Two years ago, I did a pretty good job combining training with weight loss by tracking my calories in a spreadsheet (2010 version).  The spreadsheet has a few components:

• Day’s weight (post workout, preferably).
• Base calorie needs (weight in pounds x 13 calories)
• Net intake [calories consumed – calories burned running only – base calorie needs]
• Intake [calories consumed – calories burned running only]
• Details
  • calories consumed with notes
  • calories burned based on post-workout weight and distance ran [using numbers from RunningAhead.com]

When I was keeping up with things, the calories per pound [H3 cell] was pretty close to 3500.

One challenge that I had was trying to be honest about “how much” food I was consuming when the portions weren’t from a pre-measured package or menu item.  Ultimately, it was the tedious game of guessing my calorie intake that frustrated me and caused me to stop tracking calories.

To combat that problem, I have purchased the following food scale. There are a wealth of resources to help determine the calorie content of foods, generally by googling “[food name] calories”. However, the portions aren’t always usable or realistic. With this scale, I hope to remove some of the time-consuming guess work from tracking my calories.

[Paid Amazon Affiliate link]