The
Truth About Counting Calories And Weight Loss
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
Do calories
matter or do you simply need to eat certain foods and
that will guarantee youll 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? Youre
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 dont 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 bodys
"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
thats 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 youre
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 whats
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 dont 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
About
the Author:
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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 hundreds of articles and has been featured
in print magazines such as IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN,
Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise
for Men and Mens Exercise, as well as on hundreds
of websites worldwide.
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Articles By Tom Venuto
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