Counting Calories

• 1). Open your computer's website browser and navigate to the Free Dieting: Calorie Calculator website found in the "Resources" section. Fill in your information, including your age, sex, height, weight and exercise level and click the "Calculate" button to calculate the amount of calories you should intake every day. Write this number down in your food log as your ideal daily caloric intake. An average person should consume around 2,000 calories a day, but this number can vary greatly.
  
  
• 2). Read the nutritional label of every food item you wish to eat before you eat it. The FDA requires that every packaged food product displays a nutritional label that details the nutrients found in one serving of the food, as well as the amount of calories in one serving and how many of those calories come from proteins, carbohydrates, alcohols and fats. If you plan to eat an item that does not have a nutritional label, such as food at restaurants or a freshly cooked meal, a number of websites provide nutritional information for common foods and restaurants. Several of these websites are listed in the "Resources" section.
  
  
• 3). Locate the section of the nutritional information (whether found on a label or on a website) that details the amount of calories contained in one serving of the food. If the nutritional label does not have the amount of calories contained in the food, but does have the amount of fats, proteins, carbohydrates and alcohols, use the following values to calculate your caloric intake: carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram, proteins have 4 calories per gram, fats have 9 calories per gram and alcohols have 7 calories per gram. Subtract any grams of fiber from the grams of carbohydrates, multiply the number of grams of each item by its respective number of calories and add the values up to receive the calorie value for one serving.
  
  
• 4). Multiply the calorie value for one serving of the food by the amount of servings you are eating. For example, if you are eating half a serving, multiply the value by one-half, and if you are eating four servings, multiply the value by four. Write in your food log the name of the food you ate and how many calories it contained. Keep this food log for every food item you eat and add their values up daily. Keep your daily caloric intake at the level you determined in step 1 of this section.
  
  

Counting Carbohydrates

• 1). Complete step 1 of the above section to determine your ideal daily caloric intake. Each person should receive roughly half of their calories from carbohydrates, so it is important to know what your caloric goal is so that you may determine your carbohydrate goal.
  
  
• 2). Divide your caloric goal by two to determine your caloric carbohydrate goal. Divide this number by four to determine the number of grams of carbohydrates you should consume. For example, a person on a 2,000 calorie diet would need to consume 250 grams of carbohydrates daily.
  
  
• 3). Read the nutritional label or find the nutritional information for the food you are eating on one of the websites listed in the "Resources" section. Locate the amount of carbohydrates in a single serving of the food you are eating. Multiply this number by the number of servings you are eating to determine the amount of carbohydrates you consume.
  
  
• 4). Write the name of the food and the amount of carbohydrates it contained in your food log. Keep this log for every food item you eat and add up their values daily. Keep your carbohydrate intake at the level you determined in step 2 of this section.