You don’t need to count calories to lose weight, WHOA, WHAT!?…Put my calculator away kids, I’m about to go rogue!
Counting calories makes most people feel deprived and restricted, not to mention that it’s a waste of time, tedious and very boring.
Counting calories doesn’t tell you about food quality because a calorie is not a calorie.…''why?'' I here you ask, well…. not all calories are created equal! Some calories are peasants.
You can get 2,000 calories from a healthy, nutrient-rich diet spread out over a day or you can get it from a large Frappuccino and a couple of pastries (I know which one I’d prefer and it’s not the latter).
For Example:
Reference: FED UP – Netflix
Say you eat a handful of almonds (very healthy snack indeed!) which roughly equals 160 calories. Because of the fibre in those almonds they will not get absorbed immediately, so the blood sugar rise in our bodies will be a lot lower and last for longer.
The complete opposite of this would be if you drank a 600ml soft drink (very unhealthy drink indeed!) which also equals around 160 calories but, without the fibre. It is absorbed immediately through the portal system to the liver which gets a big sugar rush and with that onslaught the liver immediately turns the sugar into fat, which you then try to work off in the gym…the sad news here is that you can’t out train a bad diet no matter how hard you work.
Highly Processed Foods & Sugars!
Processed sugar is a chronic close dependant (depending on how much you eat as there is a safe level of 36 grams – 6-9 tsp per day) liver toxin which can lead to the risk of metabolic disease such as diabetes, heart disease, strokes and some cancers (shall I go on?).
Highly processed diet food such as reduced fat foods, weight watchers foods, diet drinks, artificial sweeteners, lean cuisines, pre-packed diet meals, low sugar foods are also dangerous and disease producing as well.
So do not believe the hype about these foods…..STAY AWAY, these are what I like to call RED LIGHT foods (foods we should eliminate out of our diets altogether).
Fact!
In 1980 there were 0 cases of Type 2 diabetes among adolescents.
In 2010 there were 57,638 cases of Type 2 diabetes among adolescents.
Natural Sugars and Whole Foods!
Ahhhhh……GREEN LIGHT FOODS! My favourite.
These can be eaten every day, all day. Natural sugars & whole foods are good for us, they are what mother nature intended for us. When you consume natural sugars like those found in fruit you get the fibre, nutrients and vitamins you need to mitigate the negative affects, but, this is not the case when you drink fruit juice as all of the fibre has been taken out in the juicing process, you may as well just drink a can of soft drink.
The same is true of whole foods they are chock full of the nutrients, vitamins and minerals that we need on a daily basis to be our optimal best.
Like I said earlier: Calories are not made equally!
When you eat highly processed foods (red light foods) they do not fill you up, they are not nutrient dense like wholefoods... so you are bound to eat more, this is where the problem lies and as a result you find it hard to lose weight because you are actually eating more than your body needs (see my point about calories not being created equal).
The Science Behind The Energy Balance of Food AKA Calories.
Reference: Precision Nutrition, The Essentials of Sport and Exercise Nutrition, Third Edition.
The food that we eat contains potential energy (calories), which can be converted into work. In our food there are chemical bonds that give us a rich source of energy providing it is nutritious food.
When these bonds are broken the energy transfers to regenerate ATP in the body (this is the energy system that the body uses first within the first 10 seconds of movement).
The energy in our food is measured in calories by scientists using a bomb calorimeter in a lab.
This allows scientist to then calculate the foods calorie content by measuring the change in the water’s temperature as it heats up.
This is important to know because, humans are not bomb calorimeters. Biological systems are not the same as machines.
Factors That Affect the Energy We Get from Food:
Even if you think you are the best calorie counter in the world and you have it down to a fine art because you think you know exactly how many calories are going into your body (which I will guarantee you don’t), it’s difficult to know exactly how many calories you will absorb and use. This brings me to my point that precise calorie counting won’t help you to lose weight but changing your portion sizes will.
This is due to the fact that:
We lose some of our energy through the process of digestion.
Our gut health can affect how much energy we absorb and use, this can also affect how efficient we are at losing weight. (as they say healthy gut, healthy lean body or maybe that’s just me that says that!).
We lose energy through excretion and urination.
Factors That Affect the Nutrients and Energy in Food
Although numbers on food labels seem scientific, they are just approximations and can be out either way by as much as 25% as most foods are not measured in a lab.
That means if you try to consume 2,000 calories a day, even if you think you can do it perfectly, you could be eating anywhere between 1,500 and 2,500 calories.
What is a freakin medium sized orange or a small amount of sweet potato anyway? Really you are just guessing, which defeats the purpose of counting calories.
I say….just eat the freakin' food slowly and mindfully and forget about the details.
Research shows that some frozen foods can contain 8% more calories than the package lists and some restaurant meals can have up to 18% more calories than they claim, be mindful of this the next time you buy takeaway or eat out.
Some of the factors that can affect the nutrient and energy content are:
Resistance starches/fibres are shown on labels as kcal and grams of carbohydrates, energy counts can be overestimated as you don’t get as much energy from them as a bomb calorimeter does.
Outdated data on foods can be out of date and inaccurate.
Product variety
Soil and growing conditions
Ripeness at the time of harvest
The animals diet
Length of storage
Preparation and cooking time
Energy In, Versus, Energy Out!
To lose weight you just take in less energy than you expend. Seems simple doesn’t it, but is it really that simple? Personal Trainers tell you that it is and I used to be one of those until I saw the light.
There are many other factors at work here.
Factors That Can Affect Weight Loss:
Our individual environments
Genetics and epigenetic expression
Hormones
The bodies ability or inability to digest and absorb certain foods
Physiological and psychological stressors
These factors can work together in subtle or obvious ways to affect how much you eat, how much you move and how much energy your body uses for metabolism and movement. This doesn’t mean that the energy in versus energy out equation doesn’t work it just means that we don’t always know all the pieces of input or output.
Counting Calories Doesn’t Focus on Building Good Habits for Life!
If you really want to get in shape, feel good and stay that way for life then counting calories will not give you the strong, healthy, lean body you think it will.
That healthy lifestyle and body comes from focusing on good habits for life not meticulously counting calories.
I don’t count calories and neither should you, it is so last decade!
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