What is the importance of counting calories in relation to the food you eat? You’ll often see this type of question posed in a fad diet book. Many of the books will tell you that calorie counting isn’t important at all. Some will say to count portions rather than calories because counting calories is too hard.

These people have a point: trying to count everything is quite a chore. Still, it’s dangerous to discount the importance of calories.

You can’t eat all you want and still lose weight, in spite of what some people will say. People trying to make money don’t want to emphasize hard work like tracking calories.

That doesn’t change the fact that calories are involved in the law of nature.

This law says that to maintain weight as you are now, you can’t eat more calories than you use. While I agree that portion control is important, I also think it’s important to know how many calories are in the food you eat, even if it’s at a restaurant.

When you gain weight, that means you have too many calories (more than what you are burning).

To lose weight, you have to have a calorie deficit: burn more than you eat. If you don’t have an idea of what the caloric content of your food is, you won’t be able to know if you are taking in too many or too few calories.

See, eating too little is bad too because your metabolism slows down, reducing caloric use.

What I think you should do is to make a menu using either Excel or a nutrition program.

This lets you have something on paper that can help you stick to your calorie goals. This gives you a general guide without having to micro manage every single thing you put in your mouth.

This will train you after a while to have some discipline with what you eat and eventually you’ll be able to estimate your calories effectively. The bottom line is that you will need to develop a healthy respect for calories so you can lose or maintain your weight.