As I a venture through this journey, I am getting confirmation from a principle I have heard many times before. Information is a vital component and is likely directly relational (I can’t prove this…yet) to the success of one’s journey.

Easier ability to make decisions. By tracking the amount of calories that you put into your body, you can better decide what your consumption for the day will look like. If you’ve eaten 800 calories for breakfast, you should then know the you do not have a lot of leeway to just consume anything throughout the rest of the day. On the flip side, if you are heading into dinner and still have 900 calories left in your daily target, that provides room to indulge in most any type of food.

Easier ability to evaluate success. By tracking the calories consumed and calories burned, you can decide if you have had a successful day. If you are looking at a deficit of 1,000 calories (more calories burned than consumed), then you know you are on track to lose 2 pounds that week. If you are looking at a 100 calorie deficit, maybe you should pass on that cookie until tomorrow (or go for a walk and increase that deficit).

Keep in mind that, I believe calorie counting doesn’t have to be exact (at least to start out anyway).  It should be enough to provide information to evaluate where you are at and react to it.

Don’t get me wrong. Information and calorie tracking is not the end-all, be-all solution, but if you are going to have any chance of success, you will need to have a defined plan of how you will get and evaluate the information available to you. Sometimes it is other factors that will drive your success (perseverance), but understanding and reacting to information will get you farthest on your journey.