While dieting, it’s important to keep yourself accountable even well after reaching your goal weight or size. The easiest way to stay accountable is by tracking everything you eat and all of the exercise you do. You can use tracking applications or pen and paper to stay in control of your diet.

There are several diet apps out there that allow you to pick from common food items and load their nutrition information into your daily journal. Some of these apps even allow you to scan the barcodes of prepackaged foods. The programs give you precise counts for calories, carbohydrates, fiber, protein, sodium and other nutrients. As a result, you can fine-tune the information to help you follow your diet recommendations exactly. If you prefer to keep it simple, just log all of your food amounts using a spreadsheet or journal instead.

Either way, use a food scale to obtain precise measurements to avoid over or under estimating your daily intake. If you perform daily exercises, it can be beneficial to track the calories you burn through exercise. You can either work these calories into your deficit or eat them back to keep your energy levels up.