PROS vs CONS Of Calorie Tracking

Whether you’re looking to lose weight or gain muscle, there is one practice that makes all the difference. It’s known as ‘calorie tracking’ or ‘calorie counting’.

There are both pros and cons of doing it. Is it really worth doing, taking in to account how much time and effort it requires to do? Let’s have a look.

Tracking your calories instantly increasing your awareness

If you haven’t tracked calories before, it’s often a shock to find out that a basic sugar ring donut can be north of 250 calories.

In today’s world we’re bombarded by protein bars this and protein shakes that. But just because it says ‘protein’ on it, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s ‘healthy’. When you start to track calories, you begin to realise that protein flapjack you’re having with your lunch is 425 calories. You could have had.. well.. a second lunch?

Tracking calories opens your eyes to what is REALLY in food.

Calorie tracking improves your skill of ‘estimating portions’

Following on from the last point, when you start to track calories you often need to enter weights. This forces you to actually weigh food out.

You will VERY SOON realise that 1 single 30g serving of coco-pops is about 2 spoonfuls and not half a bowl full. You’ll also start to gain the skill of roughly estimating calories in foods when you eat out, so you can reduce the damage and still make progress.

Calorie tracking gives you CLEAR targets to aim for

Instead of counting sins or following healthy meal plans created by someone else – someone that requires different levels of calories to you – tracking your calories takes all confusion out of the equation.

Rather than simply guessing whether your meal is healthy or not, if this plan or that plan suits you or not, you can work to specific nutritional targets each day. If you go over slightly, you just need to eat slightly less the next day. It really is that simple.

Uncertainty is removed – therefore stress is reduced.

Calorie tracking is just about always guaranteed to work

Today’s fitness industry is home to many different tips, tricks, techniques and strategies to losing weight. There’s a new product, scheme and club brought out every week. Truth is, they all hide the real truth.

That truth is that you need to eat less calories than you burn off to actually lose weight. We talk about it here. Magic pills and shakes don’t exist. Tracking calories allows you to ensure you aren’t eating more than your body requires. It allows you to stay on track and it also gives you flexibility.

A sneaky trick is to multiply your daily calories by 7. This gives you ‘weekly calories’. This way, you can eat more on weekends where you’d usually go out for meals. Then you just need to wind it back in on over days. Easy work.

Potential issues.

It’s only fair that we talk about potential negatives to tracking calories. From there, you can decide for yourself if it’s for you!

It can be time consuming

Hands down the biggest reason many people we meet object to calorie tracking is that it’s time consuming. First you need to sit down and work out your calorie goal. You need to weigh your food out. Then you need to scan all the items of food or manually search for them.

With this being said, MyFitnessPal really does speed up the process and you can only get quicker and better at it as time goes on.

Everyone requires different calories

The UK government recommends women eat 2,000 calories per day whilst men require 2,500. The issue is that these are only guidelines. Matter of fact is that we as individuals all require different amounts each.

Just because your friend Susie is making great progress eating 1,800 calories per day doesn’t mean you will! However, we have explained easy ways to work out your calories here.

Eating to calorie goals doesn’t mean you’ll eat the right food

Unlike specific plans or programmes, just because you eat the right amount of calories doesn’t mean you’re eating the right type of food. Okay, so your calorie target is 1,800 for the day. Eating an 1,800 slab of cake for the entire day may mean you are within your calories, but it isn’t nutritionally balanced.

However, when you have a particular amount of calories to aim for each day, you will find all kinds of different ways to keep yourself full when eating less. One of the best ways is to eat lots of veg and protein.

Have a read of our other post ‘How many calories should you eat for WEIGHT LOSS?’