How to make calorie counting easy I Meal planning for calorie counting
In this instructional video, Eric Roberts walks viewers through seven concrete tactics to simplify calorie counting and meal planning, emphasizing that accurate tracking is the essential first step. He begins by urging viewers to ensure they are counting calories correctly, referencing a separate tutorial on proper counting methods. The core strategies are: (1) start small by focusing solely on tracking calories before adding goals; (2) use a calorie range rather than a single target to reduce stress; (3) eat similar, one‑ingredient foods so the same items are repeatedly logged; (4) develop 3–5 go‑to meals for each meal period, saving them in a tracking app; (5) rely on pre‑portioned foods (e.g., Greek yogurt cups, rice cakes, protein powder) to eliminate weighing; (6) pre‑enter meals in MyFitnessPal (or a similar app) the night before to streamline daily logging; and (7) apply these principles when eating out by checking restaurant calorie info, choosing simple foods, and estimating portions. Throughout, Roberts frames the extra 10–15 minutes per day spent tracking as a worthwhile trade‑off for weight‑loss, health, and confidence gains. The video concludes with a motivational reminder to stay honest, consistent, and to view calorie counting as a small, beneficial habit.
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YouTube, what's going on? Welcome back to the channel. In this video, I'm first going to make sure that my mic is on because I just recorded a video recently where my mic wasn't on, and we are good to go. In this video, we're going to be talking about how to make calorie counting easier. I often get— sometimes get some pushback in terms of how to count calories, and calorie counting takes a lot of time, and calorie counting is this, and hopefully this video is going to make it Easier for you to count your calories, see results, see progress, lose weight, gain weight, whatever your goal is, this video's gonna help, right? So we're gonna have an intro, 7 main topics we're gonna talk about, and then an outro. And both of those things are very important, that's why I put 'em in different colors so it signifies importance. I think at least that's what different colors signifies to me, is it is important. So intro, very quickly. If you do not know how to count calories, head to this video right here, and that is going to teach you exactly how to count calories. And I say this, and I really, really need you to understand this: most people do not count calories correctly. So if you're somebody who thinks you know how to count calories, I would still go check out that video because that is going to be the most important part of this entire process because If you are not counting calories accurately, none of this is going to help or make sense. It probably will help, but it probably won't make sense. And so if you don't know how to count calories, please either watch that video beforehand or watch the video afterwards after we've gone over this stuff. All right? So number 1, again, that's very, very, very important. Most people right now, vast majority of people I talk to, are not counting calories correctly. So please make sure that you are counting calories correctly. Okay? So that's the intro. Just really quickly, just wanna make sure you know that. Now, number 2, starting— I'm sorry, number 1, number 2, but number 1, diving into the first 7 things we have here, starting small. When it comes to how to make calorie counting easier, start small. So many people dive into it and they get super overwhelmed. They don't know how to start. They don't know what to do. They don't know how to weigh their food. They don't know how to track calories. Do I use an app? What do I do? Again, if you don't know how to track calories, head to that video and watch that video. But once you watch that video, once you know how to track calories, start small. What I do with my clients a lot of times is we just go from, let's say, one week, all we're doing is tracking calories. That's it. We're not worrying about how many calories to hit. We're not worrying about how much protein to hit. We're not worrying about staying in a calorie range or carbs or fats, none of that. We're just focused on tracking calories, learning how to track calories, because tracking calories is a skill. Skill. So you have to make sure you understand how to actually track calories. So the first week, just track calories. Don't focus on, oh my God, I got to hit this goal. It's going to put more pressure on you. It's going to put more stress on you. Don't worry about that. Just worry about tracking calories, number one. Let's say that goes on for a week or two, which by the way, it very well might take you a week or two to actually learn how to track calories correctly. And that's okay. It's what it's supposed to happen. You're, you're learning a new You don't learn how to ride a bicycle or drive a car in a day. You're not gonna learn how to do calorie counting in a day. So it's gonna take some time and some trial and error, and that's okay, man, but just know that up front. Let's say the second week you go to, okay, now I'm gonna continue tracking calories and I'm gonna try to hit a calorie goal. Whether that calorie goal, you know, again, one little hack here, I didn't write it down, but one little hack here, making calorie counting easier. Let's say you do have a calorie goal. Stop trying to hit one exact number. Give yourself a range. So let's say, for example, you are trying to eat 1,800 calories a day. Eat anywhere between 1,700 to 1,900 calories. Listen, if you eat 1,742 or 1,832, if you're in that 1,700 to 1,900 calorie range, you are 2 thumbs up good to go for that day. And so that's a little side hack right there to make calorie counting easier. Give yourself a range of calories. Stop trying to hit exactly one, one number because that's probably what's freaking you out as well. Give yourself a range. And so now the second week of you counting calories, you're learning how to count calories still. Now you have a calorie range. Awesome. You're working that stuff in, right? You're starting small. You're building up. Let's say week 3 or 4, you're like, all right, you know what? I'm gonna keep counting calories. I'm gonna keep trying to hit my calorie goal and I'm gonna work in a protein goal. So now you can work in a protein goal and say, hey, I'm gonna try to get X amount of grams of protein per day, which if you don't know how many grams of protein to eat per day, I've done a video on my YouTube channel about that as well, so check that out, why don't ya? And so you can add that in. And honestly, that's usually the extent of what I go with with my clients. We normally don't go into tracking carbs and fats. We just normally track our calories, track our protein, hit those 2 goals, hit those 2 things, and you're 2 thumbs up good to go. If you hit your calories and you hit your protein, your carbs and fats can only be but so much because you're hitting your calorie goal And you're hitting your protein goal. So that's my 2 cents in terms of starting small. Start by just learning how to track calories. Start by just, you know, learning how to input food into your whatever, MyFitnessPal or whatever app you're using. Learn how to weigh your food on a food scale. Learn how to read serving sizes and labels and that kind of stuff. Then from there, just start with giving yourself a calorie goal and a calorie range goal. So not one number, just a range goal, and then having a protein goal, and then from there, You know, after 3 or 4 weeks you will start to become very efficient at counting calories. I just like spit everywhere. Good thing there's nobody in front of me. You'll become very efficient at counting calories and that can help you for all the rest of this stuff moving forward. Oftentimes I see people get very overwhelmed when they first start counting calories 'cause they're trying to hit their macros and their carbs and their protein and hit this one number. Make it easier on yourself, right? So that is number 1. Now, going down to number 2. Similar. Eat similar foods. If you eat similar foods, you are going to make it that much easier for you to count calories. And remember, the title of this video was how to make calorie counting easier, not sexier, not more fun or whatever the case may be. And actually it will be more fun because you're gonna see more results and seeing more results is more fun, but it's how to make calorie counting easier. Eating similar foods every single day throughout the week—that is going to make your life easier. Now, I don't need you to eat like the same exact meal, the same exact thing. Like you can have some variety, but like you know, you can almost like make a list. For example, make a list of your go-to foods. Like I can name the foods off top of my head that I eat every single day is going to be a protein shake. It's going to be banana. It's going to be watermelon. It's going to be rice, white rice. It's going to be cream of rice. It's going to be spinach and it's going to be chicken and it's gonna be Greek yogurt. Like, those are the, you know, 7, 8, 9, 10 foods that I eat every single day. And it's just like throughout the week. And I'll have in different variations. I'll cook my chicken differently or I'll cook my steak differently or I'll have my banana. Like, it varies. But like, those foods I eat every single day. And when it comes to counting calories, that makes it substantially easier on you for 2 reasons. Number one, If you are using some kind of calorie counting app and you also kind of eat the similar foods in the similar portion sizes, your calorie counting app is gonna remember that. So you won't have to just keep going, reentering, reentering, reentering. It makes things very, very seamless for you. Number 2, if you're having 100 grams of cream of rice every single day, for example, you are gonna start to know exactly how much that is and exactly how many calories it is, exactly how— What it looks like on the scale, all that kind of stuff. So it makes things easier on you. So I'd really challenge you, you know, come up with your, you know, 7, 8, 9, 10 foods, go-to foods that you have every single day that can help you eat similar foods throughout the week. It makes it so much easier, guys. And I oftentimes get a lot of pushback to people saying like, oh, well, it sounds boring, or whatever the case may be. Remember, these foods are foods you actually enjoy. All those foods I just listed, I love Greek yogurt, I love watermelon, I love, I enjoy eating chicken, I love my rice, I love my cream, like I love those foods, I enjoy eating those foods. And so come up with your foods that you enjoy eating and eat those frequently throughout the week. It makes this process a lot easier, I promise you. And if you're like, if you're someone who doesn't wanna do that, I would just encourage you to please try it 'cause I promise you it'll make it easier. That's number 2. Number 3, and piggybacking off the last thing here, eat simple one-ingredient foods. I'm going to go through my list I just told you. I said I have a banana. How many ingredients is in a banana? One. It's a fucking banana. I said watermelon. How many ingredients is in a watermelon? Guess what? It's just one. It's a watermelon. How many ingredients is in chicken? Guess what? It's just one. How many ingredients is in White rice, guess what? It's just one. One-ingredient foods. Apple, chicken breast, eggs, Greek yogurt. They're one-ingredient foods. That's it. Eating one-ingredient foods can make your calorie counting journey so much easier. And again, the title of this video is not Make Calorie Counting Sexier. The title of this video is How to Make Calorie Counting Easier. If you wanna make it easier, eat simple one-ingredient foods. Ingredient foods for so many reasons. Number one, it is so much easier to track your calories and track your food if you're— let's say you're having, you know, let's say for dinner you're having salmon and rice and spinach. And again, not to say you can't like, you know, put some seasoning on the spinach. Like, if you want to put some seasoning on the spinach, put some seasoning on the fucking spinach, man. If you want to put some seasoning on your salmon, put some seasoning on it. Like, you can do those things. It doesn't have to be plain plain nothingness, but like you can find zero-calorie seasoning to put on top of your foods to make them taste good. But let's say you're having salmon, white rice, spinach, right? Let's say you're having that versus this big casserole or this big pasta dish that you're having. Which one do you think is gonna be more easier to track? You can weigh your salmon, you can weigh your rice, you can weigh your spinach. One-ingredient foods. A casserole where it has this, that, this, that, and the other, It's just gonna make it harder for you, right? It literally just makes the process more involved, more in-depth. It makes things harder for you. So especially earlier on, if you're somebody who's learning how to count calories or getting used to counting calories or whatever the case may be, eating simple one-ingredient foods is going to be massively, massively beneficial for you. And again, one-ingredient foods— what is oatmeal? It's a one-ingredient food. White rice? It's a one-ingredient food. An apple. It's a one ingredient, like one ingredient foods, not going to the grocery store and buying these things that are like, you know, they have this laundry list of ingredients there. Like it's gonna be harder to track it. And again, when you're making things, when you're making meals, making dinners, make it, you can combine, but like make it one ingredient things. It makes this process so much easier on yourself. Or when you're going out to eat, for example, when you're going out to eat, you can still get salmon, you can still get rice, you can still get a salad. Like those are one ingredient foods. Right? So keep that in mind. Again, that makes things so much easier. I do that to this day. And also, just by the way, it's really hard to overeat on one-ingredient foods. Very hard. Very hard to overeat on one-ingredient foods. So that's why I'd say number 3. Number 4, piggyback right on top, have 3 to 5 go-to meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And if you have not yet watched my video on meal prepping and grocery shopping, I'll link that video here above. I have a few videos on meal prep and grocery shopping, so feel free to check that out. But have your 3 to 5 go-to meals, man. This will do a few things for you. Number one, it's gonna take out the guesswork and it's gonna take out the decision-making. So many times we have all this stuff going on all day. We got our kids, we got our job, we got this, we got that. There's so many things going on. If you can take out the decision-making from your food choices, it makes life so much easier on you, man. I promise you it does. So it takes out the decision-making. But number 2, if you have these 3 to 5 go-to meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you know no matter what, you can go to those meals. You know how many calories they are. You know how to make them. You know what the foods are. You know you will enjoy them. It makes this process once again just so much easier. You don't have to think about what are you going to eat. You won't have to think about am I going to hit my calories? Does this fit in my calories? You have these meals that are on autopilot. Like you just know. Like for me, for example, Chicken and rice, man. I eat it every single day. I love it. I enjoy it. I know for a fact that's gonna get me to my goals. I know for a fact. There's no, like, guesswork. There's no wondering. There's no worrying. Like, I know it's gonna get me to where I wanna be. I know it's gonna fit in my goals. I know I can make it taste good. Like, 3 to 5 go-to meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I would challenge you to take some time out of your day to make those. And again, this way, when you go into MyFitnessPal or whatever app you're using, the cool thing is... You can go into these apps and save this recipe, right? So let's say you're— or save a meal. So let's say you have this meal and you're like, hey, I want to save this meal. Now when you go to have that meal again, all you got to do is just pull the thing up, press it, and you're good to go. That's it. Takes 6 seconds to, you know, put your thing in MyFitnessPal or whatever app you're using. So 3 to 5 go-to meals. Again, if you have not watched my videos on meal prep and grocery shopping, check those 2 things out. I think it will help you out a ton. So Number four. Now, number five: pre-portioned foods. Very, very, very easy. So I grabbed some foods for you. Let's say Greek yogurt, for example. You heard me talk about Greek yogurt, right? This is a pre-portioned size, so I know how many calories it has. I know how much how many grams of protein it has. I know because it's already pre-portioned right there. I don't have to weigh it. I don't have to do anything. It's already there. It's pre-packaged, man. You know exactly what you're getting from. That makes getting your protein goal, for example, or hitting your calories or whatever the case may be so much easier because it's already done for you. It's pre-portion size, right? Let's take these rice cakes, for example. For one rice cake, and again, you can weigh out the rice cake, but for one rice cake, it's 50 calories and 11 grams of carbs. It's right there. This is right there for you. You don't have to do anything with this. This is already a pre-portion size of something. You already got this there for you. Let's talk about protein powder, for example. Protein powder, one scoop, okay? One scoop is 100 calories. You know it's already done for you. It's pre-portioned. Finding things that are pre-portioned already to take out a lot of the guesswork, to take out the even work in general. Like, all you gotta do is scan this and you're good to go. Like, it'll tell you how many calories it has. You just put in, I had 2 rice cakes. It'll tell you that. I had one scoop of protein. Pre-portioned things are really, really, really beneficial when making calorie counting easier. So find those things for you. Find different portion sizes or find different pre-portioned items that you enjoy, that you want to eat, and I promise you it's going to help you out. And by the way, if you want to try this protein powder, it tastes freaking amazing. It's from Legion Athletics. I will put a link here below if you want to try it out. It's by far my favorite protein powder of all time and the best taste— I believe the best taste Tasting of all time. They have various different flavors. This one's strawberry and banana. This one tastes really good, but all their protein powders taste very good. So if you want to try it out, you can actually get like 20% off if you use my code. So just go and check it out if you want to. All right, number 6, pre-enter your food into your MyFitnessPal app or whatever app you're using. This is what a lot of my successful clients do. If you pre-enter your food the night before You won't have to worry about anything. You know exactly what you're going to eat. You know what time of day you're going to eat. You know how much you're going to eat. You know you're going to stick within your calorie limit for that day. Pre-entering your food into your MyFitnessPal app or whatever app you're using to count calories the night before can make things so, so much easier on yourself. And people just are so— I oftentimes get pushback for that, or people just don't do it for I'm not sure what reason, but it is It's such a massive benefit to you. So please, just make sure, use that to your advantage. Use that to pre-enter your food. That way, waking up, that next morning you wake up and everything's taken care of for you. You know what your breakfast is, you know what your lunch is, you know what your snacks are, you know what you're having for dinner, you know everything. So the day is already taken care of. You don't have to work after that. You know exactly— damn, I almost put it back to normal. You know exactly what you're gonna have. Okay? Pre-enter your food. It's gonna help you out a ton. Last but not least, talking about eating out and tracking calories. Here's what I'll say. Number 1, I've done a video on this before, so feel free to check it out. Number 2, you're not gonna be perfect, and that's okay, because you don't have to be perfect in order to see progress. You just have to be consistent. So number 1, I would say if the restaurant does have calorie counts available to you, look it up beforehand and check it out. Or again, like most chain restaurants do have their calories listed. So if you're going to a chain restaurant, just kind of check it out, the calories beforehand. That can help you plan for that day as well. Number 2, choosing simple one-ingredient foods can help you out a ton because again, let's say, let's say for example, let's go back to that salmon, rice, and spinach thing. If you've been having salmon a lot and having spinach a lot and having rice a lot and you've been having that meal, for example, Right? You probably know what 100 grams of rice looks like. You probably know what 120 grams of salmon looks like. You probably know what, you know, 100 grams of sautéed spinach looks like. You probably know. So when you go out to eat, you can guesstimate to a pretty good degree of what that is because you've been doing it and doing it over and over and over and over again. So eating simple one-ingredient foods can help you guesstimate to the best of your ability. Again, as opposed to if you get some big pasta dish or a big casserole dish, Not to say you can't have it, but it is to say it's gonna be harder to track those calories. And so getting just simple, plain, one-ingredient foods, getting very simple meals, getting very simple things, going to help you in the long run. That's number 2 for eating out. And number 3, again, I would go watch that video that I put up there because again, there's so many things you can do when it comes to eating out and tracking calories. And actually, I wrote an entire article on this as well. I'll put it in the description of this video. video here below if you wanna check it out. I think it was a very— personally, I think it was a very helpful article, so I hope you find it helpful. But check that out as well, and that will give you all you need for eating out and tracking calories. And last but not least, the outro. I just want you to remember, when it comes to counting calories, I want you to be really honest with yourself. How long does counting calories actually take you per day? Seriously, how long? Maybe in the beginning, maybe. 10 to 15 minutes max for the entire day, maybe 10 to 15 minutes to weigh the food, to count your calories in your MyFitnessPal app or whatever app you're using, maybe 10 to 15 minutes a day. And the more you make it easier and the more seasoned you become, the more skilled you become with tracking calories, maybe it takes you 5 minutes a day, maybe. Is taking an extra 10 or 15 minutes per day worth you reaching your weight loss goals? Worth you fitting in a bathing suit and actually feeling confident? Worth you making sure you get your blood markers down or your blood pressure down and your blood markers good to go? Is it worth you being healthy for your kids and your grandkids and staying around and living a longer life and doing all these great things? I don't know. I think when you put it like that and you actually have it from that perspective, as opposed to sometimes there's this narrative like, oh my God, I gotta count calories, I don't wanna do that. An extra 10 minutes a day to have all of the benefits, all of the benefits that you want, losing weight, getting stronger, getting healthier, lowering your blood pressure, living longer, losing body fat, feeling more confident, walking on the beach confident, all those positive things you want could be accomplished from an extra 10 to 15 minutes a day? Yeah. I don't know, man. I think it's a good fair trade. Just my opinion if you ask me. So think about it from that perspective. Have that perspective going into it and I promise you just from that alone Probably gonna get a lot easier to count your calories 'cause you now have a better perspective of, you know, a positive outlook as opposed to this negative, oh my God, I gotta count calories and spend this extra time and weigh my food and do this and do that. Think about the benefits you're getting from that and literally think about how much time it's gonna take you to see those benefits. 'Cause literally calorie counting can make sure, for example, if you wanna lose weight, you're in a calorie deficit. Calorie deficit is the only way to lose weight. When it comes to these things, if you can take 10 minutes a day to pretty much ensure your progress if you do it correctly, I don't know, man, seems worth it to me. That's what I'd say, guys. Hope you found these 7 things helpful. If you did, please feel free to give the video a thumbs up, like the video, subscribe to the channel, share it with people if you want to, and just thank you for watching and we'll chat soon.
