Counting calories is a popular tool people will eventually try in their quest to lose weight.
But does this actually help with portion control or maintaining any sort of strict diet? The goal of calorie counting is to know almost exactly how many calories you are consuming per day and per meal.
In theory once you know how many calories you are putting in your body, you can then decide how many less you would like to consume in order to lose weight.
This is where the calorie counting strategy falls apart.
Lets look at a fictional example to explain why this is not an effective tool.
A pound of fat has approximately 3500 calories of stored energy in it.
Lets say your goal is to lose 1 pound of fat per week (and this is a rather lofty goal considering that would be 52 pounds lost by the end of a year!).
This would equate to reducing your calories by 500 calories per day.
Lets also assume you eat 3 meals per day (even if its one big meal and a couple snacks).
This would equate to reducing approximately 166 calories per meal, which isn't very much.
It could be difference of a few more bites of your favorite pasta dish, a couple chicken wings, or the difference between some cheese on a burger or sandwich and a bit of mayonnaise.
These changes are almost unnoticeable from meal to meal, but they are the difference in gaining or losing weight over the long haul.
Being this specific at each meal is what is required to make calorie counting work.
It is very difficult if not impossible to keep track of changes this small this often.
Considering these changes are so small from meal to meal, it is also just as easy to over do a meal or two by the same few calories, which just puts you right back where you started.
You could be reducing your calories from meal to meal perfectly for 3 or 4 days, and one or two slip ups on day 5 and 6 will put you right back where you started.
For this strategy to work, you can't miss hitting your target for even one meal.
If you do, it will negate the effect of the previous meal.
For example, if you successfully reduce your calories by 166 at breakfast, but overdo lunch by 100, you're now only down 66 calories for the day.
The only way to hit your target now is to reduce your calories even further at dinner.
On top of all of this, recent research shows that people who are asked to count their calories for scientific studies will routinely underestimate the amount of food they are eating by up to 30%.
This just shows how hard it is to accurately keep track of calories at all.
This system of calorie counting is a recipe for failure and makes each meal a stressful event, and makes eating just down right not fun.
For the most part calorie counting will just show you how little the changes are that need to be made in order to lose weight.
It will also show you how hard it is to make these changes by counting calories at every meal.
A simpler solution is to look at your lifestyle and eating habits.
Try to take account of the times, places and situations where you end up in a 'big eat' mode like (holidays, work events, dinners out, at the movies etc...
) and the times when you can be totally satisfied with a sensible meal with moderate calories.
Striving to have more of latter favorable eating situations and less of the 'big eat' situations is a better more effective way to reduce calories without ever getting the calculator out again.
But does this actually help with portion control or maintaining any sort of strict diet? The goal of calorie counting is to know almost exactly how many calories you are consuming per day and per meal.
In theory once you know how many calories you are putting in your body, you can then decide how many less you would like to consume in order to lose weight.
This is where the calorie counting strategy falls apart.
Lets look at a fictional example to explain why this is not an effective tool.
A pound of fat has approximately 3500 calories of stored energy in it.
Lets say your goal is to lose 1 pound of fat per week (and this is a rather lofty goal considering that would be 52 pounds lost by the end of a year!).
This would equate to reducing your calories by 500 calories per day.
Lets also assume you eat 3 meals per day (even if its one big meal and a couple snacks).
This would equate to reducing approximately 166 calories per meal, which isn't very much.
It could be difference of a few more bites of your favorite pasta dish, a couple chicken wings, or the difference between some cheese on a burger or sandwich and a bit of mayonnaise.
These changes are almost unnoticeable from meal to meal, but they are the difference in gaining or losing weight over the long haul.
Being this specific at each meal is what is required to make calorie counting work.
It is very difficult if not impossible to keep track of changes this small this often.
Considering these changes are so small from meal to meal, it is also just as easy to over do a meal or two by the same few calories, which just puts you right back where you started.
You could be reducing your calories from meal to meal perfectly for 3 or 4 days, and one or two slip ups on day 5 and 6 will put you right back where you started.
For this strategy to work, you can't miss hitting your target for even one meal.
If you do, it will negate the effect of the previous meal.
For example, if you successfully reduce your calories by 166 at breakfast, but overdo lunch by 100, you're now only down 66 calories for the day.
The only way to hit your target now is to reduce your calories even further at dinner.
On top of all of this, recent research shows that people who are asked to count their calories for scientific studies will routinely underestimate the amount of food they are eating by up to 30%.
This just shows how hard it is to accurately keep track of calories at all.
This system of calorie counting is a recipe for failure and makes each meal a stressful event, and makes eating just down right not fun.
For the most part calorie counting will just show you how little the changes are that need to be made in order to lose weight.
It will also show you how hard it is to make these changes by counting calories at every meal.
A simpler solution is to look at your lifestyle and eating habits.
Try to take account of the times, places and situations where you end up in a 'big eat' mode like (holidays, work events, dinners out, at the movies etc...
) and the times when you can be totally satisfied with a sensible meal with moderate calories.
Striving to have more of latter favorable eating situations and less of the 'big eat' situations is a better more effective way to reduce calories without ever getting the calculator out again.