The Truth
About Counting Calories
By Tom Venuto - author of
Burn The Fat, Feed The
Muscle
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 secret for keeping track of your food intake without having to crunch
numbers every day or become a "food fanatic."
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. Is it 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. Personally, I’d rather know exactly
what I’m eating rather than take chances by guessing.
I believe that it's very
important to develop an understanding of and a respect for the law of calorie
balance (and portion control). I also believe that 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.
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 program sound easier to follow
(anything that sounds like work – such as counting calories or eating less
- 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.
To maintain your weight,
you must consume the same number of calories you burn. To gain weight (muscle),
you must consume more calories than you burn. To lose weight, you must consume
fewer calories than you burn.
If you eat more calories
than your body can utilize, you're going to gain fat, period. If you only count
portions and haven't the slightest clue how many calories you're taking in,
it's a lot more likely that you'll eat more than you realize. (Or you might
take in fewer calories than you should and trigger the dreaded "starvation
mode" which 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,
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 is one good menu. 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 have 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
educated) ballpark figure.
For more information on
calories (including how calculate exactly how many you should eat based on your
age, activity and personal goals, and for even more practical, proven fat loss
techniques that strip off body fat fast, check out my ebook, Burn The Fat, Feed
The Muscle at www.burnthefat.com
For more great articles like this one, go
to
Global Health & Fitness where
Tom Venuto is the Fat Loss Expert
Author Tom
Venuto
Tom Venuto is a bodybuilder, gym
owner, freelance writer, success coach and author of "Burn the Fat, Feed The
Muscle" (BFFM): Fat Burning Secrets of the World's Best Bodybuilders and
Fitness Models. Tom has written over 150 articles and has been featured in
IRONMAN magazine, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Muscle-Zine,
Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise. Tom's inspiring and informative
articles on bodybuilding, weight loss and motivation are featured regularly on
dozens of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's "Burn The Fat" e-book,
click here.
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