This will be the last time you hear from me…
…for about a week, as I’m heading off to the sunny Mayan Riviera in Mexico to celebrate one of my best friends getting married!
It’s weird, even though I’ve been to this area of Mexico dozens of times during my time working on a cruise ship, I haven’t taken a trip like this in years, so I’m really looking forward to it.
So, this will be the last time you hear from me until I’m back. I know it will be quite hard, but try not to miss me too much. I’ll be back in your inbox before you know it 😉
Before I go however, I wanted to talk to you about something that a lot of people get confused about. Something that holds people back from losing weight and changing their bodies.
A lot of coaches, trainers, and even doctors talk about how calorie counting is an absolute necessity if you’re trying to lose weight or change your body in some way.
And I agree, kind of. It’s definitely important to be aware of the foods you’re eating and how much you’re eating. But the actual calorie counting process can be a struggle for a lot of people which can lead to feeling overwhelmed and quitting.
The problem with counting calories, is that even if you meticulously weigh and measure every gram of food that goes into your mouth, the calories, and grams of carbs/proteins/fats that you’re tracking are still estimates at best.
Calorie Counting Can Be Up To 20% Off
Calorie counts you see on food labels and in food databases are simply averages. Food companies may use any of 5 different methods to estimate calories, so the FDA permits inaccuracies of up to 20%.Â
Read that again – the calories you see on a food label could be up to 20% more or 20% less!
{RELATED: “6 Fat Loss Friendly, Fast Breakfast Ideas That Take 6 Minutes To Make“}
For example, let’s take a “large” sweet potato.
The average is 339 calories, but because of the 20% rule that sweet potato you’re logging could be as low as 231 calories or it could be as high as 705 calories. That’s a pretty big swing when you’re trying to be precise with how much food you’re eating.
Or we could look at peanuts. 1/3 cup of chopped peanuts says 226 calories…but it could be as low as 213 calories or as high as 276 calories.
Put another way, if you’re logging your food in something like My Fitness Pal, you could be eating 20% MORE calories than what you’re logging.
That means if you’ve been told to eat 1600 calories to lose weight, and your day in My Fitness Pal says you ate 1600 calories, you might have eaten as low as 1280 calories that day or as high as 1920 calories. An extra 300 calories is a pretty big swing and could absolutely be leading to your struggle with weight loss (or weight gain if that’s your jam).
Not to mention the effort and time that goes into precise calorie counting, only to have the numbers be inaccurate anyways.
This is one of the many reasons we don’t do restrictive meal plans or calorie counting with clients right away (that might come in Level 2 if necessary).
If I’m being honest, I actually think that’s the lazy way to help people with nutrition. Telling someone to set calories at 12x bodyweight and protein at 0.8grams/lb of bodyweight is easy. Helping someone shift their behaviours around food so they actually understand *how* to eat for their body, goals and food preferences is much more difficult. But that’s a discussion for another time.
{RELATED:Â “You Have To Know The Rules Before You Can Bend Them“}
With all that said, I do still think keeping a food journal can be a huge help to get you to understand what you’re eating and a rough estimate of how much. I’ll typically have clients start logging their food right away, whether that’s in a book or in My Fitness Pal. But it’s not so they can worry about how many calories/carbs/protein/fats they’re eating, it’s so they can simply become more aware. It’s also for us to look at together to decide what the next best step should in their nutrition together.
Like I said in a recent article – you have to know the rules before you can bend them. Get the basics down first and then if you want to dial things in even more, you can do that.
Like most things, there is definitely a time and place for calorie counting. Just not at the beginning of your weight loss or body transformation journey.
Most people can make incredible progress, lose a lot of weight, and completely change their body without ever having to count a calorie in their lives (just ask the people on this page).
And rest assured, while I’m in Mexico, the word “calorie” won’t even cross my mind 😉
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