Day 87: Counting Those Calories

Keeping track of my calories wasn’t as hard as I remembered mostly because I entered everything that I planned on eating through my afternoon snack first thing in the morning.  That way I do not have to take time to enter everything after each meal. 

You know, like everything involved in weight loss there is a certain amount of skeptics especially in the scientific community, around calorie counting.  Some nutritionist insist that weight loss and health are all tied to calories and that it doesn’t matter the type of calorie as long as you burn more than you take in everything will be fine.

While others argue that there is a huge difference in the types of calories that we consume and some are considered premium fuel for our bodies and others are junk that force out bodies to store fat.  What is the truth? Like so many facets of science and nutrition I am going to have to answer with: Nobody knows. 

It’s the truth.  Which PhD’s are correct and how are we to know? Every stinking study they do only disproves the last study they did.  It is generally agreed that to lose weight you must burn more calories than you consume after that it’s all a blur of contradicting information. 

In doing some research on the subject I ran across the WebMD site for calorie counting. They basically say that you should choose low fat high fiber calories. Me, for example, just based on how my body reacts to high fiber if I did that I would be starving all day and would have to continue to eat in order to satisfy my cravings.  If I eat a high fat diet I feel full all day (by high fat I mean good fats like nuts and animal fats, not hydrogenated vegetable oils but who really knows if they are good or not).

Let’s beat a dead horse here.  Everyone is different and scientists in the nutritional community refuse to treat people as individuals.  They can’t explain the people who eat terribly all day long and remain skinny. Indeed just as there are people out there who watch everything they eat like a hawk and still have high blood pressure and high cholesterol there are those who are considered over weight with normal cholesterol and regular blood pressure.  

Personally I believe that our fat epidemic doesn’t have anything to do with the food that we eat but everything to do with the incredible lack of exercise in our society, but that is a different rant.

Calorie counting at least makes you conscience of the food you are consuming.  Look at all the people who have had success with Weight Watchers.  They are a simplified version of calorie counters assigning points to food.  While it may not always be 100% accurate there is no doubt that calorie counting will help you control your portions and, as in my case, insure you eat enough food to get you through your workout and your day.

Daily Recap:

Matt: 35 minutes mowing the lawn 20 minute evening walk

Kelly: As per her trainer had a rest day and 20 minute evening walk