I use Cronometer because it gives you other micronutrients like iron, calcium etc. For me, two things have worked: one, a diet high in fibre and protein that is based on whole foods with limited carbs. Two, I literally weigh/measure every single thing I eat. I have exactly 200ml of milk in my coffee, my dessert has 100g of yoghurt, etc. For me, that’s the only reliable way that I’ll lose weight because otherwise I’ll never know how many kcals I’m eating. Apparently this is called mechanical eating and it works for me. That takes the guesswork out of the equation and I don’t snack anymore because weighing out snacks is annoying af. Once I’m done with my current cut, I’ll transition to maintenance from there by learning how many kcals roughly is in foods I eat. Like I know 100g of yoghurt for my dessert is about 2 heaped tablespoons. Or I know a certain bowl full of berries will be 200g of berries, etc. I measure out oils and sauces with a spoon and I know how many kcals is in a teaspoon or a tablespoon of oil, etc. I know how much approximately 5g of butter is (it’s what’s commonly known as a knob of butter), and so on and so forth.

There are three of us at home, so I pick a recipe that serves three people. I weigh all the ingredients raw and track the calories first. Then I divide the total calories by three, so I already know how many calories my portion will have. Once the food is cooked, I divide everything into three equal portions by weight. For example, if I end up with 600 grams of cooked spaghetti and 300 grams of tomato sauce, everyone gets 200 grams of cooked spaghetti and 100 grams of sauce. I just weigh everything out accordingly.