No. Technically speaking, there is no magic number of calories that we should eat to lose weight. Calories count but they are far from being the whole picture. When it comes to losing weight there is a lot more to be taken into consideration (exercising, portion control, nutrition-focused food choices, etc.). Moreover, the FDA reports that there is no need to count calories and that the emphasis should instead be placed on making the calories count. There are several reasons for taking this approach.

You Can Increase Your Activity Level and Burn It Off

Becoming more active can greatly benefit you by burning calories. Some foods require more energy than others to digest and metabolize, particularly high-fiber, protein foods. You could save about 12 to 15 calories per day by merely walking for about 4 minutes. Most experts agree that its easier to exercise than to cut the same number of calories that the exercise burns off.

It's Too Complicated

The International Food Information Council Foundation reported that despite the fact that 67% of Americans take calories into account when making food purchases, nearly 9 out of 10 have no idea how many they actually need. Moreover, we often miscount what we eat. For instance, the size of the meal impacts our tendency to underestimate the calories in our meals. A study conducted by the Annals of Internal Medicine showed that all people, regardless of their size, are more likely to accurately guess the number of calories in small meals versus large ones. It was thus concluded that since overweight people tend to eat larger meals and larger portions they more often make mistakes counting calories.

Even nutrition experts have been found to make woefully inaccurate calorie estimations. In fact, a study at Bringham Young University showed that when 200 dietitians were shown 5 different meals actually served in restaurants their estimates of the number of calories in each meal were significantly inaccurate. Some meals were more than double the calories the dietitians predicted.

Overestimating calories can also have an undesired impact on weight loss. WebMD reports that "consuming fewer than 10 calories per pound of your current weight will slow down your metabolism and cause you to burn calories more slowly. This is why starvation diets that have you meticulously counting calories usually do not yield long-term results.

There Are More Important Things to Base Your Food Choices On

One is nutrition. A nutrition-focused food choice is more beneficial than a calorie-focused food choice. For instance, choosing a high-fiber food will benefit you more than another that may be lower in calories because more than likely the high-fiber food will keep you full longer than a food choice low in calories. With the low-calorie food choice, you will end up eating again sooner because you are hungry, thus consuming extra calories in order to fill yourself up.

Another alternative to making food choices other than calorie counting is that you can identify foods high in calories and/or that have little to no nutritional value that you can eliminate from your diet. Also, you can reduce your portions as well as switch to low-calorie alternatives. A cup of raw broccoli contains only 31 calories, while the same amount of chocolate ice cream has close to 285. Bottom line, as stated by WebMD, "choosing the best nourishment for your body is a much healthier food focus than counting calories." So focus less on eating from a measuring cup or scale and focus more on what you're eating, portion control and activity levels.