The Truth About Counting Calories And Weight Loss
Copyright 2005 Tom Venuto
Do calories matter or do you simply need to eat certain
foods and that will guarantee you'll lose weight? Should
you count calories or can you just count "portions?" Is it
necessary to keep a food diary? Is it unrealistic to count
calories for the rest of your life or is that just part of
the price you pay for a better body?
You're about to learn the answers to these questions and
discover a simple solution for keeping track of your food
intake without having to crunch numbers every day or become
a fanatic about your food.
In many popular diet books, "Calories don't count" is a
frequently repeated theme. Other popular programs, such as
Bill Phillip's "Body For Life," allude to the importance of
energy intake versus energy output, but recommend that you
count "portions" rather than calories…
Phillips wrote,
"There aren't many people who can keep track of their
calorie intake for an extended period of time. As an
alternative, I recommend counting 'portions.' A portion of
food is roughly equal to the size of your clenched fist or
the palm of your hand. Each portion of protein or
carbohydrate typically contains between 100 and 150
calories. For example, one chicken breast is approximately
one portion of protein, and one medium-sized baked potato
is approximately one portion of carbohydrate."
Phillips makes a good point that trying to count every
single calorie - in the literal sense - can drive you crazy
and is probably not realistic as a lifestyle for the long
term. It's one thing to count portions instead of calories
– that is at least acknowledging the importance of portion
control. However, it's another altogether to deny that
calories matter.
Yes, calories do count! Any diet program that tells you,
"calories don't count" or you can "eat all you want and
still lose weight" is a diet you should avoid. The truth
is, that line is a bunch of baloney designed to make a diet
sound easier to follow. Anything that sounds like work –
such as counting calories, eating less or exercising, tends
to scare away potential customers! But the law of calorie
balance is an unbreakable law of physics: Energy in versus
energy out dictates whether you will gain, lose or maintain
your weight. Period.
I believe that it's very important to develop an
understanding of and a respect for portion control and the
law of calorie balance I also believe it's an important
part of nutrition education to learn how many calories are
in the foods you eat on a regular basis – including (and
perhaps, especially) how many calories are in the foods you
eat when you dine at restaurants.
The law of calorie balance says:
To maintain your weight, you must consume the same number
of calories you burn. To gain weight, you must consume more
calories than you burn. To lose weight, you must consume
fewer calories than you burn.
If you only count portions or if you haven't the slightest
clue how many calories you're eating, it's a lot more
likely that you'll eat more than you realize. (Or you might
take in fewer calories than you should, which triggers your
body's "starvation mode" and causes your metabolism to shut
down).
So how do you balance practicality and realistic
expectations with a nutrition program that gets results?
Here's a solution that's a happy medium between strict
calorie counting and just guessing:
Create a menu using an EXCEL spreadsheet or your favorite
nutrition software. Crunch all the numbers including
calories, protein, carbs and fats. Once you have your daily
menu, print it, stick it on your refrigerator (and/or in
your daily planner) and you now have an eating "goal" for
the day, including a caloric target.
That is my definition of "counting calories" -- creating a
menu plan you can use as a daily guide, not necessarily
writing down every morsel of food you eat for the rest of
your life. If you're really ambitious, keeping a nutrition
journal for at least 4-12 weeks is a great idea and an
incredible learning experience, but all you really need to
get started on the road to a better body is one good menu
on paper. If you get bored eating the same thing every day,
you can create multiple menus, or just exchange foods using
your one menu as a template.
Using this method, you really only need to count calories
once when you create your menus. After you've got a knack
for calories from this initial discipline of menu planning,
then you can estimate portions in the future and get a
pretty good (and more educated) ballpark figure.
So what's the bottom line? Is it really necessary to count
every calorie to lose weight? No. But it IS necessary to
eat fewer calories then you burn. Whether you count
calories and eat less than you burn, or you don't count
calories and eat less than you burn, the end result is the
same – you lose weight. Which would you rather do: Take a
wild guess, or increase your chance for success with some
simple menu planning? I think the right choice is obvious.
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Tom Venuto is a certified personal trainer, natural
bodybuilder and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book,
"Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle. You can get info on Tom's
e-book at: www.burnthefat.com. To get Tom's free monthly
e-zine, visit www.fitren.com