Counting calories sounds like a chore, but at its core it is just a budget: food is energy in, your body burns energy out. You do not need to be perfect — you just need to be roughly consistent.
Start with your TDEE
Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure is roughly how many calories your body burns in a day, based on your age, height, weight, sex and activity level. A calculator estimates it for you. From there, a modest deficit (a few hundred calories below TDEE) is the sustainable way to lose weight, rather than a crash diet.
Small deficit beats a crash diet
Extreme restriction is hard to stick to and easy to rebound from. A smaller, steady deficit is easier to maintain and kinder to your energy and mood. Slow progress is still progress.
Macros: protein, carbs and fat
- Protein — helps you stay full and holds onto muscle while you diet.
- Carbohydrates — your main fuel for daily activity and workouts.
- Fat — needed for hormones and absorbing vitamins.
You do not need to hit each gram exactly; aim to get enough protein and let carbs and fat fall where they fit within your calorie target.
Use a food database so you do not guess
Guessing portions is the fastest way to drift off target. Logging against a real food database — with the quantity and unit you actually ate — turns tracking from a guess into a habit, and a daily calorie arc makes it easy to see where you stand at a glance.
Want to do all of this in one private place? See Weight Tracker — or try it free on Google Play.