Do you know how to count calories to lose weight?

It’s easy. 

All you need is an app like My Fitness Pal.

Or, if you want a coach, a meal planner, and accountability, together with a calorie counter, keep reading.

How to count calories

You don’t have to study rocket science to count calories. 

Apps made things simple, like one plus one equals two.  

There are apps like My Fitness Pal, where you can log any food, and the app will do the rest.

My Fitness Pal is a free app you can download from your app store. Its food data is enormous. 

Or, if you want to lose weight quickly and get toned, combine a calorie deficit diet with an exercise regime.

The guys at Workout Anywhere and Rundle Fit put together an online coaching program.

The program involves working out anywhere, anytime. Whether at home, while traveling, or in the bush. You can get your workout done anytime, anywhere, on any planet.

Or, you can do it all yourself by following this guide. This article is part ⅘ of our lose weight at home workout series.

The following is how to count calories:

1. Measure your meal.
2. Log into your calorie counter app.
3. Search the database and log it in.

Simple right?

Weighing every dish can be tedious and something you will get tired of after a while.

I recommend getting a kitchen scale for more accuracy.

In saying that, you don’t have to be 100%. Even if your food is not in the app’s database, you can pick the closest thing.

The shocking thing you’ll find when you count calories is how much you overeat.

And this is a good thing.

I didn’t know I was going over my calorie maintenance until I started counting calories.

Now that I am more aware, I am more conscious of how much I eat. 

What are calories?

Calories are energy. We get energy from the food and drinks we put inside our bodies.

To lose weight, we have to eat fewer calories than we need.

However, you have to find a safe calorie deficit. 

You go too low, and your body will be malnourished.

Overeat, and you’ll blow up.

How many calories should you eat?

Usually, a calorie deficit of 500 is enough to make you lose weight.

A 500 calorie deficit diet is safe, and it’s what I recommend. 

It is sustainable, not too drastic, and you will lose weight if you stick to the diet.

What I don’t recommend is doing 1500 calories less than your maintenance. 

A calorie deficit of more than 1000 will deprive your body of essential vitamins and minerals that your body needs.

I’ve seen the worst fad diets around, and some of them are popular among young people, especially in Korea. K-pop is the dream and holds a significant influence on young Koreans, and there is a particular image attached to K-pop. Yup, you guessed it, skinny AF.

Read our article about K-pop’s most dangerous fad diets. 

Do you need to count calories to lose weight?

Counting calories is fine and dandy. But you don’t have to.

You can sweat out the calories by doing cardio and resistance training.

However, If you combine counting calories with a workout regimen, you will get to your weight loss goals quicker. 

Other than losing weight faster, you will also sculpt your body to perfection. 

You want a plump booty? Workout your butt muscles.

Saggy arms? Train your biceps and triceps.

Skinny legs? Squat.

When you don’t overeat and you only eat when hungry. And, you do some cardio to lose some calories. At the end of the week, you’re at a calorie deficit. 

So should you count calories or just exercise?

It really comes down to what you prefer. If you’re the type who loves food, like me, then you need to exercise. 

Now, I love food. And, I admit that I overeat when the food is just too good.

Moreover, my body is cursed with a slow metabolism and lazy muscles.

That’s why I have to work much harder than most. Cardio is essential for someone like me to lose the fat and keep it off.

Do you need to count calories to lose weight? Yes and no. Maybe?

It depends on how your body metabolizes food. Everyone is different.

Count calories app

As I mentioned, the app I was using to count my calories was My Fitness Pal, free in your app store. 

Here are also some nice ones that you can try:

• Lose it
• Fat secret
• Cron-o-meter
• SparkPeople

I have never used any of these apps in my life. Well, I probably used SparkPeople, vaguely remember.

Luckily Healthline wrote about them intensively. And this is what they had to say about these calorie counting apps’ pros and cons. If you want to learn more about them, click on this link.

Lose it

Pros:

• Lose It! has a food database complete with popular restaurants, grocery stores, and brand-name foods, all of which are verified by their team of experts.
• The app lets you set reminders to log your meals and snacks.

Cons:

• It’s hard to log home-cooked meals or calculate their nutritional value.
• The app can be tricky to navigate.
• Lose It! doesn’t track micronutrients.

Fat Secret

Pros:

• The food database is comprehensive, including many supermarket and restaurant foods.
• Foods submitted by other users are highlighted so that users can verify if the information is accurate.
• FatSecret can present net carbs, which may come in handy for low-carb dieters.

Cons:

• The interface is somewhat cluttered and confusing.

Cron-o-meter

Pros:

• Easy to use.
• You can sync data from health devices to the app and import weight, body fat percentage, sleep data, and activities.
• It tracks all micronutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, and trace elements.

Cons:

• Cron-o-meter does not divide the food diary into meals.
• You can only add a home-cooked recipe on the website, not the app. However, the meal will be available in the app after that.
• It does not have a social community of users.
• Although the website is free, the app costs $2.99.

SparkPeople

Pros:

• The website is full of resources on a variety of topics.

Cons:

• The site may be overwhelming for new users since it contains so much information.
• The content is spread over several apps based on different forums. For example, there is one app for pregnant women and another for recipes.
• Users sometimes have trouble logging foods into the app.

As you can see, there are apps to count calories. You don’t need to break out the calculus formula or start solving mathematical problems. 

Conclusion

Sure, you can count calories to track how much you are eating. You will lose weight by just tracking your calories and staying consistent. 

A surefire way to lose weight and the fastest way to a perfect body is to incorporate cardio and resistance training to calorie counting.

There are plenty of Youtube videos about working out at home.

You can watch that, keep yourself motivated, and do it all on your own.

But, as I found out about myself. I need accountability to lose weight.

A personal trainer wouldn’t hurt either to push my lazy ass off the couch.

And Workout Anywhere got it right. You can even earn a reward.

Meal plan, recipes, workout plan, and more…

Find out more about Workout Anywhere by clicking here.

Workout Anywhere could be too much for you. How about a book?

This Ultimate Workout Home Plan book costs only $9. That’s the price of two lattes. 

Do you know how much Dietitians, Personal Trainers, and motivation coaches charge? A consultation from a dietitian alone will set you back $100 to $200. 

What if this book can give you the knowledge to set your meal plan, devise your workout routine, and keep you motivated? Would you buy it for a low price of $9?