Being aware of calories can have its place in a diet, but adding up all the calories in a recipe or in a snack can become boring and time consuming. Of course, counting calories can be relatively easy if you eat pre-packed foods, as these by law have to have various items of nutritional information on the package such as energy, carbohydrate, sugar, fat, saturated fat and salt . But there is very little good nutrition in such foods.

The best move you can make when changing to a healthier way of eating is to ditch all processed and pre-packaged foods and instead buy fresh ingredients and cook from scratch. If you're cooking recipes from scratch, working out how many calories a dish or snack contains can start to become a complicated and long-winded process, as fresh ingredients are not labelled with the calorie or macronutrient content although wouldn't it be great if a carrot, slice of cheese or banana had a magical calorie label on it? .

No need for scales...use your hands.

When cooking with fresh ingredients and creating delicious dishes of your own, the only way to quickly calculate calories is to use a dietary analysis software or an app, such as MyFitnessPal. There are however some visual cues to look out for to ensure you're eating the right amount of food and also the right proportions of different foods.

No need for scales...use your hands.

A good way to approach portion control is to use your hands. Generally speaking, the smaller you are the smaller your hands will be; the larger you are the larger your hands. Using hands for portion sizes can be useful as smaller people tend to require fewer calories and nutrients and smaller portions than larger people. A fist equals the amount to match your formed fist; a handful is the amount that fits inside your open hand.

Burn - reduce weight

• A fist of protein
• Two handfuls of vegetables or salad or more if you can fit it on!
• A small palm of fatbased foods or 1-2 tsp of oil