Nutritional facts: how to use a food calorie counter


People do not realize it, but they are always on a diet. It sounds strange, but it is true! The term "diet" refers to what a person eats or drinks during the course of a day, activities we all do. If we do it too well, the consequence is that we gain weight and the reason why we usually change our diet for a much stricter one. There are many different types of diets, like the Atkins diet, the South Beach diet, Weight Watchers, lemon detox diet, Jenny Craig weight loss programs and many more. They all have their own set of rules, limit portions and refrain from certain food groups. One diet will focus on high protein intake while another will concentrate on low GI foods. There even are special diets for vegetarians and vegans.

Designing a successful weight loss plan requires careful planning and a strategy in which the amount of energy coming into the body from nutrition is slightly less than the energy used by the body, all without compromising health. This means that dieticians have to be able to determine the maximum amount of calories their patients can have to lose weight, yet without the risk of them getting sick.

Diets always refer to "calories" and that raises the following questions: "What are they, why do you count them and how?"

What are calories?

The amount of energy a food provides depends on how much protein, fat, and carbohydrates it contains. The body uses this nutrient-based energy to fuel all of its activities and when dieticians talks about calories they mean the amount of energy in food that is available through digestion.

A calorie is also often described as the amount of energy that is necessary to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1 degree Celsius. It is a fancy way for nutritionists to explain that food produces energy. How much energy will depend on the food and how it is digested: raw or prepared.

How do you count calories?

Counting calories is an important part of your weight loss journey. If you do not know how many calories you are consuming, you may never find out why you are losing too much weight or not enough.

The value of calories has been recognized for a long time and is one of the reasons why most foods and drinks today are packaged bearing a detailed label containing nutritional information. Some grocery stores will even display dietary facts near fresh foods, like fruits, vegetables, and fish. Deciphering food labels is not that difficult, especially if you are looking for the amount of calories that are packed in one single serving. All this data can generally be found right on top of the label.

Once you know the amount of calories in your chicken soup, your slice of wholegrain bread, the margarine spread and the vanilla yogurt you had for dessert, you add them all up and you know exactly how many calories were packed in your lunch. When you do that for every meal of the day, add the in-between snacks and all drinks, and total them all up, at the end of the day, you will know exactly what your daily calorie intake was.

Of course, not all of our foods have convenient labels. Bulk foods, fresh fruits and vegetables have no handy sticker, nor do the meals you prepare at home. All ingredients have to be accounted for and that includes spices, bouillon, butter, cooking spray, oil and anything else you mix into your pots and pans. Trying to figure out the totals of those calories totals may be a bit tricky, unless you use a food calorie counter.

Using a food calorie counter

A decent online food calorie counter will allow you to search through a huge food database to find the calorie and nutritional information of the foods you eat. They will have various categories for you to choose from, as well as a "search" feature that will pull up foods listed in subcategories not displayed on the main results page. This means that when you type in "tuna" you will have access to the calorie amount of the most common tuna dishes, from fried tuna cakes and patties to tuna with rice in a cream-based sauce. The food calorie counter will even give you the amount of calories and Kilojoules, a nutritional breakdown (total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrates, dietary fiber, sugars and protein) and a table showing you how long you will need to exercise to burn off the calories of one of your chosen food portions. This will of course, only be necessary if you have already exceeded your daily calorie ration.

Understanding your diet is imperative and not just when you want to lose a few pounds. What you eat and drink will affect your entire body, including your energy levels and your health. They are the most important fundamentals of your being and you sure do not want to mess with them! So, whenever you can, check your food labels and count your calories.