There are a number of free online resources that you can use to help you manage your calorie count. Counting the calories you eat through journaling or via an online tool can be really helpful in multiple ways. First of all you can actually see what you’re eating. This forces you to come to terms with your eating habits. If you see you’ve eaten 2700 calories and half of those were from fat you can have a pretty good indication of how you’re impacting your waistline and your health. 

Tools like the free one on fitday.com show you your ratio of fat, carbs, protein and even alcohol. This one has advanced reporting features telling you if you have any nutrient deficits as well and will let you put in exercising efforts so you can see if you’re burning the calories you eat. This one has a journal feature as well so you can share your progress with your dieting buddy which can help you be more accountable for what you eat.

 
Benefits of Counting Calories

If you use a calorie counting tool you can see if you’re reaching your goals and some will allow you to track your weight online as well and seeing your progress in graph format can be very empowering.

You can even download calorie counter software to cell phones and your PDA if you like so that you can track calories while on the go or have help making choices based on menus when you go out to eat. Knowing how many grams of fat and protein something has or whether you’re on track for your targeted fiber for the day is going to help you both from a dieting and from a nutrition perspective.