For anyone trying to count calories, here's a tip that doesn't seem to be common knowledge: Calculate your calories per day, then multiply by 7. That is your w

For anyone trying to count calories, here's a tip that doesn't seem to be common knowledge: Calculate your calories per day, then multiply by 7. That is your weekly budget. Don't budget by the day, there's no margin for error, and you'll hate your diet and stop doing it after a few weeks. If your daily budget is 1,800 calories, your weekly budget becomes 12,600. Suddenly, having 400 calories of ice cream after a good week of working out and counting calories doesn't hurt and doesn't represent a quarter of your daily allowance. You can still have a normal day of meals with that dessert pay off, and still come in under your weekly budget if you've been planning or eating really light and lose weight. Because at the end of the day, you have to take your psychology into account. Nobody can sustain eating boiled chicken and steamed broccoli for more than a few weeks.