Blog
Notes on tracking food properly
Mostly about why calorie tracking fails and what to do instead. Some of it is about Indian food, because that is where most trackers fall apart.
Accuracy 9 AI 4 Calorie deficit 13 Choosing an app 12 Festivals and occasions 3 Habits 19 Home cooking 3 Indian food 14 Macros 5 Method 22 Portions 12 Protein 8 Reference 26 Weight loss 7
1,500 Calorie Indian Meal Plan (Vegetarian, With Swaps)
A full day of ordinary Indian home food that lands near 1,500 calories and 70 g of protein, with every figure shown so you can adapt it.
Average BMR by Age: Charts for Women and Men
What a normal BMR looks like at 20, 40 and 60, why it falls with age, and why most of that decline is not really about age at all.
How to Eat in a Calorie Deficit Without Being Hungry All the Time
Some hunger in a deficit is normal. Constant hunger is a sign the plan is built wrong. What actually keeps you full, in rough order of how much it helps.
Calories in Alcohol: Beer, Wine, Whisky, Rum and Cocktails
Alcohol has 7 calories a gram, no nutrition, and a habit of arriving with fried snacks. The numbers per drink, and how to fit an evening out into a week.
15 Healthy Indian Breakfasts for Weight Loss (With Calories and Protein)
A good weight-loss breakfast is not the lowest-calorie one. It is the one that keeps you full until lunch. Fifteen Indian options, ranked honestly.
How Long Does It Take to Lose 10 kg? A Realistic Timeline
The maths says 20 weeks. Real life says five to six months. Here is why, and what each month of losing 10 kg actually looks like.
How Many Steps a Day to Lose Weight? (And Is 10,000 Right?)
10,000 is a marketing number that happens to be roughly right. What steps actually burn, how many you need, and why walking is best at something other than burning calories.
How Much Is 1 Katori? Katori Size in Grams, ml and Cups
The unit behind most Indian calorie figures, and the one nobody defines. What a katori actually holds, in ml and grams, and how to measure yours once.
How Much Protein Per Meal? (And Does the 30 g Limit Exist?)
Your body does not waste protein above 30 g. But spreading it across the day still helps, for reasons that have more to do with hunger than muscle.
How Much Water Should You Drink to Lose Weight?
Water helps weight loss in two modest, real ways and zero magical ones. How much to drink, and why it makes the scale lie for a day or two.
How Much Weight Can You Lose in a Month, Realistically?
The first month flatters you and the second one does not. What a realistic month looks like, and why the number on the scale is two things at once.
How Often Should You Weigh Yourself When Losing Weight?
Daily, weekly or never? The evidence leans one way, your temperament might lean the other, and both can work if you read the number correctly.
How to Eat 100 g of Protein a Day on an Indian Diet
Most Indian days land at 40–55 g of protein. Getting to 100 does not take a supplement or a new cuisine. It takes about five deliberate changes.
How to Track Calories During Diwali (Without Missing Out)
The festival is not the problem. The fortnight of open boxes around it is. A plan for enjoying Diwali properly and still recognising yourself in November.
Indian Snacks Calories: Namkeen, Bhujia, Biscuits & Tea-Time Snacks
The 4 pm snack is where many Indian diets quietly stall. What a handful of namkeen really costs, and the swaps that still go with chai.
Indian Sweets Calories: Gulab Jamun, Laddoo, Kaju Katli & More
Per piece, not per 100 g, because nobody eats mithai by the 100 g. The chart, the surprises, and how to enjoy a festive box without it running the week.
US Navy Body Fat Formula: How It Works and How Accurate It Is
A tape measure, three measurements and a logarithm. Where the Navy method came from, how to get a consistent reading, and what it can and cannot tell you.
Roti vs Rice for Weight Loss: Which Is Actually Better?
The most common question on an Indian diet has a surprisingly boring answer. What actually differs, and the one thing that matters more than the choice.
What Are Maintenance Calories? How to Find Yours (and Check It)
Every calorie target starts from this number, and every calculator guesses it. How to estimate your maintenance, and the simple way to find out what it really is.
Why Does My Weight Fluctuate So Much Day to Day?
You were up a kilogram this morning and did nothing wrong. What actually moves the scale overnight, and the one habit that makes the noise irrelevant.
The Science of Food Journaling: What the Research Actually Shows
The research is real and the headline oversells it. What self-monitoring studies actually found, and why the effect is smaller than the slogan.
Five Food Journal Examples (And What Each One Is For)
Five completed journals doing five different jobs. Copy the one that matches your actual question.
Indian Street Food Calories: Samosa Chaat, Vada Pav, Pani Puri
Honest ranges for the food nobody has a database entry for, and why the oil makes every figure a range.
Does Apple Health Track Calories Eaten?
Health stores a Dietary Energy figure but knows nothing about your meals. What the number is, where it comes from, and its limits.
What \"Free\" Actually Means in a Calorie Tracker App
Every free tier has a wall. Knowing where it sits before you build a month of data on the wrong side of it.
How Accurate Is Apple Watch Calorie Tracking?
Heart rate: excellent. Calorie burn: 20–40% out. Why the error is structural, and the one rule that stops it costing you.
How to Start a Food Journal (And Actually Keep It)
Most food journals die in week two. A four-week plan built around that fact rather than despite it.
Food Journal vs Calorie Counter: Which One Do You Actually Need?
One answers 'what happened', the other 'how much'. Picking the wrong one is why people abandon both.
How to Track Macros: A Practical Step-by-Step Guide
Set the targets once, hit protein, let the rest float. Macro tracking without three numbers to chase at every meal.
How to Estimate Restaurant Calories With No Nutrition Information
No menu board, no app entry, no label. How to price a restaurant meal from what you can see, and what to assume about what you cannot.
How to Work Out Calories Per Serving of a Home-Cooked Dish
One pot, six uneven servings, no label. Three methods for pricing a portion, and the one most people get backwards.
How to Track Calories Without Weighing Food
The scale is more accurate and it is why most people quit. Hand portions, katori maths, and the five-minute calibration that fixes the rest.
Text vs Photo Calorie Tracking: Which Actually Works Better?
Photo logging demos beautifully and fails on anything cooked in a pot. Where each method genuinely wins, meal by meal.
How to Describe a Meal So the AI Calorie Estimate Is Accurate
The estimate is only as good as the sentence. Five details that actually move the number, and the ones that waste your time.
Apple Notes as a Calorie Tracker (And Where It Breaks)
Notes is a genuinely good food log. It is not a calorie tracker. The difference is arithmetic, and it is where the habit dies.
What Is a Calorie Deficit? Meaning, Examples and How Big to Go
The concept is simple. The sizing is where people go wrong, and an aggressive deficit fails for reasons that have nothing to do with willpower.
TDEE vs BMR: What's the Difference and Which to Use?
One is what you burn doing nothing; the other is what you burn living your life. Only one of them should set your calorie target.
Why You're Not Losing Weight in a Calorie Deficit
The scale has not moved in three weeks and the maths says it should have. Here is where the calories are actually going, in order of likelihood.
How Much Protein Do You Need Per Day? (With Real Numbers)
The RDA is a minimum to avoid deficiency, not a target for someone training or dieting. What the research actually clusters around.
High-Protein Indian Vegetarian Foods (With Real Numbers)
Dal is not the protein source people think it is. What the numbers actually are, and how a vegetarian day reaches 100 g without living on whey.
Do Macros Matter, or Just Calories?
Calories decide whether you lose weight. Macros decide what you lose and how bearable the process is. Those are different questions.
How to Track Calories When Eating Out
Restaurant food has no label and roughly twice the oil you would use at home. How to estimate it well enough to be useful, without ruining dinner.
Tracking Calories Without Obsessing Over It
A useful tool that can become an unhealthy one. The warning signs, some practical guardrails, and the cases where the right answer is to stop.
Idli, Dosa, Upma & Poha Calories: South Indian Breakfast Guide
Idli is genuinely light, dosa depends entirely on the oil, and the chutney is usually bigger than the dish. Honest ranges for a South Indian breakfast.
How Many Calories in Dal? Toor, Moong, Masoor and Makhani
Roughly 120–180 a katori, but the lentils are the small part. The tadka is where the number actually comes from.
How to Log Home-Cooked Food (Without Weighing Everything)
No label, no standard serving, no barcode. How to log the food you actually cook, accurately enough to be useful.
How to Track Calories Fast (Under a Minute a Day)
A full day of food in under a minute. The method, the shortcuts, and the two habits that make it stick.
What to Look For in an AI Calorie Tracker
Eight things that decide whether you are still using it in three months, and the marketing claims worth ignoring.
Roti Calories: How Many Calories in 1 Roti, 2 or 3 Rotis?
Roughly 70-110 calories, but the range matters more than the number, and here is what actually moves it.
Indian Food Calorie Chart: Roti, Dal, Rice, Sabzi & Snacks
Common Indian foods with honest ranges instead of false precision, and notes on what actually moves each number.
Are AI Calorie Counters Accurate? An Honest Answer
They are estimates, not measurements. But accuracy is the wrong thing to be worrying about, and here is why.
How to Track Calories: The Easiest Method (No Weighing)
No scale, no barcode scanner, no database. The fastest method that still works, and how to make it survive past week two.
Why People Quit Calorie Tracking (And How to Not)
Most people stop within two weeks. It is almost never motivation. The failure points are specific, predictable, and fixable.
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