Why Calorie Counting Isn’t the Answer

Keeping a calorie-counting food journal is a way to prevent overeating and to lose weight. Calorie deficits do work when it comes to short-term weight loss. However, many pitfalls arise when you’re counting calories alone, and, in the end, it is not a sustainable long-term solution for weight loss and overall health.

Counting Calories Leads you to Pre-Packaged Foods

Counting calories can be challenging enough, but what happens when you grab some fresh produce at the farmer’s market and cook it up with a fresh piece of meat from the butcher? What about the oil you used to saute the vegetables? Did you count that? Measure it? There are no handy numbers to log with a home-prepared meal. It gets complicated and laborious having to look up the foods you’re preparing while measuring out portion sizes. I’ve gone through phases of counting calories in the past and I found that I ended up eating primarily packaged foods because they were quantifiable and easy to add, with no guesswork involved. Eat this little package and add 120 calories. One-third of this frozen pizza equals 250 calories. I’d end up having cans of soup, fruit cups, granola bars, microwave meals and other packaged foods. They may have even been organic, but most were filled with carbs and sugars and depleted of phytonutrients and real nutrition that only fresh foods provide.

Counting Calories Leaves You Hungry

When I counted calories, I was constantly hungry. I stuck to it because I was losing weight and learned to “embrace the hunger.” Because of that implied rule of calorie-counting that says you can eat anything you want just as long as you limit your calories, I ended up eating the wrong foods. Especially processed carbs. My blood sugar peaks and valleys made me constantly hungry, which I found was not a sustainable, healthy or happy way to live. A diet shouldn’t be something you go on or stick to, nor should it be a fad; it should be a lifelong habit of normalized, healthy eating that not only helps you maintain a healthy weight, but nourishes your body and mind.

Counting Calories Leads to Rebound Weight Gain

When there’s a caloric deficit in your diet, you’re literally starving yourself to lose weight. In a state of even slight starvation, metabolic changes start to happen that can set you up for rebound weight gain. (Source) Once you’ve reached your goal weight and go back to unrestricted eating, you may end up overeating to make up for your previous deficit. Calorie restriction has a very low success rate and is being questioned even by the mainstream medical community as a long-term solution for obesity management. (Source) After calorie-restrictive weight loss, the weight that comes back on ends up in different places, especially around the organs in your midsection, which is known as visceral fat. (Source) Visceral fat is not just the hardest to lose, but the most dangerous type of fat on your body. Visceral fat itself is a predictor for metabolic syndrome (diabetes, heart disease and their precursors) and kidney disease. (Source)

Counting Calories Doesn’t Account for Nutrition

Calorie counters only learn how to control their overall calorie count, but proper nutrition involves multiple facets, like balancing your carbs, proteins, fats, and fiber to the optimal level for your body and getting essential nutrients, phytonutrients, enzymes, antioxidants and healthy fats that your body needs to protect itself from the free radical damage that’s created just by everyday living. It also involves keeping your blood sugar stable, your arteries clear and your organs functioning optimally. Western culture has become so weight-loss obsessed that one’s thinness has become the only indicator of health, but this is far from the truth. You can be thin and unhealthy and have the blood-work of someone much older than you. You can have a few extra pounds and be wonderfully healthy. There is no such thing as a “perfect” diet, no matter how many diet books and programs exist that proclaim otherwise. While everyone has individual dietary needs that can change throughout their lives, there are some general guidelines that we all can follow, like eating vegetables at every meal, getting lots of fiber and limiting sugar and high-glycemic carbs, eating quality lean proteins and undamaged fats. I’ll be writing more about my personal diet philosophy that has helped me improve my bloodwork, control my weight and manage my PCOS and other hormone issues in upcoming posts.