Is Calorie Counting Worth The Hassle (Plus Some Opinions On Body Positivity)

Key Points:

• Calorie Counting (And Macro Tracking) is not for everyone

• But for some people it can be the thing which unlocks substantial fat loss and health improvement

• The chief benefit probably comes from creating greater awareness about your particular energy needs and the calorie / macro content of the foods in your diet

WHY CALORIES AND MACROS MATTER FOR FAT LOSS

Recently - like, in the past five weeks or so - I’ve been tracking my calories and macronutrients using the Cronometer app (macronutrients or “macros” = protein, carbs, fats).

I’ve written about this before.

Why am I doing this again?

Because many of my clients come to me pursuing a fat loss goal. It is normally one of a few major goals they have.

But, interestingly, few people feel willing or able to admit to themselves just how important it is to them when they first meet me. Maybe they feel they’re being vain? Maybe it feels too much to hope for that they could see some positive progress on this front? After all, most diets fail. Fat loss without help from medications is really hard.

And counting calories using an app, like Cronometer or MyFitnessPal can be a pain in the bum and seem like an insurmountable hurdle.

So I’m trying to get good at it myself, in order to coach others in this process.

As you probably know, the diet plays an absolutely critical role in fat loss or fat gain. Yes, exercise is part of the picture (for burning more energy, and reconditioning your metabolism to access more stored fat) but the main game is diet.

In order to lose fat, a person needs to create an energy deficit - burning more energy than they consume. (We burn energy in all sorts of ways, not just through exercise).

Somehow, this energy deficit must be created.

THERE ARE DIFFERENT STRATEGIES YOU CAN USE TO ACHIEVE AN ENERGY DEFICIT - INCLUDING CALORIE COUNTING

There are all manner of ways to try to achieve this - from behavioural/cognitive methods to increasing exercise/movement to limiting time frames for meals (intermittent fasting) to dietary modifications - increasing fibre, reducing alcohol and other “treats” or increasing protein intake.

Counting calories is one of the ways a person can influence their behaviour to create the necessary energy deficit to lose fat.

(Aside: medical issues such as insulin resistance and certain medications can make fat loss more challenging).

OK, so here’s what I have learned this time around, in terms of my own diet and the process of tracking my diet using Cronometer.

WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT MY DIET THOURGH TRACKING USING CRONOMETER

It’s easy to overeat

The first and most striking thing I noticed was how easy it is to overconsume.

If Cronometer is right about how many calories I need, then it’s shocking how easy it is to blow that budget without stuffing your face. I think you’d probably be quite shocked, too. Maybe this awareness of the main thing to gain from using a tracking app for a period of time?

For me, it was a big surprise to see and experience the amount of food I actually need, as opposed to how much I want to eat. I’m speaking about calories AND portion sizes.

I think that for a while I had been eating out of a sense of anxiety and greed.

Greed, because I had developed a habit of really shovelling my food (which my wife, Deb, can confirm).

Anxiety, because I think if you’d showed me what I actually needed to fuel and nourish myself, I would have said, “Surely I’ll be hungry if I only eat that much!”

But, as it turns out, I have rarely been hungry while reducing my calories over the past five weeks. I’m currently consuming about 2000 per day. Casting my mind back, I can see I often felt quite full and even a bit bloated. So, for me at least, one of the benefits of this process has been to gain a better understanding of what it looks like to eat in accordance with my energy needs.

I can take more appropriate servings and know that, “This is all I need. I’ll be fine.”

Dropping my calories has resulted in some fat loss (evidenced by movement on the scale and tightening on the belt), plus I’m feeling lighter and more nimble - which is nice as a runner and recreational hockey player.

Now, people who know me may say, “You’re already skinny!”.

Well, maybe by today’s standards. But I’m not really “skinny”. It strikes me that when you look at old photos of healthy people prior to the 1940s, they look really lanky to our modern eyes. I’ve also been struck by my brother’s appearance lately - he’s dropped a fair bit of body fat through dietary modifications to reduce his LDL cholesterol. And my Dad, too, has leaned out a great deal (sadly because he’s getting old and is diabetic). Looking at my male relatives, I’ve been struck by the fact that our frame is actually pretty light.

Developing an awareness of how much food your body needs (as opposed to how much your brain wants) is also something reported by people taking Mounjaro, which is one of the new wonder drugs for weight loss. Because the drugs work through reducing appetite, people recalibrate their sense of appropriate quantities, bringing it into greater alignment with their true energy needs.

Hitting your protein target is hard

The second thing I noticed was that it’s actually quite hard to meet your protein goals without proactive effort.

If I don’t make sure I eat a good helping of unprocessed meat (e.g. chicken breast, beef mince, fish) once per day, or if I don’t take a protein supplement (like Whey protein) then I miss the target.

(I’m shooting for about 1.2-1.5g per kg of bodyweight per day).

Protein is important for muscle building and muscle maintenance. And it helps to keep you satiated. I keep an eye on it for these reasons, plus the fact its very important to get enough for cell repair as an active person.

I’d be quite happy to chug along on muesli for breakfast, fruit for snacks, peanut butter sandwiches for lunch and veggie burgers for dinner but this would have me undershooting on protein. Research - such as that conducted by CSIRO - has shown that higher protein diets promote greater fat loss with less hunger compared to higher carbohydrate and higher fat diets.

Non-starchy veggies help you feel full

The third thing I’ve noticed is how delicious and satiating high fibre, non-starchy vegetables are.

One of the things that makes you feel satiated from a meal is the sense of a full stomach. That, and the sheer pleasure of quantity time spent eating.

Packing out your meals with non-starchy, high fibre veggies delivers that sense of fullness. And, because they’re fibrous (requiring lots of chewing) and have low energy density, you can spend a decent amount of time eating - which is great, right? You can put away a hefty volume without heaps of calories.

Here’s an example of what I mean. It’s a meal we ate at my place the other night:

• Grab a big bowl and add a hefty fistful of baby spinach

• Add grated carrot, one cup of cooked pasta and some chicken meat from a roasted supermarket chook

• Pan fry some brussell sprouts, broccoli and and asparagus (go easy on the oil) then chuck on top

• Add balsamic vinegar plus salt and pepper

Here’s a non-comprehensive list of non-starchy veggies:

• Leafy greens (spinach, kale, lettuces)

• Cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussell sprouts)

• Other (zucchini, carrot, cucumber, capsicum, celery, mushrooms, asparagus, eggplant, tomatoes)

WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT THE TRACKING PROCESS - MY REFLECTIONS & MY TIPS FOR YOU

To undertake this process, you need to weigh your food. Sorry, I wish it were not the case, but there’s no way around it.

BUT, you don’t need to do it all the time.

I’d say you need to try do it as much as you can while you’re at home, and especially when you get started. If you eat out a lot, you will need to adjust your life if at all possible to maximise home time for a 4-5 week window to acquire the skills.

Personally, I felt like an obsessive idiot doing this in front of Deb and the kids. They are all very understanding and non-judgy (and I have probably done things which seemed much weirder to them in the past) and I still felt that way!

So, I can see how this would be very daunting for people who’s friends and family are not supportive.

But the benefit of weighing your food is not so much about capturing that information, but developing your guestimation skills and becoming an accurate eye-baller.

Then, we you next go out for butter chicken, you know what a cup of rice and 300g of chicken thigh meat looks like.

Also, when you plug a certain food into the app along with the weight, and you peruse the energy content (as well as macronutrient breakdown and micronutrient content - vitamins & minerals) you get a feel for these important things:

• how that meal contributes to your energy needs for the day (a lot or a little)

• the energy density of certain foods (calories per gram or unit of volume/space)

• whether your food is very nutritious or just “empty calories” (devoid of things you need besides energy)

(As an aside, there are theories of nutrition which propose that youneed a certain quantity of protein and micronutrients and you’ll eat until you get those things, even if it means overeating).

When I went through this, I felt the initial annoyance and inconvenience with weighing and logging give way to a sense of interest and then freedom/empowerment.

Interest because I find it fascinating to learn more about nutrition, freedom & empowerment because I sensed a growing understanding of what my budget for “treats” was. This meant I could let rip with gusto when the time was right. Kind of like saving up for a holiday - as opposed to taking on debt - then really enjoying it without worrying you may not be able to cover the repayments.

Cronometer is great

My last reflection on the process so far is to say how good the Cronometer app is. This time I was using the paid version (~$17 AUD/month). Simple, clean, easy-to-use. Great info. No BS.

So there you have it. That’s what I learned about my diet, plus some interesting points on the process of recording it.

But why would anyone even consider doing this?! Isn’t this damaging to your mental health? Obsessing over food!?

Let’s turn to those questions now.

CALORIE COUNTING & MACRO TRACKING - SHOULD THEY BE TOTALLY EXCLUDED BECAUSE OF MENTAL HEALTH RISKS?

(Insert typical disclaimers about me not being a Psychiatrist….)

No, but seriously, I really do think this is a complicated area where real experts should be deferred to and not little old me.

But having said that, let me venture some opinions.

The idea of dietary restriction has fallen on hard times. And that is certainly understandable.

There’s no doubt that an obsessive focus on calories and other aspects of food (e.g. nutrient levels, fats, artificial additives etc) can be very harmful to some people.

Also, its certainly true that we’re awash in fake images of photoshopped, semi-starved models holding up an air-brushed caricature of health and beauty.

Women especially suffer here because they’re especially targeted by the fashion and beauty industry. They are gaslit to strive for a certain look which is literally impossible in the non-pixellated world.

It’s actually been very sad to hear women’s stories of how the relentless barrage can make them feel so terrible about their bodies. (As a father of four daughters, this concerns me and is one of the reasons our kids won’t get social media until they’re adults).

What’s more, I can certainly see where the logic of the body positivity movement comes in - the extreme fringes of which state that there’s no health issue with obesity (the idea of obesity is a tool of oppression - they claim).

I can understand the appeal of the idea that physical attractiveness is 100% socially constructed with no grounding in biology.

I just think it is incorrect and unsubstantiated. And losing the nuance doesn’t serve anyone.

Just because there’s mental anguish, and real damage done by predatory people in this space, it does not change the fact that obesity is bad for health and it is legitimate to deploy tools (like calorie counting where appropriate) to address this issue. I think to infer otherwise is to misplace compassion and empathy.

Objectification and commodification is harmful. Obesity is harmful. Both things are true at once.

It is true that calorie counting or macro tracking could precipitate a mental illness, but it’s worth drawing breath for a moment.

Here’s an opinion I old about this issue: some people have mental health conditions which express themselves in highly restrictive, ritualistic behaviour towards food.

I draw attention to the word “express” to highlight the possibility that the food behaviour could be a symptom of a more fundamental issue, which probably would express itself in other ways if the food and body image realm were totally perfect. At the least, surely these things exist in tandem?

I think it’s important to get this straight for a few reasons:

1/ Simply stopping the behaviour like calorie counting - if that’s possible - may not address the root cause

2/ A similar root cause issue may manifest itself differently for different people. Anxiety could fuel a phobia of open spaces or an eating disorder. Disordered eating can be a manifestation of a desire to exert control over one’s life. (You MUST read about Kate Read - founder of Lune Croissant).

It seems reasonable to me that a similar sense of fear could drive someone to become dysfunctionally aggressive or pathologically avoidant of all stresses in life.

3/ The behaviours themselves (like calorie counting) are not necessarily bad and inappropriate for everyone. It would be wrong to throw this tool out holus bolus just because it backfires for a few people. Isn’t the point to deploy to correct tools for your particular situation?

What’s my main point here?

I think it would be wrong to totally exclude calorie counting as an option for people. Yes, some people may be harmed by undergoing this process. But for others it may be the thing which unlocks the obesity issue for them.

I personally know at least three people in this category, who experienced obesity simply from lack of education and knowledge.

Once they understood more about nutrition - including their energy needs, they were able to take steps to substantially improve their health and quality of life.

These people could get taken out in the crossfire if calorie counting is framed as a practice which is always harmful for everyone.

It’s just a tool which is suits some people and not others.

I guess the reason I am jumping up and down about this a little is that I feel some people overstate the risk that dietary restriction of some kind will precipitate an eating disorder.

BALANCING FAT LOSS WITH OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

It strikes me that, when we’re looking at modifying our diet to strive for greater health (or just fat loss) we’re doing a few different things:

1/ Deploying tools to help us achieve our goal

2/ Balancing fat loss and health with other considerations - like happiness, social life, or the fact that we have limited time

3/ Navigating trade offs

Tools

As we’ve already covered, certain tools suit some people and not others. You need to choose the tool that’s right for you. It may take some trial and error to figure this out.

Balance

Nowadays, with all the buzz about longevity and health, it seems to me we occasionally miss the wood for the trees.

There’s no point living forever if you’re miserable and there’s no joy in your life. Happiness matters too, and is linked closely to your physical health.

Paradoxically, if you’re trying to improve your health through fat loss, and you pursue that goal in a way which makes you miserable and stressed, or which interferes with your relationships too much, you may end up worse off than when you started.

If you pour all your time into researching foods and planning your meals, you may get fired from your job. Unemployment is not good for your health (or your waistline actually).

Importantly, it needs to be noted that there are other ways to mitigate the health risks caused by obesity. It may be that the right approach for you is to completely ignore the scales for the time being and just focus on getting fit and strong using a weight neutral approach.

Besides, isn’t there more to life than health? Like … why are we here? What’s the point?

It would be sad to have young doctors be so focussed on pursuing their perfect V02 max that they never consider joining Medicines Sans Frontiers.

Sometimes we should put our health on the line for more important causes.

And if Kate Read offers you the chance to have an all you can eat experience at Lune Croissant, don’t think about calories! Just go! (And please take me with you!).

Trade-offs

At the end of the day, you have limited time, energy, focus and money. You should be aware that health is multifactorial.

(Heck - attractiveness is multifactorial too! If you’re totally starved, you may not be any fun to be around).

This means you can’t do everything, and you certainly can’t do it all at once.

Please bear this in mind, because losing fat is really hard.

To give it a red hot go requires a significant investment, which will mean focussing less on other areas of your life while you try to move the needle. This may mean drawing back from that committee or not attending the footy on Sundays next season because that’s the only time free for food prep.

You’d be a fool to think you can just add a fat loss project onto a heaving schedule and expect to succeed.