Ready. Set. Fail. Is that the pattern of your recent attempts at dieting? You set a weight loss goal. Budget your calories. And then are dismayed the next week when you step on the scales and learn that you haven't lost a single pound. So why do you keep repeating this pattern over and over again?

Denial

For many of us, the answer is actually quite simple. We simply refuse to acknowledge the true number of calories that we consume in a day. Sure, we may budget a certain number of calories for each of our meals. But we fail to account for all of the little "nibbles" that we indulge in throughout the day. You know, "just one" cookie here, and a handful of chips there.

If these mini snacks each consist of one hundred calories, we can easily add four to six hundred calories to our daily diet without even realizing it.

Ignorance

Even when we are trying our best to count calories, our efforts can easily be sabotaged without our knowing it. We simply don't know the number of calories in that Subway sandwich or in Aunt Emma's famous chili recipe. So we guess. And we usually guess too low. According to the Annals of Internal Medicine, overweight people are even more likely to underestimate the number of calories contained in a meal, making it even more difficult to lose weight.

Lack of a System

But even if you diligently research the calorie count of each meal, and try your best to include every morsel you eat in your daily calorie count, you may be still be wondering how to count calories each day. And for a complete weight loss picture, you also need to track the calories you are burning through increased exercise.

A good tracking system can mean the difference between weight loss success and total diet failure. When it comes to tracking your calories, there are several different systems you can use to reach your diet goals.

Calorie Tracking Systems

The first would be a simple diet journal. Just buy a small notebook and start recording every bite of food that enters your mouth in a given day. You may need to invest in a pocket calorie guide so you can research the correct calorie count of your food.

Eating out? Don't worry, many restaurants now list the nutritional content of their menu, so it is fairly easy to look up this information on their web sites. Tip: make sure you look up the menu before you eat out, rather than later when it is too late!

If you find the diet journal a little time consuming, you might want to consider using calorie-counting software. Just enter the portion size and type of food into your computer and it will automatically determine your daily caloric intake. You can also use the software to figure out how many additional calories you burn through exercise.

A few of the better software programs even track your water intake and tell you whether or not you are meeting the daily nutritional requirements for critical vitamins and minerals. The best programs will also help you determine a daily calorie budget in order to meet your specified weight loss goal and target date.

The truth is, weight loss is a science. If you eat fewer calories per day than your body requires, it has no choice but to tap your stored fat. The key is to choose and use a tracking system so you are working with complete and accurate information. Now that you know how to count calories, you are guaranteed to lose weight.