Guide
How to Track Calories
Tracking calories for a few weeks is one of the fastest ways to learn what's really on your plate. You don't have to do it forever. Here's how to do it accurately without letting it take over your life.
Step 1: Know your target
Start with a daily number to aim for. The calorie calculator works it out from your age, height, weight, activity and goal.
Step 2: Pick a way to log
A free calorie tracking app on your phone is the easiest option for most people. Look for one with barcode scanning and a big food database. A notebook works too. The method matters less than doing it every day for a few weeks.
Step 3: Get a kitchen scale
A basic digital scale costs very little and makes your logs far more accurate. Weigh foods like rice, pasta, meat, cereal, nuts and cheese, where portions are easy to misjudge. A "handful" of nuts can be 150 calories or 350.
Step 4: Read the label the right way
| Country | What the label shows | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| United States, Canada | Calories per serving | The serving size. A bag may hold 2 or 3 servings. |
| United Kingdom, Ireland | kcal and kJ per 100 g, often per portion too | Use the kcal figure and your own portion weight. |
| Australia, New Zealand | Energy in kJ per serve and per 100 g | Divide kJ by 4.184 to get calories. |
Step 5: Log raw weights and full recipes
- Weigh meat, rice and pasta raw. Cooking changes the weight a lot. If you can only weigh it cooked, the raw to cooked converter gives you the right number.
- Add up home recipes once. Put your ingredients into the recipe macro calculator, weigh the cooked pot, and you can log any portion in seconds.
- Count cooking oil and butter. They're the most common thing people forget, at about 100 to 120 calories per tablespoon.
- Log drinks. Coffee drinks, juice, soda and alcohol all count.
Step 6: Eating out
In the US, chains with 20 or more locations show calories on their menus. In England, larger restaurants, cafés and takeaways have had to show calories since 2022. Elsewhere, look up the restaurant's nutrition page or log the closest match in your app and add a little extra for oil and sauces.
Step 7: Look at the trend, then relax
After two to three weeks, compare your logs with your weight trend. If you're losing at the expected pace, your tracking is working. Once you know your usual portions, you can track less often and only check in when progress stalls.
Common questions
Do I need a food scale to count calories?
It isn't required, but it helps a lot. Studies show people regularly underestimate portions, and a cheap kitchen scale removes most of the guesswork.
How do I convert kilojoules to calories?
Divide kilojoules by 4.184. A food with 840 kJ has about 200 calories. Labels in Australia and New Zealand show kJ, and many UK and European labels show both.
How long should I track calories?
Two to four weeks is enough for most people to learn their usual portions. After that, many people track only now and then, or when progress stalls.
Should I log food raw or cooked?
Raw, when you can. Raw weights don't change with cooking time. If you weigh food cooked, make sure you log a cooked entry.
This article is general information, not medical advice. If you have a health condition, are pregnant or take regular medication, check with your doctor before changing how you eat.