I don’t hate calories as in I think they are pointless. I hate the fact that at this point in time they are probably the most pointless way to measure food intake. If you are someone that struggles with portion control, calorie counting could help in the short term, helping you understand how much food you actually need to eat. What gets me is that you can watch YouTube full of people talking about ways to improve hormones, lose weight, understand cravings, change habits etc, ect. They go through this long drawn out video explaining all the things that actually happen in your body from the things we put in it. Then at the end or in some cases the beginning tells you it’s about energy in energy out (facepalm). Another one that gets me is carbohydrates are the only things that turn into glucose! (that's another rant). I get it, as a health professional you want to sell products and what not to people so calories are an easy way, 1+1=2 it’s simple. This doesn’t help you in the long term.
Time and time again, there have been studies on calorie counting for weight loss, long term these participants always put the weight back on and then more even on a restriction.
So calories are a measure of heat. We eat a lot and we will expel a lot of heat. Calories in themselves will not make us put on weight or contribute to us losing it. It all comes down to the glucose in our bodies. I can’t stress this enough.
Below I’m going to a outline a few ideas that may help you to lose weight, maintain good health or just help with blood sugar control
Calories are not all equal
Back to the calories in calories out idea. I hate this more than anything. When you buy stuff from the shops, whether it’s a chocolate bar or even a protein bar, you will find Kcasl on the back. For most people this is the dividing factor on which one to choose. One thing I’ve noticed is that when people count calories (Kcal) they tend to overeat. Why? When this kcal way of eating was introduced, men and women lived very different lives than they do today.Let's take someone who is counting Kcals and it’s the end of the day and they have 200 kcal left. They are hungry, they have two options. A cherry bakewell or an apple.What would you pick? Let's say you picked the bakewell. Why? Because it fits? What are you getting from it nutritionally? Nothing! The bakewell is 205 kcal. Full of artificial flavours, sugars and a rainbow of chemicals that are going to mess around with your pre-existing chemical balance. The apple is 95 kcal. This has sugars, protein, water, vitamins and minerals your body needs.Which is actually more filling and satisfying? The point here is to choose real foods as often as you can. You wouldn’t need to count anything when doing this. There are studies out there that have shown when you eat real food, you tend to eat less overall and in turn have better weight control long term. And yes if you want to eat a bakewell now and then why not. As long as the bulk of your diet is from real food.
Master your blood sugar
At any point blood sugar gets spiked. Kcals themselves wont spike it. It doesn’t matter if the thing is 500 kcal or 100 kcal. I wouldn’t sit here and tell people that sugar itself is the enemy for our health. Yes as a whole people eat way too much of it, I don’t think this is our fault either. There are other factors that come into play here too which can mess with our blood sugar and contribute to weight gain.
Lets go back to the bakewell and apple. We know the Kcal of them both, but how do they impact our blood sugar? A bakewell has 17.9g of sugar and one Apple (150g approx) will have 17.4g. On the surface we’d be thinking that the blood sugar spike would be the same, right? Generally food, once it’s left the stomach can be in our small intestine being absorbed for 40 minutes to 2+ hours. One of the things we eat that can help lean towards the 2+ hour (approx) mark would be fibre. Fibre coats our small intestine like a gel and helps slow down digestion. Our bakewell has roughly 0.7g of fibre in it. This would mean that in about 40 minutes that almost 18g of sugar will be in our bodies and spike our blood sugar. Then just as quick as it went up it’ll go down, making you want another, and another. The apple has almost 2g of fibre. Pushing us much closer to the two hours.With a more gradual raise in blood sugar and a slow drop. Keeping us fuller a little longer. Also fructose (fruit sugar) would only be metabolized by the liver and that would convert fructose to glucose, meaning it could be a little longer before your blood sugar spikes.
There is more to it but this is a very over simplified way of looking at it, which I hope illustrates my point.
Movement = kcal reduction???
Sit less, move more. Movement is medicine, if some is good, more is better. Even writing these phrases I’ve just done the biggest eye roll of my life.I hate these sayings. Taking more of any medicine doesn’t make you better. Moving our bodies is brilliant, but like the great apes, lions and elephants they are powerful creatures that don’t move constantly. I knew someone who was told by their trainer to do X amount of cardio a week, each session had to be 400-500 kcals. What does this even really mean? It’s like telling someone, I need you to be as hot as 40 degrees, go!! Ok I’m being a little harsh. The body has an amazing process of using energy (glucose) to help us move. Some forms of movement use fat, others we use glucose, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) or glucose and oxygen (KREPS cycle) Don’t worry, I won't bore you with those besides I just want to go over fat as energy instead.Using fat as an energy source is simple and amazing. Using the all amazing kcal as an example here. If you walk or run a mile you “use” 100 kcal. The difference, apart from being out of breath, is how long it’s taken you, and the energy system your body would use.If you ran 10 miles your body would mostly be using sugar, and eventually break down muscle tissue over time. If you walked 10 miles, your body would just use fat. If weight loss is a huge goal, walk more. If you enjoy a run or two, keep doing it. It does just depend on what you want to achieve.A 10 minute walk a day after a meal would do wonders for that waistline. You wouldn’t have needed to count how many kcals you've done as they have no place here.
Habit and behavioural change
The end of the day you have to find what works for you, and stick with it as best you can. I just wanted to break down a few things, and take kcals out of the equation. As I said before, kcal counting has no place in health, it’s just a way to sell rubbish “food” and supplements to people who want to live healthier lives.
Fundamentally it all comes down to your habits and behaviors. All the small things we do, or don’t do for ourselves.
A few things I would like you to keep in mind. Eat more fibre. 30g is the recommended daily amount. This is actually easier than you think. Place a bigger focus on real, whole foods as much as you can. Wherever you’re starting from, start small, build things up gradually.
Enjoy the process, sometimes you’ll hit a home run, other times you won't.
Any questions please leave them in the comments.
If you want to download my free PDF on how you could lose up to 5 lbs of fat click here
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