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In my last post I addressed the question “Do You Need to Count Calories?”

The answer was yes – in one way or another – if your goal is to make changes to your physique optimally by adding muscle or getting leaner.

But I also mentioned that contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t have to suck.

So how can you count calories without feeling like it?

Getting your body on point is only one part of your life, so giving tons of mental energy to your diet goals is going to become a chore and lead to burnout sooner or later.

With that in mind, here are my tips for getting your calories under control without many of the negatives tied to it.

1. Have a Plan and Create Meal Templates

One reason that counting calories sucks is that you have to count.

I know you’ve been there:

Figuring out what you want to eat and then crunching out mental math to see if it fits into your numbers or not.

It’s annoying and tedious.

So make it easy on yourself: DEFINE A PLAN & CREATE MEAL TEMPLATES.

If every meal is decided right before you start cooking, then of course it’s going to get old fast.

Instead, figure out several options ahead of time that already fit into your numbers.

*If you’re not sure how many calories you need, how many of each macro, or how to schedule your meals best for muscle gain/fat loss, reach out to me for coaching here.

That way, when meal time comes, you already know what to have and how much. You’ve already done the leg work and decided that this is not only delicious, but also in line with your nutritional goals.

As an added bonus, this will make your grocery trips easier (and more cost-effective if you get bulk discounts) and open up the possibility for you to meal prep in advance, making cooking more efficient and time-effective.

How

For example, if you have 4 meals per day of 600 calories with a certain mix of macros, then create 2-3 meal options for each of those meal times that you love.

Strict meal plans suck because they’re boring, restrictive, and can leave you micronutrient deficient given the blocked out variety, so building in options is a better choice.

That way, you can eat what you want based on your mood or preference.

After all, most foods are readily interchangeable like you can see with my Macro Split Diagram.

Swap the chicken for lean steak and the potatoes for pasta of the same nutritional content. Smooth and easy.

And you can trust that it is already in line with your goals.

2. Reference Values

Second, if you ever are on the fly or want to make in-meal substitutions, then lean on a pre-established set of food values that makes looking up nutritional values simple and easy.

You can do this either through an app or by creating a reference sheet for your own kitchen.

For the app, MyFitnessPal is the most popular. You can create meals, set the serving sizes, and have everything calculated nice and neat for you in the blink of an eye.

Use Your Own Nutritional Values

The app has a database in it already, but you’re better off creating your own foods to save because the database can be conflicting and spit out false values.

Just use what’s on the label in front of you for the correct serving size or look them up on a more objective database like this one.

That way, you can trust in the values and mix and match as desired.

If you’re already making meal templates based on a set plan like I told you in tip #1, then you can save these here as well.

To take things even further so you aren’t fiddling with your phone in the kitchen, then take these foods and templates and create a little reference table for your counter or on your phone.

I recommended this in my book, Architect of Aesthetics, and it’s very useful for learning what foods contain what. This will help you in tip #4 below.

3. Measure What’s Important – When It’s Important

What makes counting calories suck is not just the counting calories part, but also the measuring your foods to hit those calories part.

Who wants to micromanage things on a scale at every meal?

That can get old fast, so here are 2 tips to lighten your burden:

1. Measure according to the food
2. Measure as strictly as you need to for you and your goal

Let’s look at each:

Measure According to your food

When it comes to measurements, some foods are more important than others.

Why?

Simple.

It all has to do with energy density.

• For example, broccoli only has about 30 calories for 100 grams.
• In contrast, peanut butter has 600 for those same 100 grams.

Which one do you think is more important to measure accurately?

Therefore, when it comes to measuring your food, focus more on the foods with a high energy density that can more easily derail your target calorie intake. This typically includes:

• Nuts and nut butters
• Pasta
• Oats
• Sweets

For the rest, you can be off here or there and be just fine in most cases.

However this also depends on you and your goal:

Measure as strictly as necessary for you and your goal

Let’s get real.

Is a newbie recreational lifter at 20% bodyfat looking to lose 20lbs at a rate of 1.5lbs/week going to need to measure as strictly as a competitive bodybuilder or bikini competitor at the lower limits of their bodyfat level in the final few weeks of prep?

Absolutely not.

When it comes to counting calories and measuring foods, take your goals and level of development into account.

If you’re in the first group, then you can get away with broad adjustments and measurements of your diet and still make excellent progress.

If you’re in the second, then being strict with counting and measuring could make the difference between progress and spinning your wheels.

So Know Your Goal!

I go into this further in Architect of Aesthetics with a tier system of measurements.

4. The Power of Habit

Lastly, don’t underestimate the power of habit.

When you’re fresh in your fitness journey, you’re still learning what foods contain what nutritional info and at what amounts.

You’re also forging your habits and getting used to a new, more structured dietary approach and how you respond to it.

But after a few years of tracking your nutrition, seeing how things rack up on the scale, and monitoring how you feel and react to things, you’ll begin to develop a sixth sense for what your diet should be and how close you are to your desired nutritional numbers.

In general, I think this new fad of “intuitive eating” is stupid for most people because intuitively, the body is predisposed to homeostasis and survival, not optimizing your nutrition to look sexy.

But once you’ve got the habits and ‘feel’ down, this can be a useful tactic for travel, staying lean year round, or making broad changes to your physique without the necessity of very finely tuned approaches to muscle gain or fat loss.

CONTINUE TO TRACK PROGRESS

If you’re going to do this, then make sure you are still monitoring your progress over time to see how things turn out : scale, pictures, bodyfat measurements, gym performance, etc.

That way, if you need to tighten things up, you’ll know to ensure that you’re on the right track.

Conclusion

It really can be that simple.

To recap:

1. Create a plan and templates
2. Use an app or reference sheet
3. Measure according to the food and your goal
4. Train your habits and monitor accordingly

Let me know your experiences or if you have any questions by dropping a comment below.

For more on these tips, check out my book, Architect of Aesthetics, where I go into much more detail on nutrition, how to track, and many other things to get you the body you want.

Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe for more content.

-Joseph Murci