Rethinking Calories

The Truth About Calories

If you said "yes," please know that you are the rule, rather than the exception. 

For far too many years Americans have been told that the key to losing weight is practicing "energy balance" or managing calories in and calories out.  Unfortunately, this overly simplistic approach has negative metabolic consequences that actually make weight loss more difficult. Although many of us are trying desperately to improve our health, more of us are overweight now than EVER. Two out of every three of us to be exact.

Clearly, our current approach isn't working and the time has come to move on.  

Although reducing caloric intake can produce short term weight loss, it is not sustainable nor does it create vibrant health. This is because our bodies are wired first and foremost for survival. For optimal health, we need high quality calories on a daily basis. When calories are restricted too severely or for too long, our body interprets this as a sign of food shortage or danger. As a result, metabolism is reduced to preserve energy stores and increase the chances for survival. When this happens your body begins to burn fewer calories each day to accomplish the same amount of work. In other words, you continue to eat less but it doesn't matter because your body has adapted to needing fewer calories.

This is why you stop losing weight.

To add insult to injury, in Good Calories, Bad Calories, Gary Taubes demonstrates that practicing energy balance is simply impossible. He points out that according to the "energy balance" logic, in order to gain 20 pounds per decade we would simply have to miscalculate our caloric intake by 20 calories per day. Unfortunately, calculating caloric intake and expenditure that accurately is impossible and no one could do it.

Recent research has also shown that different foods yield very different metabolic outcomes. In other words, different foods convey different messages to the body. Dr. Robert Lustig eloquently demonstrated this principle in The Bitter Truth. During this lecture, Lustig described that despite their caloric equivalence, a piece of white bread, a glass of orange juice and a shot of Maker’s Mark are processed within the liver differently. Therefore, a variable number of calories are stored as fat. If a calorie were just a calorie, this wouldn't be the case.

It's far more helpful to think of food as information, rather than a collection of calories. 

Research has also elucidated that whole foods and processed foods have very distinct effects on blood sugar and subsequently, weight loss. For example, refined carbohydrates, (cookies, cakes, bread, pies, muffins) produce massive blood sugar surges. When blood sugar is increased, insulin (the storage hormone) is elevated which shuttles sugar from your blood into your cells to be used later. The trouble is, when insulin levels are elevated fat can only be stored. Therefore, eating processed foods that increase blood sugar excessively, also causes you to store more fat than other foods that do not produce massive blood sugar surges.

All of these examples make it clear that a calorie is not a calorie. 

Don't waste another second of your time. 

Forget about calories and focus on quality.

By focusing on nutrient dense, whole foods (organic fruits, vegetables, high quality fats and proteins) and eliminating processed foods, you provide your body with the kind of information that produces weight loss. Plain and simple. This approach can also produce the vibrant health you have been looking for.  

For more specific information, please check out our 31 Day Paleo Diet Kickstart Guide here: https://paleovalley.com/store/paleo-kickstart-book. 

This guide will teach you exactly which foods you should eat to cultivate not only vibrant health, but a stress-free celebratory relationship with food. 

Here's to a clear, calorie-free mind and sustainable weight loss! 

Happy Paleo-ing, 

Autumn Smith