The Diet Quality Score (DQS): A Sustainable Alternative to Calorie Counting?

When it comes to figuring out how good your diet is, calorie counting is often the go-to choice.

Why Calorie Counting Fails

We’ve all been there: hunched over MyFitnessPal, trying to decide if that drizzle of olive oil was 12 calories or 15.

Weighing, logging, and calculating the calories of everything you eat is a laborious and stressful process.

The main problem I find with calorie counting is sustainability. It takes a level of effort and dedication that most people can’t keep up in the long term.

An alternative is to simply “guesstimate” how many calories you’ve eaten.

But that introduces the problem of precision. Research has repeatedly shown that athletes underestimate how many calories they’ve eaten — often underestimating by ~300–700 calories.

So if calorie counting is unsustainable, but guessing isn’t accurate enough, what’s the alternative?

The Diet Quality Score (DQS) is a pragmatic middle ground between sustainability and precision.

This system isn’t as precise as calorie counting, but it’s precise enough to give you a strong indication of the quality of your diet without making food tracking feel like a second job.

DQS: A Crash-Course

The DQS system is structured but simple. It’s a quick way to measure how nutritious your diet is, without needing to log every crumb.

Introduced by Matt Fitzgerald to help athletes who care about diet quality, but don’t have the bandwidth to count every calorie they consume.

How does it work?

1. Track your intake. Record everything you eat and a rough estimate of serving size. For instance: “1 serving oats, 1 serving milk, a handful chia seeds, 1 banana... etc.”

2. Categorise your food. Most foods fall into one of 10 categories (see below). If it doesn’t, leave it out (more on that later).

3. Tally up the amount of servings in each category. For instance, if you eat 2 servings of oats and 1 serving of quinoa, that’s 3 servings of ‘whole grains’ (again, categories below).

4. Score each category. Take the total servings of each category and check it against the score matrix below.

5. Add up the score. The higher the score, the better.

What Are The Categories?

The DQS system uses 10 simple categories:

• Fruits: apples, oranges, bananas, strawberries, 100% fruit juices, etc.

• Vegetables: potatoes, broccoli, cabbage, courgette, aubergine, onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, legumes, etc.

• Lean meats & fish: salmon, mackerel, lean turkey mince, chicken breast, etc.

• Nuts & seeds: peanuts, almonds, chia seeds, flax, linseed, nut butters, etc.

• Whole grains: grains that are unrefined, such as brown rice, wholemeal bread, wholegrain pasta, rye crackers, quinoa, popcorn, etc.

• Dairy: cheeses (feta, halloumi, cheddar, etc), milk, yoghurt, kefir, cottage cheese, etc.

• Refined grains: grains that have been refined, such as white rice, white bread, white pasta, crackers, etc.

• Sweets: foods high in sugar, such as biscuits, cake, chocolate, candies, soft drinks, etc.

• Fried foods: foods that have been deep fried, such as fried chicken, chips/fries, crisps/chips, tempura, etc.

• Fatty proteins: proteins that are high in fat, such as sausages, chicken thigh, steak, etc.

Anything that doesn’t fit into these categories isn’t included in the DQS system — though there are a handful of exceptions, which I’ve written about here.

How Do I Keep Score?

Scoring is straightforward:

• Add points for “good” categories.

• Lose points for “bad” categories.

• The number of points gained or lost depends on how many portions of a given category you’ve eaten.

Food Categories Table:

Example:

• 3 servings of vegetables → score = +3.

• 1 serving of sweets → score = –2.

• 2 servings of whole grains → score = +2.

Total daily score: 3

The idea is to simply try and get a better score every day. If your score gets higher, that suggests your diet is improving.

(If you’re curious about exact serving definitions, combination foods, or foods not listed above, I’ve written a full guide at Expediate.)

Pros/Cons of DQS

The DQS system is simple and effective, but it’s still a pragmatic trade-off compared with rigid calorie counting.

Pros:

• Saves time: practical, faster, and more convenient way to get a pulse-check of your diet.

• Running-oriented: “good” and “bad” foods are aligned with an athlete’s ideal nutrition. Plenty of high-quality carbs and protein, minimal processed/junk food.

• Better for mental health: no need to obsess about weighing every gram of food — frees you from guilt and stress.

• Removes incentives to under-fuel: calorie counting often encourages under-eating, which is dangerous for performance and long-term health.

Cons:

• Less precise than calorie counting: DQS uses “common sense” serving sizes.

• Doesn’t include all foodstuffs: certain fats, condiments, sauces, beverages, etc.

• May not align with your nutritional beliefs: e.g., fatty proteins are considered “bad,” dairy “good.”

• Not ideal for weight loss: doesn’t track energy intake directly, so overeating might go unnoticed.

Should You Use DQS?

It depends on you, your goals, and your lifestyle.

Stick with calorie counting if:

• You’re already using it and it’s manageable.

• You want absolute control of your diet.

• Have lots of time to spare.

• You’re eating easy-to-track meals.

Consider switching to DQS if:

• You’re pragmatic and don’t mind blurred lines,

• You want a simple way to gauge diet quality without weighing every ingredient.

• You want less stress, improved mental health, and a simpler life.

Tracking your Diet Quality Score is easy, though there’s some manual work involved. If you don’t want to track it manually, I’ve built a simple tool called Expediate that can help.