Using a food calorie counter is an essential step towards your weight loss success.

We can only lose weight if we burn more calories than we eat.

So, using a food calorie counter to figure out how many calories you eat is quite important. We recommend getting a good, solid clue about your daily calorie intake.

Next to the calories in your food, your calorie guide should also give you a clue about the ration of carbs, proteins and fat in your meals. And depending on your diet plan, you might need to track other things like the amount of fibre or sodium you consume. Of course there is a discussion ongoing if you really should measure your calories.

We think the evidence is strongly in favour of using an easy food calorie counter.

The biggest problem is that it can take time...and in our busy times that can be big problem.

You can save time if you use the right food calorie counter tools

The best way to get a solid clue about your calorie balance is by using a dedicated desktop or PDA software.

This will make your calorie counting as easy as possible and take the guesswork out of dieting. And you will be able to automatically generate large parts of your diet diary.

If you are just looking for a quick reference tool to get an instant clue about a limited number of food items, you can check out the following two sites. They are completely free and do not require a registration or user account. (Links open new windows)

1. calorie-charts.net offers an online database that allows you to instantly look up the calorie, carb, protein and fat value of foods.
2. If you search for additional information next to the calories, carbs, proteins and fat we recommend that you go to the most comprehensive database: the U.S. Department of Agriculture's nutrient database
   

With this food guide you can get the values of all important (and not so important) nutrients. You can also find special foods that are not included in other calorie counters.