Are Counting Calories a Waste of Time? ??
I have never looked at calories when reading labels.
Why? Because they mean nothing to me. Your body doesn’t really care that much either. Every client I work with I never bring up calories. It’s too tedious to count them anyway. Some professionals believe that total daily caloric intake matters to weight gain.
Does the body have some mechanism to count calories? Does the body have sensors to detect calories? No and No
Your body doesn’t give a hoot about calories.
Consider two foods of equal caloric value. On the one hand, you have a sugar cookie, and on the other is a plate of lettuce. Calories are identical.OK. So what?
When you eat those two foods, does your body somehow measure these calories? No.
The metabolic effect of those two foods is completely different.
- Sugar cookie will stimulate insulin and no other satiety hormone
- Lettuce will not stimulate insulin much and you will feel fuller.
To understand weight loss, we need to understand what our body ‘cares’about.
- The answer is clearly not ‘calories. The answer is ‘hormones’, predominantly insulin.
Hormones run everything in our body
Our body gains or loses fat according to detailed hormonal instructions from our brain.
The rise and fall of insulin is the main stimulus to weight gain.
So, foods that stimulate insulin are typically more fattening (cookies). Those that do not (broccoli) are typically not fattening at all.
Since our body is not likely to learn the language of ‘calories’, we need to learn the language of ‘insulin’, by translating foods into insulin effect instead of calories.
We need to start using the common language of the body – Insulin.
What’s the most powerful way to control your insulin levels? Start intermittent fasting and eat whole foods that aren’t processed
Have a great weekend!!
Let me know if you have any questions
Brian