You’ve heard me say it before: The only way to lose weight, is to create a calorie deficit.
I could just end the article there. But I can’t. I won’t. Because on an almost daily basis, I see distressingly face-palm worthy Instagram diet pages where the content is based SOLELY on calorie counting. And the creators are having results with weight loss, showing that if you manage to get your energy intake right, you can lose weight, regardless of what you’re eating.
But what weight loss DOESN’T show us, is what’s going on inside our bodies. It doesn’t show us what our HEALTH looks like. Now, to a lot of you, be honest, the health metric is less important than how you’re going to look on the beach in your Speedos this summer. Be honest. It’s a fact. It’s why people continue to deteriorate and suffer with preventable health conditions, because bizarrely, we just don’t prioritise our own health until we realise death is imminent. Which is stupid logic, but then, I’ve come to learn that humans are just a completely whacky species.
So it seems that if you’re only bothered by how you look and you’re know calorie counting will help you lose weight, then why on earth would you worry about anything else? What if I told you calorie counting alone could contribute to premature ageing? What if I told you that by basing your entire nutritional profile on calories would lead you to become that man that looks 10 years older than he actually is; you know, the one who can’t keep up, the one who needs the early bed time on the boys holiday, the one with the wrinkles and the lethargy and the thinning skin and hair…
Okay, you have my attention…
So how does that work? Well if you’re calorie counting along like Sandra from Slimming World, then you’re missing the point.
The point of consuming food is…?
- Energy – you need energy to carry out daily functions. Simples. You know this.
- Building – you need to build the body you want; skin, muscles, bones, all the stuff that holds you up, enables you to pump iron in the gym and look good on the beach.
There are gazillions of functions of food and hydration, but I am going to say that any of those functions fits into one of the above categories – either energy for a process or the building blocks of a process.
So if you’re counting calories alone, you’re focusing on depriving yourself of energy. Which is great when you want to lose fat, but obviously as a long term strategy would mean you start to run out of fuel for essential functions. We also see that those who focus on calorie counting and put themselves into SEVERE calorie deficit actually harm their BMR in the long run and may never get back to their original metabolism rate in the end. So calorie counting CONSTANTLY for extended periods of time is just starving you of energy.
But let’s say you’re in a calorie controlled plan. You have a target. You calorie counting is seeing a healthy weight loss of 1lb per week and everything that goes in your mouth is accounted for to the last gram. You’re on track for your 10 week 10lb weight loss goal at which point you’ll be able to consider your maintenance calories and getting back to being able to be a little more relaxed about your food diary. You’re eating the foods you love – Haribo, pizza, Double Deckers and Big Macs all day, because it’s all accounted for. You’re not in a chronic energy loss and you plan to stop the deficit once you’ve reached your goal. What harm are you doing?
You’re missing the point. Of course you’ll lose weight. But that doesn’t mean you’re improving your HEALTH. When we focus solely on calories, we’re focusing solely on energy. We’re not thinking about the building blocks we need. Which means although we might have the energy required to fuel the processes going on inside our body, we’re not giving it the raw materials it needs. Which means you’re going to be left annoyed, upset and deflated when you lose all the weight but you still look like a baggy sack of cookie dough instead of the prime rump you thought you’d be left with.
Why is it that professionals seem to sit in one camp or the other? Why is nobody prepared to stand up and say “energy intake matters, food quality matters”? Why is it always “Calories in vs calories out” vs “Food type, not calories”? Because people oversimplify everything and it’s easier for them to sell it to you that way.
In my weight loss coaching, it’s often a slow, long and challenging process to help people understand that WHAT they’re putting in their bodies is just as important – IF NOT IMPORTANTER (yes, I know, not a word, I just like it for the effect) – than how MUCH they’re putting in their bodies. Why? Because being overweight is often an indicator for poor health, but stuffing your face with ultra-processed food 24/7 is a far bigger indicator for preventable disease. We’re beginning to see more and more evidence to support this and the discussions I’m having with other professionals show that it has taken us a long time to see what is an overwhelmingly obvious pattern:
We eat too much but we also don’t eat real food anymore.
We basically survive on a collection of synthesised chemicals. And it isn’t the chemicals themselves that’s the problem, it’s the way we metabolise them.
So have a think about weight loss means, why you’re doing it and whether you’re really giving your body everything it needs to become the thing you imagine. How?
– Think about calories in the context of energy but NOT as the be all and end all of your journey
– Remember your body needs UNPROCESSED FOODS to actually get the nutrients it needs
– If it comes in a packet, it’s probably not the best choice
– Just because something is “low calorie”, most certainly does NOT mean it’s “healthy”
– Try and pick things you recognise as food e.g. you don’t need a label to tell you what they are…