Stop counting calories… And start losing weight
Everybody tells you that in order to lose weight you need to eat less and move more. And the way to do that is to count your calories.
And sure, consuming less energy than you expend is the key to weight loss. But counting calories is not the way to do it.
You might be surprised to know that calculating the exact calorific content of food is much harder than the boldly displayed numbers on food packages or menus would have you believe:
- Two items of food with the exact same calorific values may be digested in very different ways.
- Each person processes calories differently.
- For the same person, the time of day you eat can make a difference.
- 6-8% of the carbohydrate calories you consume are used up converting carbohydrates into energy. This is 2-3% for fat and 25-35% for protein. So depending on whether you get your, let’s say 2,000 calories from mostly protein or mostly from carbs, the number of calories available to your body can be 200 calories fewer by eating more protein and less fat.
Other factors include:
- Different people burn different foods at different rates depending on their genetic makeup, their gender, and their level of activity.
- Variables such as the type of bacteria in your gut make a difference.
- Cooking food increases the amount of calories a person can absorb from it.
- The exact same food in two countries can have vastly different calorie counts on their packaging. Which one is right? In Australia for example the calorific contribution of unavailable carbohydrates, including dietary fibre, is factored in when calculating the total calories declared. In other countries, unavailable carbohydrates are not required to be factored in.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
Yes, eating less energy than you use each day is important when it comes to losing weight, but counting calories is just not the way to do it.
The calorie as a scientific measurement is not what is in dispute here, it’s the fact that calculating the exact calorific content of food is far harder than you might think.
And three things happen when you count calories:
You get hungry.
Your body holds on to fat and uses lean muscle for energy. Because lean muscle uses up more calories, ie energy than fat does. So your body literally dumps the bits of you that use up the most energy; your lean muscle.
Your metabolism slows down to conserve the limited energy that you do have. Therefore you now need even fewer calories to live on. And when you go back to eating the same amount you used to, you will now find you put on weight.
The Biggest Loser
You may have seen the show The Biggest Loser, a reality show in which overweight or obese contestants compete to win a cash prize by losing the most weight.
A study was done of the contestants in the 2009 show and they were followed up again 6 years later in 2015. All of the contestants lost huge amounts of weight, both due to extreme diets and hours and hours of exercise.
And most of them put it all back on. And more.
But the worst part…
Their metabolisms had slowed down significantly and they were now burning roughly 500 calories fewer per day than they were previously.
This is your body fighting back, your survival mechanism kicks in and your body slows your metabolism and hangs onto fat just waiting for the next starvation period.
Stop counting calories
The mistake you make, that everybody makes, is assuming that your body will not adjust to the reduced calorie intake. But guess what? It does. It takes just days for your weight loss to slow down. Within weeks you’ve plateaued and soon you realise that you’re gaining weight by eating the same amount you used to eat to lose weight.
When you count calories, and you are not eating enough for your body’s needs, the speed at which you lose weight will start to slow because as your body loses weight, physiological changes happen.
These are called metabolic adaptations. These are designed to protect you from what your body perceives as some sort of famine. Your body thinks you’ve landed on a desert island and it needs to adapt and keep you alive. It doesn’t know you’ve just gone on yet another diet.
Every time you go on a diet and you ‘starve yourself’, or what your body perceives as starvation, you lose muscle mass and your metabolism slows. All in order to conserve energy.
So instead of losing fat, you’re losing lean muscle. And it’s the lean muscle that burns more calories.
So what should you do?
Forget calorie counting and start listening to your body. When you’re hungry, eat. When you’re full, stop.
Your body will start to trust you again, and your metabolism will start speeding up.
When you eat when you are truly hungry, and you stop eating when you’ve had enough, you will naturally lose weight.
So sure, consume less energy than you expend in order to lose weight, but don’t try doing it with calorie counting.
