Today I am going talk about what are the main problems in counting calories, and how we can smartly lose weight without obsessing too much about calories.
The world is obsessed with (counting) calories. We’ve convinced ourselves that the caloric input vs output method is the only way to weight loss.
I’m going to reveal the four problems I see with calorie restriction and what we can do to overcome them. Let’s dig in.
Let’s start with a statement that contradicts this sub-headline (why not).
If you’re overweight by more than 15-20 kilos, restricting your caloric intake (i.e. going into a caloric deficit) will help you shed fat. Burning more calories than you consume will work. Regardless of what you eat, if you eat less you will lose weight.
So yes – putting yourself in a caloric deficit for a period of time does work.
But the question is for how long?
What happens when you reach your desired weight? What happens when you go back to your old way of eating?
That’s where the first problem of calorie restriction comes into play: it’s not sustainable and therefore only offers temporary results.
And when you do stop restricting your calories…
Nine times out of ten, the weight comes back. And usually with interest. You end up worse off than when you started.
Haven’t we heard this before?
Weight loss story
Sourced from Gary Taubes’s book Why We Get Fat:
One of the biggest studies ever to be done on the topic of weight loss back in 1980 by researchers from Harvard and the Pennington Biomedical Research Center (considered the most influential academic obesity-research institute in the US) went like this:
The study enrolled more than eight hundred overweight and obese subjects. The subjects, who began the study, on average, fifty pounds overweight, were randomly assigned them to eat one of four diets.
These diets were marginally different in nutrient composition, but all were substantially the same in that the subjects were supposed to under-eat by 750 calories a day (quite a significant amount).
The subjects were also given “intensive behavioural counseling” to keep them on their diets (something the average person wouldn’t get).
What happened?
After the study, participants lost, on average, only nine pounds (most of it in the first six months) and most of the participants were gaining weight back after a year.
The study above (and many more like it) clearly show that eating less is a temporary solution. It is not the long-term solution to our obesity problem.
If you’re overweight and you lose a substantial amount of weight, your health will markers improve. But this can be misleading (at best).
Here’s what happened to Dr. Haub, the professor who shed 27 pounds in two months by cutting his calories by eating primarily junk food:
His “bad” cholesterol, or LDL, dropped 20 percent and his “good” cholesterol, or HDL, increased by 20 percent. He reduced the level of triglycerides, which are a form of fat, by 39 percent. His body fat percentage also dropped from 33.4% to 24.9%. [source]
What does this mean? Should we all be doing crash dieting then?
Well…not necessarily.
Blatner, a dietician from Chicago, said this…
“When you lose weight, regardless of how you’re doing it – even if it’s with packaged foods – generally you will see these markers improve when weight loss has improved.”
The worst thing you can do (for your health) is ignore how the weight was lost.
Many calorie-counting activists like to sell the “eat whatever you want (in the right portions) and still lose weight” model. And it’s a damn effective selling point. Junk food? Go for it. Processed junk? All good. Fast, fried shit? It’s all you my friend.
As long as you keep your calorie count in check, it’s all good right??
But what they don’t tell you that this method doesn’t work in the long run and that you would probably end up in the hospital bed for some serious diet related disease. Or worse.
Yes! what you eat does count. So substituting low calorie junk food with healthy food will definitely help you shed fat but you will lose health too along with that glow.
Quality does matter.
For too long, we’ve been conditioned to associate good looks with good health. We’ll do whatever it takes to shed the weight, even if it means foregoing the healthpart of the equation.
We’ve been trained to think about food in the sense of “will this help me lose weight or gain weight” when instead we should be thinking about food in the sense of “will this food nourish my body or will it just satisfy a craving.”
Let me ask you something…
Do you really want to spend the rest of your life thinking about how many calories you’re consuming each and every day?
If you’re like most people, I assume not. But that’s what would be required of you.
Although it would probably get easier over time. But trust me you don’t want to be living this way.
The idea of having to keep track of how much of this and that you’re putting in your body at all times forever doesn’t lead to a good relationship with food.
You start judging food based on its caloric input, instead of the nourishing elements it may have to offer your body.
So start focusing on the quality you are putting inside. even if you have more of good stuff it won’t do you harm in the long term. Your body adjusts well. See the body has its own mind so when you keep it nourished and balanced then the hormones can play their part well and in your favor. which otherwise can wreak havoc on your weight loss plan if you keep it starving or fed on undernourished diet.
Here’s a common scenario you may have experienced before…
You started exercising, you cut down your eating (calorie restriction), and you started to get some damn sexy results.
Then, out of nowhere, you hit a wall. You stopped progressing. No matter how hard you trained or how little you ate, you were stuck.
You got hit with a good ol’ fashion plateau. This happens to the best in the game.
There’s a reason for this, and John Romaniello from Roman Fitness Systems put it really well when he said:
“Once you’ve hit a fat loss plateau or when you’re trying to lose the last few pounds, fat loss becomes a game of hormonal balance. And if you’re not taking the right approach, your metabolism slows and it becomes harder for you to transform your body.”
John Romaniello from Roman Fitness Systems
Remember that your body is designed for two things: survival and procreation.
So when it comes to survival your body will do everything in its power to make sure it lives another day.
And that includes locking up your fat stores when it thinks it’s going to starve.
Truth is, once you hit a plateau it’s all about hormones and how the food you choose to eat impacts those hormones.
Again, after a period of time, going into a caloric deficit simply stops working.
So what have we learned so far…
We’ve learned that the calorie-counting model can help you lose weight, but only up to a certain point. The model is far from sustainable. It’s not healthy. And it definitely doesn’t help you build good eating habits.
So what’s the alternative?
The solution I like to use is a simple two-step approach.
Here is the simple two-step approach that works:
Step 1: use the calorie-restriction model in a strategic way until you reach your desired weight.
Step 2: once you reach your desired weight, switch to a maintenance nutrition strategy that is built around the same principals as step 1.
What we’re doing is simply leveraging what works.
Restricting calories works for shedding fat so we use it temporarily (and strategically) to reach our desired weight. But once we reached that desired state, we are best served to switch to something more effective and sustainable – a maintenance nutrition plan.
However, there are some subtle, yet important differences between traditional calorie-restricting methods (that I’ve spent the first part of this article bashing) and how I like to approach caloric restriction.
You have to approach it strategically.
First, you can’t just eat whatever you want. You have to focus on quality. Even though you’re restricting your caloric intake, you still have to fuel your body with the right (nourishing) foods.
Second, you have to introduce an element of surprise. To overcome problem #4, you have to find a way to tell your body that it’s not in starvation mode. And you do that with strategically positioned cheat days.
These elements set you up for an easy transition into the maintenance phase.
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions about these methods, feel free to leave your comments below. Cheers!
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