I'm waiting on a meeting, so I've been diving into some threads I normally wouldn't have time to read in the morning, and on a calorie-counting thread, I noticed that a lot of folks count calories/ratios as they eat, i.e., they'll have a meal and then put that information into their program/spreadsheet.

I did that for awhile, but I found that I was "cheating the system" a bit, in that I'd see I had a "free" 400 calories or whatever, and then indulge where I really didn't need to. Now, I plug in my food for the day first thing in the morning and stick to that plan. If I have to deviate for any reason, I'll adjust as I go, but I found it keeps me much more "honest" to put in all my meals at once, and then I'm locked into the plan for the day.

How do you count? As-you-go, or all at once?

I plan out my meals the night before or while I'm having breakfast. Sometimes I have to tweak things during the day if I have to go off plan for some reason, but if I didn't plan ahead I'd fail miserably.

I eat the same thing every day. Same amounts, same macros, same everything. I may switch the fish for chicken or turkey or vice versa during certain meals but the macros are always the same. It has been working great so far.

Dont ask me about my "cheat meal" though...:whistle:

I keep a running total in my head. I aim for 2,400 calories a day, and so to keep the math simple I just start at 2,000 after having a "free" 400 calorie breakfast. I'll eat anything as long as I can fit it under the calorie limit.

So I eat 80-90% clean but it's no problem to indulge for lunch at the local Mexican place or whatever, that just leaves me with less calories to play with later in the day. The only real problem with cheat meals is that it makes it tougher to hit my macro ratios; i.e., I have to pound the protein for dinner to balance out the excess of carbs and fat in the cheat meal.

In the morning, my cell phone banner says "2000". Every time I eat something, I subtract the calories from it on the banner. At any given time, a glance at my cell tells me how many calories I have left.

I keep in mind the foods I've eaten to make sure I'm getting enough protein. It's been working real well for me.