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Article snippet: Welcome to the Smarter Living newsletter. The Smarter Living team emails readers once a week with tips and advice for living a better, more fulfilling life. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Monday morning. Should we or shouldn’t we? It’s a question that anyone who has dieted — or thought about dieting — has wrestled with. On the one hand, it’s very simple to track your calorie intake. It’s just one number you have to think about. On the other hand, tracking calories doesn’t really tell you much, and it can lead to an unhealthy obsession that can ultimately do more harm than good. On my own healthy living journey, tracking calories was the first step to learning about nutrition in general. The simplicity of worrying about just one number is alluring, and it was a springboard to a deeper understanding about what my body needs — and doesn’t need. (I love food tracking apps, and I recommend a few here, among other items: 5 Cheap(ish) Wellness Items You Didn’t Know You Needed.) This week I invited the registered dietitian Abby Langer to chat about whether dieters should count calories and the pitfalls of doing so, what some alternatives are and more. Tim Herrera: Thank you for chatting with me, Abby! Let’s start easy: What are a few benefits of counting calories? Abby Langer: Counting calories does give you an overall picture of what you’re eating in a day, so that’s a good thing. It’s also helpful for people to understand relative calorie values. (Like that... Link to the full article to read more