One point that people sometimes raise about the way of eating that we recommend “Isn’t it just less calories?”
Ie: Don’t people just lose weight eating this way because the types of food we recommend are less energy dense than more processed stuff, and they, therefore, end up consuming less calories, from the same volume of food.
Tis true.
And it is part of the reason that people actually find they end up eating more food this way than they have with other methods.
If Food A is, let’s say, half as calorie dense as Food B and you eat 50% more, you’ve taken in 75% as many calories.
Kapeesh?
But it kinda misses a big part of the point.
When people eat crap it affects their hormone balance and puts them in more of a fat storage mode.
When you eat naturally, sleep well, hydrate and exercise effectively, your body won’t want to store excess fat and will start to release it more effectively.
In this situation, you may end up consuming 500 less calories than the first.
And your body may be releasing 500 calories worthy of energy from fat stores.
So you’re not ‘short of energy’.
When you’re in a fat storage mode, you may cut your intake by 500 calories.
You know – keep eating crap, just less of it.
And the 500 calories of energy needed will have to come from somewhere – not necessarily fat stores though.
And will power can force you to keep going with this approach for so long.
But, in the vast majority of cases, the calorie intake will creep back up.
Or activity will drop down due to fatigue.
Or a bit of both.
Why challenge the body?
It doesn’t want to store excess fat.
Beyond essential fat levels, the human body does not want to store more.
Why confuse and challenge it by yo-yo dieting – continuing to eat rubbish, and changing the amounts every few months?
Treat it as it’s designed to be treated and the calorie side of it kinda takes care of itself.
Much love,
Jon ‘Calorie Smalorie’ Hall and Matt ‘Calories Count – but your don’t need to Count Calories’ Nicholson
