Calories - Are They That Important?
Posted on Mar 30th 2009 1:00PM by Jonny BowdenFiled Under: Jonny's Take, Diet & Weight Loss
Jonny Bowden, author, nutritionist and weight loss coach cuts through all the misconceptions about diet and fitness to help you transform your body, your health and your life.
if you cut your calories, you'll lose weight, regardless of the diet you follow. An encouraging and optimistic message, this is true. But it's not the whole story.
A recent study published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" put overweight women on one of four low-calorie diets: Two of the diets were low-fat, two of them were high-fat and each had either a "high-protein" component or an "average-protein" component. Carb intake ranged from 35 percent of calories to 65 percent. The women were told to slash about 750 calories from their daily intake and to exercise 90 minutes a week. Typical diets ranged from 1,400 calories a day to 2,000. The participants also attended counseling sessions. And after two years, the participants had lost an average of nine pounds and trimmed two inches off their waists, regardless of which diet they were on.
But now, on to the rest of the story.
if you cut your calories, you'll lose weight, regardless of the diet you follow. An encouraging and optimistic message, this is true. But it's not the whole story.
A recent study published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" put overweight women on one of four low-calorie diets: Two of the diets were low-fat, two of them were high-fat and each had either a "high-protein" component or an "average-protein" component. Carb intake ranged from 35 percent of calories to 65 percent. The women were told to slash about 750 calories from their daily intake and to exercise 90 minutes a week. Typical diets ranged from 1,400 calories a day to 2,000. The participants also attended counseling sessions. And after two years, the participants had lost an average of nine pounds and trimmed two inches off their waists, regardless of which diet they were on.
But now, on to the rest of the story.
For one thing, though the average weight lost was nine pounds, there was a fair amount of variability -- some people lose a lot more in these studies; some a lot less. As is always the case, the average weight loss doesn't predict how any one person will do on any one specific diet. It's always a matter of finding the right approach for the individual. Some people, for example, find they have way less cravings on low-carb diets, making the diets a lot easier to follow.
And weight loss isn't the only standard by which to judge the success of an eating plan. Models can lose weight on a diet of aspirin, coffee and a celery stick for lunch -- that doesn't make it a good diet. With lower sugar, lower-carb approaches, there are many documented benefits -- such as lowered triglycerides -- that should be factored into the equation. So should your energy level and how you feel in general. If two people lose the same amount of weight on two different diets but one of them feels terrific and the other doesn't, shouldn't that count for something?
That said, it's worth remembering that no matter what diet you're on, if you eat way too much food, you're not going to lose. Period. Calories may not be the whole story -- but they sure make a difference.
