Trainer and YouTuber Jackson Desjardins makes videos where he uses his own experience of dropping more than 100 pounds and building muscle to help others in pursuing their own weight loss and fitness goals. In his most recent video, he explains how he personally found using a food tracking app (in his case, MyFitnessPal) to be especially useful in his weight loss journey.

One of the principles Desjardins returns to again and again on his channel is the idea that in order to lose weight, you should ideally be in a calorie deficit. In other words, you are consuming fewer calories on a daily basis than you are burning. A tracking app makes this process easier, he explains, especially in the early stages of weight loss, by giving you a simple way to log your meals each day and “budget” your calories for those meals and keep an account of your macronutrients, i.e. protein, carbs, and fats.

“If you’re brand new on your fitness journey, I recommend just tracking your calories,” he says. “I only track my calories and protein, because I try not to get too stressed about it.”

Desjardins recommends using a TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) calculator to work out what your daily calorie target should be, depending on your body and your goals. “If you’re trying to lose weight, subtract 500 from the number it gives you,” he says. “If you want to gain weight, add 500.”

He then suggests planning out entire example menus in the app that you can eat throughout a day and know that you’ll be sticking to your goals. He also advises buying a food scale so that you can be more precise with regards to the numbers you’re inputting when you track your meals.

“Your calorie consumption for the day should be treated like a financial budget,” he says. “So, how much do you have in your budget, now what are you going to spend your budget on throughout the day? I like making an example day because it takes the mental strain out of wondering what I’m going to eat for the day.”

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