Calories - Are They That Important?
Categories: 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.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
u262f 3-30-2009 @ 6:43PM
Good discussion!
I'd still like to say something about the correlation implied between volume of food and calories and weight in the last paragraph. People can trivially gain weight by drinking lots of zero-calorie water (but of course, the weight is lost again when the water passes through). Water (and ice) can be used add volume to food without adding calorie content. People who keep feeling hungry even after consuming the right number of calories and nutrients can try diluting their food with water or fluffing it with ice to consume more volume with fewer calories. Non-soluble fibers can also increase food volume without increasing calories.
My doctor's office manager jokes that people are fat because we are not eating enough, and there's some amount of truth to it. Her point is that people don't consume enough fiber and water, and that the volume of food would need to consume would have to go up a huge amount for some people to get enough fiber and water.
So, it's possible to lose weight, consume fewer calories, and have MORE food, all at the same time. Just swap out a bit of the calorie-dense foods for lots of fiber-rich and water-rich ones.
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