Body Conscious Ramblings

Calorie counting

Many people subscribe to the idea that you can loose weight by counting calories. What that means is that they will follow a low calorie intake diet to lose weight. In principle it does work, but in reality it doesn’t. To prove it you can take as an example an extreme case of a concentration camp worker. Yes, I know it’s quite an extreme case, but indulge me for a moment. We all know the image of him being a very skinny individual and we know from history that he was fed a very poor, low-calorie, low-nutrient diet. That is extreme and nobody will go to that extent today to lose weight (or so I hope so), but it does prove that you will even loose cellulite if you limit your food intake. Now, why doesn’t it work in reality ? Well, because we’ll feel hunger and having food at the tips of our fingers we will have to succumb and have some and in that way we’ll cross our calorie limit for any given day, whatever it might be. There is another reason why calorie counting alone won’t work and it’s the fact that we have to look at the source of that calorie, because all calories are not equal…..

Calorie = calorie regardless where it comes from

In many cases those of you who count their calories often times don’t pay much attention to where the calories came from, you are most concerned with the number at the end of the day. So you might pull out your trusty notepad where you make note of every single calorie you eat during the day and in principle once you arrive at the magic number you are supposed to stop eating. However, by not paying attention to where those calories come from you add to your failure to lose weight, because not all calories are equal. To prove it let’s compare the nutritional value of a Big Mac and that of raw broccoli:

1 Big Mac

• 215 grams
• 576 calories
• 292 calories from fat
• 12 grams of saturated fat (bad)
• 103 mg of Cholesterol (bad)
• 742mg of Sodium (bad)
• 47 grams of Carbs (mostly bad, coming from white bread)
• 24 grams of Protein (coming from fat meal, not good)

Broccoli

• 2000 grams!! – To get the same calorie intake from broccoli we need to 10 times as much in weight of raw broccoli!!!
• 560 calories
• 59 calories from fat
• 1 gram of saturated fat
• 0.2 grams of Monounsaturated fats (good)
• 0.8 grams of Polyunsaturated fats (good)
• 420 mg of Omega-3 fatty acids (GREAT)
• 340 mg of Omega-6 fatty acids (good)
• 0 mg of Cholesterol
• 540 mg of Sodium
• 52 grams of dietary Fibre (good for being regular)
• 34 grams sugar (we’re talking naturally occurring sugar, of course)
• 56 grams of lean Protein (Yayyyy)
• Vitamin C  2900% of necessary daily intake!!
• Vitamin A  249% of necessary daily intake!!
• Calcium 94% of necessary daily intake
• Iron 81% of necessary daily intake

As long as I exercise it doesn’t matter what I eat

No, exercise is not enough to lose weight and keep it off. But you shouldn’t take my word for it, have a look:

exercise

The reasoning behind this theory can be found in this article which claims that we don’t lose weight by following an exercise regimen only, because exercise makes us hungry and in many cases, those who do not pay special attention to diet, follow their exercise sessions by a Big Mac with fries as a reward for having exercised. I would go even further by saying that even if you don’t indulge in a Big Mac after your workout you still have to watch what you put in your mouth.

Let me illustrate by giving you two examples from my life: 5-6 years ago, I was somewhat overweight, uncomfortably overweight for my liking (weighed about 70kg or 155lbs). I decided to follow a dietary regimen that excluded refined grains, white sugar, white flour and was abundant in lean protein, fibre, fruits and veggies. I also took up Pilates – a mild form of exercise, no cardio. I ate 3 times a day, I lost all the unnecessary baggage in 6-7 months and weighed 53-55kg at the end of my regimen, which was fine by me. Later I picked up 5-7kg (11-15lbs), which added a roll or two in few places. It didn’t take me long to join a gym this time, I wanted it to seem more serious than my pilates and I also wanted to lose the extra kgs faster. But I didn’t do the same to my diet, as I didn’t restrict it as much as I did the first time. I still didn’t eat any refined grains, white sugar etc, but I ate a lot. I ate 5-6 meals a day, provoked in part by hunger inducing strenuous exercise (lots of cardio and weight lifting) So what ended up happening was me eating my breakfast, followed by lunch-like meal at 10, at 1 and  3, followed by a regular supper! My meals were not per say unhealthy, but the amount at the end of the day was probably in the upper limits or over. Result? The scale did not budge a millimetre and my clothes size was the same. So what I did burn during exercise I neutralized or added in calories eaten right after. So am I going against my 1st point of low-calorie diets don’t work? No, not really. I’m just saying that if you ever come across people from the bodybuilding industry who tell you that you should eat 5-6 meals a day, that doesn’t mean you should triple your lunch intake! That just means that next to healthy size breakfast, lunch and supper you should add two snacks (mid-morning and mid-afternoon) that include either a small portion of lean protein or good carbs. For example you could have a handful of almonds or a fruit.

The conclusion is clear, for the exercise to be effective you have tochange your eating habits and ditch the Big Mac or Gaterade after workout!

Your genetics predetermine your figure – if my mother is obese so will I.

I guess it depends on who you listen to. Most sources agree though that it’s the recent environmental changes that are to blame for the obesity epidemic indirectly and people themselves directly. Genetics do play some role in what you look like, in that they determine your body build and shape. However, whether or not you’re obese or slim has more to do with your eating habits than with what your parents are like. Of course, if you eat like them, you will also look like them.

This article claims that according to a UK study obesity is genetically predetermined because obese children lack a piece of DNA, which as a result “kicks their hunger into overdrive.” In other words, those kids cannot stop eating because they are always hungry. Now, to me that’s a poor excuse for obesity. I’m not denying that this DNA abnormality is making them more hungry than the rest of us, but I bet you any money that to “satiate” this hunger they are not eating carrots and salad, but McDonald’s! There is no reason not to eat 5-6 healthy meals a day to satiate any hunger. I guess there is another problem with these kids and that’s that they cannot tell when they are full and when to stop eating. Well, that’s a parent’s job. It’s the parent who should implement portion size control and only give their child enough to eat for healthy development. And when the child screams for more, how about a carrot stick ?

So you might be genetically susceptible to obesity, but it’s the environment and your choices that determine what you read on the scale.

The best indicator of how much weight I lost is what my scale tells me

This assumption gets many people off the exercise wagon in early stages of a new exercise/nutrition regimen. I guess it’s the society in which we live that promotes instant gratification – you started to eat healthy and exercise and you want to see results right away. And when it comes to weight loss you want to see the scale move downwards right away. The problem is that you might not see it move right away if you are not morbidly obese. So you should look for your instant gratification in the way your clothes fit you, not in what the scale tells you. If all of a sudden your clothes get loose, it means that your healthy eating and exercise are working, even if the sale hasn’t moved. It will move eventually, if you have weight to lose. If there is no weight to lose, the scale might never move or even move upwards. Yes! If you’re eating well and exercising you are losing fat and gaining muscle and we all know that muscle weighs more than fat, therefore your weight might increase and only the size of your clothes will be an indicator for you that you are doing the right thing.