5 Reasons You NEED to Count Calories

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Not counting calories suddenly seems to be the trend all the cool kids are following.

“Nah man, you don’t need to count calories, just stop eating wheat/sugar/gluten/fruit/dairy/meat* and you’ll lose fat.”

If only it were that simple.

(* – you can insert whatever fad is going round at the moment here!)

Any fat loss diet, regardless of what it promotes, is designed to create a calorie deficit. It doesn’t matter if it’s low-carb, low-fat, Paleo – whatever – the reason why these diets work is because by placing restrictions on foods or food groups, they automatically push you into a calorie deficit.

Unfortunately though, it’s those buzzwords, and the promotion of some sort of nutritional “baddy” that makes these diets sell.

With that in mind, here are five reasons you need to count calories…….

 

1.    Your body counts them, so you need to as well

You’ve heard about how 3,500 calories equals 1 pound, right?

Well, that’s more or less true. Sure, there is a little more to it than that, but at the end of the day, weight loss or weight gain comes down to calorie balance.

Eat a surplus of 3,500 calories and you’ll gain one pound, burn off 3,500 more than you consume, and you’ll lose a pound.

Your body runs off calories, and though there is a small difference in the thermogenic effect of different nutrients (the main ones being protein and fibre, which take a little more energy to break down, so burn off more calories than fat and simple carbohydrates in the process) ultimately your body views a calorie as a calorie.

Yep, that’s right.

50g of carbs from a banana is the same as 50g of carbs from a sweet potato, or a bowl of Shreddies, or some sorbet. In the same vein that if you get 20g of protein from a chicken breast, or 20g of protein from a shake, you’re still getting 20g of protein.

Now, the other components in those foods (again, mainly fibre) may affect digestion and calorie burn a little, but the carbs, protein, fat (and ultimately – calories) are your body’s source of energy. This is what it will use to burn for energy, or store them, either as fat or muscle.

So if your body’s counting those calories, it makes sense for you to.

Not sure where to start?

>>CLICK HERE<<

 

2.    People suck at estimating calorie intake and expenditure

I absolutely LOVE this topic. The more I learn about the ins and outs of nutrition, and the more people I work with, the more I realise one simple thing –

Most people don’t have a clue how much they’re eating.

I’ve never had an initial consultation with someone, who, when asked what their diet’s like, hasn’t replied “it’s generally pretty healthy.”

That’s been whether I’ve been talking with someone who’s a shredded 8% body fat, your typical middle-aged office worker with a slight paunch, or someone who’s come to me because they need to lose 200 pounds.

On the face of it, we all think we eat pretty well. We remember the “healthy” meals we’ve had, and subconsciously banish the bad ones from our mind.

Those weekend food binges and drinking sessions get put down as “one-offs” while many don’t even think about the sugar they put in their tea and coffee, the bag of nuts they pick at from their desk every day, or the copious amounts of dressing they use on salads.

Perform a food recall analysis with someone though, and you start to see a little more.

Here’s a test – sit down with someone and ask them what they ate yesterday. Every time they falter, or have to go back and add in extra detail, give them a tick. Now count up those ticks – there’ll be a fair few.

Now, probe a bit more, and ask more questions:

That coffee they had, was it just black coffee, or did it have sugar, milk, syrup or cream in it?

How about dinner? Their chicken and potatoes – was that grilled chicken breast and new potatoes, or battered chicken and fried potatoes? And how big was the serving size?

I’ll refer you to one of my favourite ever studies, from Lichtman et. Al –

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199212313272701

The researchers concluded that –

“The failure of some obese subjects to lose weight while eating a diet they report as low in calories is due to an energy intake substantially higher than reported and an overestimation of physical activity, not to an abnormality in thermogenesis”

In essence, weight gain (or lack of weight loss) was not due to a perceived slow metabolism, but because people simply ate way more than they thought they did, and way more than they needed.

Want to know how badly people actually underestimated their calorie intake? Get ready, you may need to sit down for this one……

1053 calories per day in one group and 692 in another.

That means, over the course of one week, group 1 would have eaten a 7,371 calorie excess, and group 2 a 4,844 calorie excess. That’s enough for a gain of 2 pounds of fat and 1.4 pounds of fat respectively.

Scary stuff.

 

3.    It makes monitoring progress easier

Weight loss plateaus are bound to happen when you’re dieting.

It’s a concept known as adaptive thermogenesis – as your body-weight drops you burn fewer calories. This is mainly due to it taking less energy to move less weight around, but can also be due in part to a down-regulation of certain hormones and processes.

So, what do you do when you hit a plateau?

If you’re counting calories, you just lower by say, 25, 50, 100, or, maybe in an extreme case – 200 – per day. Hey presto, you’ve recreated that calorie deficit, and are on track to losing more fat.

What does the non-calorie counter do?

 

4.    People who tell you calories don’t count are usually promoting a guru system or dogmatic approach.

To get some ideas for other approaches people in the industry had on this topic, I Googled “Why You need to Count Calories.”

On the first page of results, I got the following –

 

–       “Don’t Count Calories, Results Can Be Made With Healthy Changes.”

–       “Why You Don’t Need To Count Calories Ever Again”

–       “Don’t Count Calories, It’ll Just Make You Fatter”

–       “Counting Calories is Flawed”

–       “9 Reasons Why Calorie Counting is Dumb”

–       “6 Reasons to NOT Count Calories”

Six of the 10 results were giving me the exact opposite of what I was searching for.

This all relates back to those buzzwords, and trying to unite against a common enemy that I eluded to in the introduction. It’s very guru-esque to diss calorie counting, and promote other, more extreme methods, because, as we know, extremism sells.

Here’s how I see it though –

The guys and girls who follow and promote fads, and extremist or restrictive diets are the kids at school who always jump on the latest bandwagon.

They’re the jocks – they like to be seen hanging round in big groups. They go drinking at the weekends, get drunk, cause trouble and try to crap on everyone else.

Calorie counters are like the nerds. They sit in the corner, trying to be ignored by everyone. They take a sensible, moderate and considered approach to everything and just try to keep their heads down.

We all know which group seems more appealing. But…….

Fast forward five years. Where are those jocks now? They’re working dead end jobs, still trying desperately to follow the fads and seem trendy, left with nothing but a few blurry memories of how “cool” they were a few years back.

And the nerds?

They’re running their own companies. They’re the CEOs and the corporate big shots. That diligent, non-extremist approach and hard work got them a long way. By following logic, common sense and putting in the hours, they’ve got where they want to be, and are pretty damn successful.

 

5.    It allows for dietary freedom

You’re following a clean eating plan, and want a burger and a beer, what do you do?

Option 1: You sit there, while all your friends demolish their burgers and sip their cold ones, taking the piss out of you, while you gingerly pick away at your piece of fish and asparagus.

Option 2: You have that beer and burger, “break” your diet, and get so uptight about falling off the wagon, and not eating “clean” that you turn that one meal into a massive binge, swearing that you’ll never cheat again…….. yeah right.

But, if you’re a calorie counter, you don’t think twice.

You have that burger (maybe skipping the fries if you’re dieting) and savour your beer, while having fun with your friends, knowing that you’re still on track with your progress, and haven’t strayed an inch from your diet.

 

Embrace Your Inner Nerd

Be a calorie counter. At the moment you might not seem as cool as the Paleo guys, low-carbers and the Atkins addicts, but give it a few years, and where will they be?

They’ll be on to the next fad, wondering why they’re still fat and weak, while you’re going against the grain, counting calories, feeling great, looking strong and getting shredded.

Personally, I went from fat Paleo guy, to ripped flexible dieter eating ice cream and sandwiches on a daily basis, purely by implementing calorie counting.

Want to learn how?

Click here 

Tags: calories, diet, diet myths, fat loss, IIFYM, nutrition