You know it’s true, we suck at counting calories.
And we are told over and over again that in order to lose weight, we need to expend MORE energy than we take in. i.e. Calories In, Calories Out.
Which means we need to consume less calories than we expend.
And in order to know if we’re doing that, counting calories sounds like a good idea.
While it’s good to know what is in your food and about how many calories you are consuming, it’s practically impossible to accurately count calories.
Here is why counting calories alone is faulty:
👉 People are not great at eyeballing calories. Is that a TBSP portion size or a TSP portion size? How many ounces is that piece of meat?
👉 Food labels can have a 20% of error. That’s right, the FDA allows an error of up to 20%.
👉 Cooking and preparing foods can alter the calories and nutrients. Fried food almost always contains more calories than baked foods.
👉 Energy burned through digestion varies depending on macronutrients. Protein takes the most energy to digest (20-30% of total calories in protein eaten go to digesting it). Next is carbohydrates (5-10%) and then fats (0-3%).
👉 The body burns calories in various ways and every person differs. Several factors determine your individual basal metabolism, including your weight, your age, and your gender.
👉 It is hard to know exactly how many calories we burn when we exercise. Most fitness trackers and pedometers are known to be inaccurate.
👉 Different forms of exercise have different calorie-burning effects. Look at this post of how many calories are burned by three different people all doing the same exercises for 30 minutes.
👉 The quality of the food makes a difference, Calories from vegetables and calories from marshmallow fluff are going to respond differently inside your body.
What else you need to remember:
This is why being educated about nutrition basics along with learning to practice mindful eating and being aware of your food choices is important to long-term diet success.
Blindly following a meal plan or diet may work for a while, but do you know what to do when the plan is over and you have to make your own choices?
Every person is unique.
Everybody processes, absorbs, and uses food differently… also known as our metabolism.
In order to know what works BEST for you right now, you have to try various things and make an educated decision (how you feel, is it sustainable, are you moving towards your goal, etc.) Tracking your food, mood, and fitness really helps here.
And here is another thing to keep in mind.
What works today may not work next year.
And what worked 10 years ago may not work now.
The human body works very hard to adapt/maintain homeostasis. (Homeostasis is a healthy state that is maintained by the constant adjustment of biochemical and physiological pathways.)
And as we age, our resting metabolic rate naturally goes down.
While there are tips, techniques, and best practices when it comes to fitness and nutrition, you will only know what is best for you by trying different things and seeing how your body responds.
We are firm believers in educating others as well as keeping them accountable. If you are interested in learning more about nutrition, leave a comment or shoot us an email via the Contact Form.