Should I be tracking all my nutrition or just calories?

[PaulLo]

Do I need to track everything that goes into what I eat including sugar, macros, nutrients and all that, or is calories enough? I feel like things are getting complicated with tracking and I'm not sure how to keep up.

[chefmel]

I guess it all depends on what your goals are. If you're calorie counting, that's all you need. If you're balancing your macros with a low fat, low carb, etc etc diet, then that's what you'll want to watch. If you're also trying to track your sugars or iron consumption or something like that, you'll want that. Don't overwhelm yourself with data. Just check out the things that are relevant to you. Otherwise, you'll feel like you can't keep up with it all. It'll get too complex. No daily food combination is perfect every single day.

[CuJo1992]

I think that calories should always be something you've generally got your eye on, but it's always helpful for you to watch your macro balance just to better understand your nutrition and how you can improve it. Added sugars are always something you'll want to decrease. YOu can never go wrong with aiming to get rid of those.

[aliceiiii]

Hi! Thanks for sharing! Counting calories might help you lose weight by increasing your awareness of what you consume on a daily basis. This might assist you in identifying eating patterns that you may need to adjust in order to stay on track to meet your objectives. You always need to be aware of what you are eating. Just my short story. I'm trying to keep an eye on my sleeping habit. And I love coffee with sugar and milk but cannot drink it regularly because it affects my sleep. I recently was searching about coffee. I was looking for info to understand why my body reacts to coffee in this way. Finally, I found an interesting article. It was How Many Calories Are In Coffee? Here is the link https://coffeehustle.org/how-many-ca...are-in-coffee/ . It is said that all the calories in coffee are from added products such as sugar, milk, and so on. In terms of snacks. Just imagine, coffee by itself has no calories.

[PaulLo]

Thanks to everyone who has commented. I can see that everyone else seems to be finding their way. For me, I feel like there is too much to think about to be healthy. I just want to start in one place because I know I need to lose weight. I can learn more stuff over time but just getting started is starting to feel too confusing. Everybody says to track something different. What's the first step?

[freddyboy]

Hi! Thanks for sharing! Counting calories might help you lose weight by increasing your awareness of what you consume on a daily basis. This might assist you in identifying eating patterns that you may need to adjust in order to stay on track to meet your objectives. You always need to be aware of what you are eating. Just my short story. I'm trying to keep an eye on my sleeping habit. And I love coffee with sugar and milk but cannot drink it regularly because it affects my sleep. I recently was searching about coffee. I was looking for info to understand why my body reacts to coffee in this way. Finally, I found an interesting article. It was How Many Calories Are In Coffee? It is said that all the calories in coffee are from added products such as sugar, milk, and so on. In terms of snacks. Just imagine, coffee by itself has no calories.

I love black coffee. I used to get a specialty coffee every day as my treat to myself. Then I found out how much fat, sugar and all that was in there. I could have been having a hamburger instead! Now it's all about coffee on its own, or with a little bit of cinnamon in it if I get a bitter coffee. Good point to share, aliceiiii Coffee seems so innocent until you look at what you add to it, right?

[speeddemon]

I agree that if you're going to track your food, go for it. Use an option that will track calories and nutrition so that when you wonder about how you're doing at any point, you'll have a record. Remember that it's not just a matter of what you eat in one day. It's trends over time that really matter.

[madscientist]

Start with one thing and grow what you track over time as you get the hang of it. Dont' overwhelm yourself but don't forget the importance of a lot of other factors beyond calories when it comes to nutrition and weight loss and other goals.

[philiprotstein1]

First, you need to understand what a calorie deficit is and how it works. Everything that you eat has calories. So you can't count in only tasty stuff. In fact, such a basic thing as bread has lots of calories per 100gr. A hundred grams of white bread typically has a whopping 400kcal! So if you eat couple sandwiches you already balancing on the edge of consuming your daily limit.
I hope you got the idea of calorie norms.
It is so important to count everything. Only then you will see the progress.
Good luck and take care!