Counting Calories Doesnt Work - The Question Is What Does?

     I don't know about you, but I've tried just about everything to lose weight over the years. One thing that I have beat my head against the wall more than once is counting calories.

Does this sound familiar - I decide on a daily calorie count, say 1300 calories, I track and log every bite that goes into my mouth. I know exactly how many calories it takes for me to stay at my current weight. Knowing that number, it makes it easy to determine how exactly how much weight I should lose each week.

For an example, if it take 2500 calories to stay at my current weight, and I reduce my calories to 1300 that means I should burn 1200 calories of body fat each day which would give me a loss of 2.4 pounds. (2500 - 1300 / 3500 = 2.4 lbs)

Of course, if you've ever tried to lose weight you are chuckling to yourself right now because you know full well that it NEVER works out this way. But why not? If it is simply a matter of calories in VS calories out, then the above should work exactly as planned.

Why Counting Calories Doesn't Work:

Not all calories are the same. Calories are just energy and our body gets its energy from fats, carbohydrates, and protein. The body can and does use all three types of energy.

The weight we lose doesn't all come from fat. On any diet there is always that wonderful first week weight loss from water weight. After that, the weight loss can come from many things. For example, if your body is burning protein then you're losing lean muscle tissue. This is certainly not what anyone wants.

You try and try but you're not seeing results. If you are dieting and not losing then most likely your body is burning more calories from protein and carbs and not fat.

Hormones determine your metabolism. Different types of hormones burn different types of calories. I'm sure you've heard of Cortisol and adrenaline. These hormones are caused by stress. If you're overstressed, you produce more of these two hormones which cause you to burn carbs and protein instead of fat.

Insulin causes you to store fat. If you are eating too many carbs your body produces too much insulin which actually causes you to store fat instead of losing it.

Losing weight isn't so much about what you're eating as it is about eating properly for your body type and metabolism. Once you have that down, it's impossible not to lose weight.

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