The Great Calorie Debate

You want to lose weight?

Just cut your calories right?

Or burn a few more in the gym??

This started off as a simple conversation in the studio earlier this week and soon turned in to a pretty heated debate! So we thought we’d share our view on why all calories aren't created equally and how your body is just too smart to fall for this simple trick!...

In theory the calories in vs calories out debate works but the reality is your body is far too intelligent for this to work as a long term weight loss solution and there are a number of considerations you need to be aware of as to why following this simple equation won’t get you the results you desire.

The truth is your body is an amazing control centre that is monitoring and regulating constantly therefore the fewer calories you consume, the fewer calories your body burns.

There are around 3500 calories in a pound of fat. So if your goal is to lose 1 pound of fat per week simple maths tells us that if you simply reduce your calorie intake by 500 calories per day you’ll lose one pound of fat per week and you can just keep doing this until you hit your desired weight. Simple 

yes??

Well, NO

You’ll probably find that you lose a pound in the first week but less and less in subsequent weeks as your body adapts to this change and starts to literally run cooler to conserve the lower amount of calories you are now consuming – effectively increasing the value of each calorie!

It’s a tough job to outsmart the human body!

Here’s the even worse news...

The long term damage of this approach is that your body has now effectively lowered its Basal Metabolic rate – the amount energy expended daily at rest.

So, when you go back to your normal eating habits you easily put on the weight you’ve lost AND more!

This is the reason why most calorie restrictive diets don’t work as a long term solution and why most people go back to weight watchers time and time again.

My other problem with calorie counting is that All Calories Are Not Created Equally!

Simply put some of the things we eat are just not food! They are “food like substances!”

                                                  Real food or GOOD CALORIES, are those that supply energy to the body in an effective and efficient manner. They ensure that all of our bodily processes like hormone production, muscle growth and organ function develop and perform in the way that they should.

BAD CALORIES are those that stimulate excessive insulin levels (which is the real cause of fat storage and will be properly discussed in another blog post) they offer very little to the body except for fat accumulation and poor health.

So what do you do?

Here are a few simple tricks:

Don’t fall for marketing tricks! No matter how “Low Cal” it may be, if your body cannot use it, digest it and function optimally from consuming it your causing harm to your health and adding to that growing waist line!

Eat real food.

Our simple philosophy at All About You is that if it’s lived or come out of the ground it will benefit your body and you can pretty much eat as much as you like of these foods!

We are now offering nutrition and lifestyle consultations at the studio. If you like the sound of this and want to find out more, CONTACT US for more information.