For many years now, people obsessed with losing weight have done so by counting calories. However is this the best way?

The answer is yes, according one nutritionist, Lora Jordan. The latter pointed to a case of a patient who told Lora that she had managed to give up sugary snacks and had started eating raw almonds instead. While Ms Jordan agreed that it was a better move she asked the lady how many she had been eating. It turns out it was a full can – around 800 calories, which is about two-thirds of a woman’s recommended daily calorie intake.

The moral of this story therefore is not one just a matter ‘you are what you eat’ (however healthily you think it is), but ‘you are how much you eat’, calorie wise.

All food has a calorific value, so these days it is much easier for dieters to keep track of not only what they eat but also how much they are consuming in a day. According to nutritionists like Lora Jordan, managing your weight really is in the numbers – calorific numbers.

Echoing this, Sean Wharton, an internal medicine specialist and founder of the Wharton Medical Clinic in Hamilton, Canada told reporters: “The evidence is very clear. The more that you monitor, the better you do.

He added: “Without looking at calories, you will always have a very difficult time determining what you should or should not be taking in, and you’ll have a difficult time with weight loss.”

This is also borne out by research carried out by the U.S. National Weight Control Registry. Started in 1994, the centre has collected data from over 5,000 people who had lost around 66 pounds on average, and managed to keep the weight off for more than 5 and a half years.

So, the second moral is, dieters should not only take more control over their food intake but should also monitor the calories. Doing so combined with other important factors such as exercise will reduce weight, and more importantly, keep it off.