’ social behavior is much enhanced if we put time and effort into training them. That big project at work is more successful if we put in the right amount of time, research and energy to get it done. Our cars run better if we spare the expense to maintain them properly. Similarly, our bodies become more fit if we make smart choices about what we feed ourselves, and the only way to make really smart choices about what we eat, is to become very familiar with the nutritional content of the food we prepare. Sure, we can read the nutrition facts on the package and we can read books about nutrition and all that is very worthwhile, but to take it to the next level, to be able to determine exactly what all this means in terms of our daily intake of food, we have to turn that microscope on ourselves and what goes into our mouths.



For years, we have associated “good food” with what tastes good. It’s mostly about what we like to eat, which is strongly driven by the types of food to which we are exposed. I’m not going to go into how food can be tied up with all kinds of psychological aspects of our lives, but it is, and therefore our lifetime of experiences with food very much drives the choices we make today. In order to change those choices, we must first understand what it is we’re eating and what it is we can eat that will help us be more fit.



The good news is that we don’t have to count calories forever. Once you’ve done it long enough to be aware of the basic nutritional content of the things you typically eat, and once you’ve made enough smart choices about food to know what to eat to achieve the daily caloric intake that works for you, then the daily counting is no longer necessary. You will be able to think back over the day and mentally assess both the quantity and quality of your food intake and decide what if anything you should add to it.



How long does this take? That depends on you and how much work is needed to boost you over the learning curve. I can tell you that it takes real commitment initially. I counted and charted calories for about 2 years, charting daily intake for stretches of six weeks to 4 months, with breaks between, before I reached the point where I can do this without charting. That’s not to say that I won’t ever chart again, but by being fully aware of everything I eat, stopping to choose whether to eat it or not, and looking up the nutritional value of new foods, I can effectively keep myself at or under my daily goal.



Here are some tips for counting calories.



• Find a good, go-to source for nutrition facts. This can be a book or a web site or a phone app, or a combination of several such things, but it’s important to know where you can go to find the information you need. I have found that putting “(food name) nutrition facts” into a search engine will do the trick most times.

• Decide whether you want to count your intake in calories or grams. There will always be the need to convert grams to calories to get the full picture, but on your chart, you can choose to record in calories or grams. I like calories. You’ll notice that nutrition facts typically give you total calories, fat calories, and then everything else in grams. This isn’t really enough information. I convert the grams into calories and count calories from fat, carbs, protein and total calories.



Converting Grams to Calories

Fat G X 9 = calories

Carbs G X 4 = calories

Protein G X 4 = calories



• Decide your method for keeping track of calories. There are a number of web-based methods for tracking your calories. If this is for you, find a site with nutrition information you trust and then sign up to track your daily intake. Most of these are free. Excel spread sheets are good for tracking as well as you can put in formulas to do the calculations. If you’re comfortable using Excel, this method may work for you. It’s my preferred method and I have a set of spread sheets that will help you calculate what your daily intake should be as well as chart your daily intake for free at http://groups.google.com/group/health-scape. There’s also nothing wrong with a pen and pad. Put it somewhere handy and just jot down what you’ve eaten, look up the caloric content and keep a running total each day. The method is only important to the extent that it works for you. Find one and stick with it.

• Be honest with your tracking. You don’t have to show this information to anyone else if you don’t want to, but you must be honest with yourself. It’s not okay to leave out that mocha frappuccino you grabbed after lunch just because you don’t usually do that. You need to know what you were putting into your body when you drank it and therefore you will be able to decide whether you want to do it again and how often. It’s not about taking away the things you really like; it’s about learning how to manage the things you really like so that they don’t interfere with your over-all fitness. (BTW, 16 ounces of Mocha Frappuccino Light with no whipped cream from Starbucks is 167 total calories, with only 18 fat calories. Not a bad thing to know, huh?)



I’m not trying to tell you that counting calories is easy, but I am trying to tell you that it is necessary. Understanding and regulating our daily nutrition is not a skill set that most people have. If we really want to get fit and maintain that fitness, it is a skill set we need to learn. Counting calories is how it’s done. Give it a try and I think you will be surprised at what you discover!