How to Count Calories for Weight Loss

The point of calorie counting for weight loss is to ensure that you are in a calorie deficit.

This is critical because being in a calorie deficit is the only proven way to lose weight.

The process of counting calories for weight loss involves four simple steps:

1. Determine how many calories you need to maintain your weight (maintenance calories).

You need to know your maintenance calories so that you can eat less than that and generate a calorie deficit.

There are many ways to estimate your maintenance calories, including different formulas that use your age, gender, and height.

My favorite is the calorie calculator at calculator.net because it’s very simple and performs the same calculation used by MyFitnessPal, which is a popular calorie counting website and app that I use daily.

All you need to do is enter your stats into the form. Your maintenance calories will be the first number displayed when you click calculate.

2. Set a daily calorie target for weight loss.

You know you must eat below your maintenance calories to lose weight. But how far below?

This depends on how quickly you want to lose weight.

A pound is 3,500 calories, so if you want to lose one pound per week, you’ll target 500 calories below maintenance per day.

If you want to lose weight faster, you’ll target a larger calorie deficit than 500 per day.

If you are okay with losing weight more slowly, you can target a smaller calorie deficit.

I suggest a calorie deficit of around 20%.

This is a large enough deficit that you will start to see results fairly soon, but not so large that it’s intimidating and difficult to stick to.

For example, if your daily maintenance calories are 2,000, a 20% calorie deficit would be 400 calories and you’d target a daily consumption of 1,600 calories per day.

3. Track your food.

The simplest way to do this is to use an app.

I recommend MyFitnessPal for reasons listed in this post.

Note: MyFitnessPal will do steps 1 and 2 for you when you sign up.

One thing to keep in mind is that your tracking will never be 100% accurate because it’s not always easy to find the calorie counts for the foods you eat. Just do your best.

MyFitnessPal has many generic food entries and you can always swap similar foods for something you can’t find.

For example, if you can’t find your school cafeteria pizza, enter Domino’s pizza instead.

The calories might not be exactly the same, but they will be similar.

4. Stick with it, monitor your progress, and make adjustments, if necessary.

When you first start tracking, it will take some time to learn the calorie counts for common foods you eat.

But over time, it will become easier and more intuitive, especially if you are using the time-saving features in MyFitnessPal like storing foods and copying meals from previous entries.

If you believe you are consistently in a calorie deficit but still aren’t making progress, then you are likely underestimating your calorie intake, overestimating your calorie expenditure, or both.

Making adjustments is an important part of the process that many people ignore.

They’ll try to count calories for a couple of weeks, not see results, and give up.

Calorie counting works, but you have to give it time.

You need to be diligent and honestly track your food for a long enough time to see results.

Once you do this, you will be convinced that weight loss is truly a numbers game (and one that you can win).

If you enjoyed this post, here are three more things you might like:

Calorie Counting Made Easy: My book on how to set a weight loss goal and use MyFitnessPal to lose weight counting calories in less than five minutes a day

Weekly Weight Loss Spreadsheet: A spreadsheet to help you lose weight on a predetermined schedule

Trying Not to Suck at Life: My weekly newsletter with specific and actionable tips and tools to help you improve your health, wealth, productivity, and happiness