Does Calorie Counting Work?
Let’s talk about the best way to lose weight for women!
When it’s time to lose weight, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
For most of us, it’s calorie counting.
If you ever wore leg-warmers, pegged your pants, or had roller coaster bangs, your word associations for
weight loss = calorie count and cardio.
thanks for the photo archziner.com
But, is calorie counting the most effective way to lose weight?
We’re going to talk about that, plus the right and the wrong way to do it, in case you decide it’s the best path for you!
I’m of the opinion that most women should NOT calorie count, at least not until a very specific time in their weight loss journey. But let me just say straight up that even though I do not think calorie counting is the best weight loss strategy…
the number of calories you take in absolutely matters!
My thinking that most women shouldn’t be using it as a starting point has nothing to do with the importance of caloric intake and everything to do with the bigger picture at play. Said another way, how much you eat matters, but counting what you’re eating isn’t the most effective way to make a change to that amount.
If this sounds clear as mud, hang with me here…
The question isn’t “do calories matter?”
We know that they DO matter, but does calorie counting work?
The important questions are:
>>> do we need to take the time to count calories?
>>> is calorie counting the best way to go into a caloric deficit?
>>> how much of a calorie deficit should I be in?
>>> how long should I restrict my caloric intake?
>>> how do we accurately count?
>>> why are we eating a surplus of calories in the first place?
Ding, ding, ding, the last question is the real star of the show! Read that again…
Why are we eating a surplus of calories in the first place?
If we know what is causing us to overeat, (and no - your willpower isn’t the problem) then we can take measures to correct the underlying issue. Calorie counting isn’t the most effective way to get yourself to eat less, and that’s why calorie counting isn’t the most important first step.
Plus, it’s difficult to calorie count accurately and most people do not enjoy doing it.
Key concepts
To know if calorie counting is right for you, there are a couple of concepts you must have a solid understanding of.
Concept # 1 - there is more to weight loss than caloric intake or the quantity of the food we eat.
Quality is also important. Different foods affect our bodies in different ways, even if they contain the same amount of calories. Different amounts of protein, fat, and carbs in a meal will affect how your body utilizes that food. How much fiber it contains changes how quickly you process it and how readily you absorb the nutrients. The vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that food contains as well as the toxins in that food will all affect how it helps or hinders your health and in turn, your fat loss.
Quality is just as important as quantity.
It’s not just calories in vs calories out!
You already know this, we just don’t always stop to think it through when we begin to hyper-focus on calorie counting. For instance, you know 1000 calories of Oreos is not going to do the same things for your body as 1000 calories of chicken and broccoli. One makes you fat, one builds muscles and immunity. The same amount of energy, completely different outcome.
Can you lose weight if you stick with a low-calorie junk food diet? Sure thing, but what are you losing? Some fat, some muscle, and some bone density. You’re probably also wrecking your metabolism, all of which will lead to fat gain down the road and make weight loss harder and harder.
If you’ve been cutting calories on and off for years, and it gets harder and harder to lose weight…requiring fewer and fewer calories to take off a small amount of weight, then you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Concept # 2 – The concept behind calorie counting is to tell yourself to stick to a certain amount of food. But, eating less isn’t always as easy as telling yourself to just do it.
The current food landscape in our culture is designed for you to fail. What? Yes girl, go study the evolution of the food industry and you will be appalled that we continue to give these A-holes our money!
The food industry spends an insane amount of money doing research on how to keep us eating junk food. They literally study how to turn off the satiety centers in your brain that tell you to stop eating!
The agricultural side of things is always trying to increase crop production, and make the veggies and fruits hardier for shipping. This process usually creates food that is blander and has fewer nutrients. So, you need to doctor up your food with fancy sauces like ranch just to make it appetizing, and the food you’re eating has less nutrition to start with. (If you want to know more about this, read The Dorito Effect). And the junk food you enjoy is designed for you to be unable to stop eating. Good grief!
When you look at the big picture it’s easy to see why attempts at calorie counting aren’t always successful. This is not a matter of you “just eating less and moving more”.
It is, but it isn’t, because it’s not that easy to actually do. The deck is stacked against us so relying on willpower to calorie count may not be the easiest way to go about this. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you what works better.
Concept # 3 - Staying in a calorie deficit for too long can slow down your metabolism and lead to weight gain down the road, making fat loss more and more difficult as time goes on.
Calorie counting is an effective and powerful tool when used in the right methods, and it can wreck your metabolism if you abuse it. It’s also a strain on your mindset if you depend on willpower alone and then beat yourself up for “failing”.
Ok-ok, we know that we need to take in less energy (AKA calories), but we also know that starving our body of nutrition and dropping our calories too low or for too long will lead to fat gain in the end. This is so conflicting….what the heck are we supposed to do?
Simple, ya get your prereqs done girl! You can’t take English 102 until you’ve taken English 101.
Before we get to the calorie counting, (which is like a 400 level course) we’ve gotta hit the checklist of prereqs first.
Calorie counting prereqs
Do all of these things before starting to calorie count!!!
The fun thing about these prereqs is that so many chicks never even have to calorie count! By the time they’ve implemented the things on this list, they’re losing weight and feeling great. With no counting or measuring anything!
What can you do instead of count calories to lose weight? Here ya go!!!
#1 - Switch to a whole food diet
We touched on this above, but food QUALITY is important, not just quantity. The easiest way to start your weight loss journey is to eat more and more REAL food and less processed food. There is a lot to unpack here so I’ll try and make it brief.
Processed food is, for the most part, empty calories. There is a lot of energy in it (calories) that your body has to burn or store as fat. And, it does not contain a lot of nutrition. If we shift our thinking to eating things that give us plenty of protein, some healthy carbs and fats, and plenty of vitamins and minerals to build a fat-burning machine of a body, we can easily see how processed food doesn’t help us hit this objective.
Switching to a whole food diet instead of calorie counting makes it a lot easier to get started since you don’t have to plan out every little detail about your food. How many calories and macros should I get? Should I eat paleo, keto, whole 30, or low fat? Before you jump down any rabbit holes, don’t worry about diet titles and tracking certain amounts of food, just get on real food!
Skip the fast food and things that come in a package and grab real food. Eat plenty of meat, veggies, and fruit and your body will respond! Don’t get hung up on what certain diets call “bad foods”. Instead of being so picky, follow this simple rule….
If God made it, eat it. If man made it, don’t.
There’s a great Clean Eating Guide in the resource library if you’d like a little more guidance on this.
A really cool thing happens when we switch to this kind of eating…we naturally begin to reduce our calories without even having to focus on doing it. Process food is “hyper-palatable” meaning it tastes unnaturally good. We can’t eat just 1 chip. The food industry has been studying how to turn off our satiety centers and keep us eating for decades. And they’ve gotten really darn good at it!
Slogans like “betcha can’t eat just one” or “once you pop you can’t stop” are extremely accurate. And the commercials say these things like they’re a good thing. Since when is having no impulse control with your food a good thing?!?!
How do we avoid overeating? Eating real foods that our bodies have a natural means to say, “Hey girl, you’re full. Stop eating” instead of junk food that you smash an entire bag of.
Real food = better self-regulation with much less effort.
#2 - Move your body
I don’t care what type of exercise you do, but building some sort of moving your body into your routine comes before calorie counting in my opinion. This is about much more than just burning calories while you move. There’s a whole slew of positive things happening both from a body composition standpoint and a hormonal standpoint when we implement more activity.
This doesn’t have to be intense; it can be adding in frequent walk breaks at work or a hobby you enjoy. For more info on how to get started working out check out this post.
Eat nutrient-dense food and move your body and the fat will start to come off….
and we still haven’t had to count a single thing! Boom!
#3 - Dial in your sleep
Sleep is crucial for weight loss, amongst other things. If you’re sleep-deprived, the last thing you want to do is put yourself into a huge calorie deficit. That’s a recipe for burnout and a broken metabolism. Fix sleep, eat healthy food, and move your body ALL before counting and reducing calories.
You can learn a little more about the importance of sleep and how to get better sleep here.
#4 Implement a few stress management tools
Chronically high levels of stress + a huge calorie deficit = disaster.
Just like our sleep, stress affects our weight in a big way. And adding in another stressor in the form of calorie counting and restriction might just topple ya right over the edge instead of helping your body shed fat.
It is imperative that you implement some stress management strategies before trying to get aggressive with calorie restriction. Ya can learn more about that here!
Some simple things like building more downtime into your calendar by saying “no” more often, taking 5 minutes to sit and meditate each morning, exercise or any other number of stress reduction techniques can go a long way for fat loss.
When to add in calorie counting
Ok, you’ve…
>>> cleaned up your food choices and are getting plenty of high-quality protein (meat), fruits and veggies
>>> you’re moving your body on a regular basis
>>> getting decent sleep
>>> and you’re at least aware of your stress and actively working on some strategies for improvement.
If the weight is coming off and you don’t feel like calorie counting then DON’T. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
But, what if you were losing weight and now it has stopped? Or, you’re trying to lose that last 5 pounds, get really lean, etc? It may be time for some good ol calorie counting.
How to calorie count for fat loss
>>> Decide how much of a deficit to go into
Before you know how much to cut your calories, ya kinda gotta know what your maintenance amount of calories are. There are many online calculators that can guess for you based on body size, weight, age, and activity level.
If you’ve been stuck at a certain weight, you’re probably consuming your maintenance calories without even meaning to. This is a great thing because you can use this as a tool to figure out what your true maintenance zone is!
Track your calories for a week without making any adjustments. For example, if you consume on average 2000 calories a day, and your weight stays roughly the same in that time period, you’re probably around 2000 calories for maintenance.
From there you can decide how many calories you want to cut. MORE IS NOT BETTER. Slow and steady wins the race. Yes, you will lose faster if you cut more calories. But remember, fat loss isn’t all about calories in and calories out.
The more time we spend in a calorie restriction, the more we run the risk of wrecking hormones that regulate metabolism, satiety, etc. We want to cut back on how much we eat without cutting back so much that we make weight loss (and maintenance) harder down the road.
The general rule of thumb is to cut 500-700 calories a day. This is probably the easiest way to get started, but in my opinion, it’s not necessarily the best way.
I can’t wrap my head around a 5ft tall woman who weighs 130 pounds needing to make roughly the same cut in calories as a man who is 6ft tall and weighs 400 pounds. It’s the rule of thumb we’ve been following for decades and we’ve clearly not been sustaining our fat loss.
I personally like the rule of cutting 5-20% of your calories a day a lot better than the general rule listed above. (Depending on how much you have to lose). Now, take what I say on this with a grain of salt. I am NOT a dietician. I’m just giving you my two cents.
If a 5 - 20% deficit is less than the 500-700 generic calorie range, it will mean slower weight loss which may not seem appealing at first. And it’s definitely a little more math to figure out what your goal range is. But I’ll tell you why I personally prefer it…
I find it being discussed in more athletic or body competition circles. People who are trying to “cut” or lose fat when it’s getting down to a pretty low level of body fat. Now, that’s not where most of us are at, or ever plan to be!!!
But…why do they use this ratio for cutting calories? Because they are trying to maintain as much muscle mass as they can while losing fat and keeping a healthy hormone profile in the process, so that fat loss does not become harder down the road.
Wait, isn’t that what we all want? Ah, yep! You don’t need to be preparing for a bikini show to want to keep your muscle mass. EVERY woman on the planet should be trying to maintain her muscle mass. It fuels up your metabolism and keeps you out of the nursing home as you age!
If you want to keep the weight off, lose it once by losing it slower!
Now, for someone who is in big trouble with their health because of how much excess weight they have, a more aggressive plan managed by a physician may be the best course of action. There are always exceptions to the rule. But, for the majority of women trying to look a little better in their clothes and live a healthier lifestyle, a less aggressive approach may get you better results in the long run. But again, that’s just my opinion. You decide, or you discuss with your doctor and you decide together, how much a calorie deficit is the right call for you.
No matter how aggressive you choose to lose, pay attention to how your body feels! If you are tired, irritable, sleep quality is going down, or anything along these lines, you may be underfed.
Take away: You can generically drop 500-700 calories a day from your maintenance, or you can dial it in a bit with the 5-20% calorie deficit. Both are popular methods and you should do what works best for you. Just be careful not to cut too much at once.
>>> Take breaks
Again, this has to do with keeping your hormones and metabolism happy to ensure you keep the fat off. Now, if you’re losing weight by simply following a whole food diet and NOT counting, do you need a break? No, not physically, but you may need one mentally. In that case, follow my Cheat Meal Guide in the resource library.
If however, you are cutting calories, especially if you’re cutting them a lot, you actually need to take breaks. Now, I was always taught that you should have one high-calorie day and that increasing carbs was the most important aspect to keep the metabolism going.
But…according to Cody McBroom at Tailored Coaching Method, you actually need 2 or 3 days in a row of higher calories to help your metabolism if you’re in a large calorie deficit. I don’t know if it’s true, I haven’t looked for any science on this. But he’s smarter than I am and it makes sense so I thought I’d lay the concept out there and let you research it yourself.
Keep in mind, this doesn’t mean you binge on your high-calorie days. In fact, the best I can tell, he’s saying you go up to your maintenance amount of calories for that time period. You can learn more about this here.
>>> Weigh and measure
If you aren’t weighing and measuring your food, you may as well not calorie count. Because guessing is never accurate. Women tend to overestimate their meat intake and underestimate snack-type foods, even whole foods like nuts.
What’s this mean? You’re usually getting more calories than you think and less protein if you simply guess at your intake. So, if you’re going to count, pick up a food scale, they’re cheap!
The most accurate calorie counting will come from eating whole foods because the food industry is allowed up to a 25% error rate on packaged food labels. Um, 25% is a huge margin of error. That’s more than some people’s calorie deficit! What’s even worse, protein is especially misleading on food labels because they don’t measure it directly and the indirect method of measuring makes it very easy for them to beef up the protein amount falsely.
So, if we’re wanting to be sure of our caloric intake, the best thing to do is weigh and measure whole foods.
Action Plan
Now that you’ve got the gist of the benefits to calorie counting as well as the draw backs, let’s pull together a little action plan. Because learning means nothing if you don’t put it in motion.
>>> Transition to a whole food diet
In the process, you may begin to naturally decrease your caloric intake without having to count!
>>> Move your body
>>> Dial-in sleep
>>> Manage your stress
>>> Calculate your maintenance calories
Either, use an online calorie estimator or do your own tracking for about a week
>>> Decide how much of a calorie deficit you want to shoot for
500-700 calories or a 5-20% deficit range
Pay attention to how you’re feeling and adjust accordingly
>>> Take planned breaks
Depending on how aggressive you’re cutting your calories, you should have planned days of increasing calories back up to your maintenance level.
