If you have ever tried to lose weight, there’s an excellent probability you have been told all of it comes down to a straightforward “calories in, calories out” formula: burn more calories than you devour and the kilos will disappear.
It’s also easy to see the appeal of breaking down your weight loss into simple arithmetic – just follow the formula and you may succeed. It can be reliable because many individuals actually lose weight when using this approach for the first time.
Indeed, the eating regimen industry’s reliance on the “calories in, calories out” concept is the reason society blames people for being chubby. Anyone who cannot follow this straightforward energy formula is chubby just because they lack the willpower to eat less and exercise more.
But the one easy truth is that it’s time to dispel the myth of “calories in, calories out” as the only way to lose weight. This is why.
Accurate calculations are almost unimaginable
The many calorie counting apps and online calculators available make it seem easy. Simply enter your gender, age, height, weight, body composition and activity level and it is going to let you know exactly what number of calories you must devour per day to lose weight.
Unfortunately, regardless of how accurate these calculators are, they depend on averages and cannot determine the right caloric intake for you with 100% accuracy. They can only estimate.
Similarly, our metabolic rate – how much energy we burn at rest – also varies from person to person and relies on many aspects, including body composition and the amount of muscle and fat tissue. To complicate matters further, our metabolic rate also changes when we modify our eating regimen and lose weight.
Unsplash/Ali Inay
Calculating the calories in your food – the second a part of calorie management – can be removed from accurate.
Although the Australian Food Standards require that food products display nutrition facts panels showing energy in kilojoules, there aren’t any requirements for the accuracy of the information aside from that it must not be misleading. Disturbing A variance of +/-20% is mostly accepted. for the values given on the labels.
In practice, the differences could also be much greater. One Australian study found that food is in every single place from 13% less to 61% more energy or nutrients than stated on the packaging.
Not all calories are created and consumed equally
Another reason why the easy “calories in, calories out” formula is not so easy is that our bodies don’t use every calorie in the same way. What you see on the calorie counter shouldn’t be what has actually been absorbed by your body.
Different sources of calories even have different effects on our hormones, brain response and energy expenditure, changing the way we respond to and manage food intake.
For example, if eating 180 calories of nuts is the same as eating 180 calories of pizza in terms of energy intake, the way these foods are absorbed and how they affect the body is totally different.
Although we absorb most of the calories contained in a slice of pizza, we don’t absorb roughly them 20% calories in nuts because their fat is stored in the fibrous cell partitions of the nuts, which don’t break down during digestion. Nuts are also loaded with fiber, which keeps us full for longer, and a slice of pizza makes us immediately reach for one more one due to its low fiber content.
Our bodies disrupt this formula
The biggest flaw with the “calories in, calories out” formula is that it ignores the undeniable fact that the body adjusts its control systems when caloric intake decreases. So, while this formula may initially help individuals achieve weight loss, reducing energy intake won’t counteract mechanisms that ensure the return of lost weight.
Namely, when the body registers a continuous decline in caloric intake, it believes that its survival is in danger. So robotically causes various physiological reactions to protect yourself from the threat by lowering your metabolic rate and burning less energy.
This comes from our hunter-gatherer ancestors, whose bodies developed this response to adapt to periods of scarcity when food was scarce, thus protecting against starvation.
Unsplash/Danielle Cerullo
Research also suggests that our bodies have a “set weight”: a genetically determined weight our bodies try to maintain themselves regardless of what we eat or how much we exercise.
When we lose weight, our bodies protect the set point by managing biological signals from the brain and hormones to maintain fat stores in preparation for future reductions in caloric intake.
The body accomplishes this in several ways, each of which directly affects the “calories in, calories out” equation, including:
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slowing down our metabolism. When we reduce our calorie intake to lose weight, we lose muscle and fat. This weight loss causes the expected reduction in metabolic rate, but there’s: further 15% reduction in metabolism exceeds what might be explained, which further confuses the “calories in, calories out” equation. Even after regaining the lost weight, our metabolism he shouldn’t be recovering. The thyroid gland also fails after we limit our food intake fewer hormones are secretedalso changing the equation by reducing the energy burned at rest
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adapting the way we use our energy sources. When we reduce our energy intake and start losing weight, our body stops using fat as an energy source for carbohydrates and retains fat, which ends in less energy consumption in peace
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by controlling the functioning of our adrenal glands. The adrenal glands manage the hormone cortisol, which is released when something taxing is imposed on the body – resembling calorie restriction. Excessive production of cortisol and its presence in our blood changes the way our body processes, stores and burns fat.
Unsplash/Alan Hardman
Our bodies also cleverly trigger responses to increase caloric intake to regain lost weight, including:
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regulating our appetite hormones. When we reduce our calorie intake and deprive our body of food, our hormones work otherwise. suppressing the feeling of fullness and tells us to eat more
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changing the way our brain functions. When caloric intake decreases, activity in the hypothalamus, the a part of the brain that regulates emotions and food intake, also decreases. reducing our control and judging our food decisions.
Conclusion
The “calories in, calories out” formula for weight loss success is a myth since it oversimplifies the complex means of calculating energy intake and expenditure. More importantly, it doesn’t bear in mind the mechanisms our body prompts to counteract the reduction in energy intake.
So, while it’s possible you’ll achieve short-term weight loss by following this formula, you’ll likely gain it back.
Moreover, counting calories can do more harm than good, taking away from the pleasure of eating and contributing to the development of an unhealthy relationship with food. This could make it even harder to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.
For long-term weight loss, it is important to follow evidence-based programs designed by health care professionals and make gradual changes to your lifestyle to make sure you develop habits that can last a lifetime.
