The Truth About Counting Calories And Weight Loss
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.lifetosuccess-recommends.com/burnthefat.html
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 it.
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," stress 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.
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 because you are being lied to. 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! 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 idea 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.
Rather than writing down every calorie one by one from every morsel of
food you eat for the rest of your life, create a menu plan you can use
as a daily goal and guideline. If you’re really ambitious, keeping a
nutrition journal at least one time in your life 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 primary menu as
a template.
Using this meal planning method, you really only need to “count
calories” once when you create your menus, not every day, ad infinitum.
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.
For more information on calories (including how calculate precisely how
many you should eat based on your age, activity and personal goals, and
for even more practical, proven fat loss techniques to help you lose
body fat safely, healthfully and permanently, check out my e-book, Burn
The Fat, Feed The Muscle at
www.lifetosuccess-recommends.com/burnthefat.html
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal
trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), and
author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle.”
Tom has written more than 200 articles and been featured in IRONMAN,
Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise
for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on hundreds of websites
worldwide. For information on Tom's Fat Loss program, visit:
www.lifetosuccess-recommends.com/burnthefat.html