90%+ of the effort is just weighing everything and writing it down. If you make a lot of custom dishes that's fine - just save the recipe and measure out the ingredients consistently. Weigh out your portions and it's not a big deal...

People who are tracking everything are usually doing it because they're trying to achieve a particular goal that involves cutting or bulking. I don't know too many people who do rigorous calorie tracking to achieve maintenance unless their body is their profession.