Why you are not a calorie machine

For many people who come to me for help, calories weigh heavily on their mind. They are relentlessly worrying over what they should or shouldn't eat, often influenced by misguided beliefs about calorie counts and the inaccurate metrics found on food packaging labels.

For decades we have been conditioned to view ourselves as a calorie machine -lead to believe that achieving a calorie deficit, will grant us control over our body size, weight and shape. This notion is not only false but perpetuates the idea that we are to blame for not meeting society’s unrealistic body standards. It leads to feelings of guilt and shame, causing low self-worth and unnecessarily harm.

Contrary to the diet culture narrative that calories in equals calories out, our bodies are far more complex and dynamic, with numerous factors influencing weight control beyond simple calorie intake and expenditure.

The fact is we all require significantly different amounts of energy. For each individual, this will vary from day to day and from person to person will depend on their age, height, weight, gender, lifestyle and many other factors. Even two people of the same height and age may have vastly different calorie needs.

To understand this further let’s looks at how your body spends its calories:

• The energy you need to stay alive uses approximately 60% of your daily calories and depends on the amount of muscle and fat you have, your age, gender and genetics. Your thirty-seven trillion cells are hard at work, allowing your heart to beat, your body to breath, producing hormones and growing and repairing cells, for example. This takes a huge amount of work and energy!

• You burn around 10% of your daily calories to process your food (yes, that much to digest and absorb nutrients!) and this depends on the amount you eat, the type of food and your genes.

• Your daily activity uses in the region of 15-30% of your daily calories. This will depend on the type, duration and intensity of activity and your body weight. There are many advantages to exercising but going to the gym to compensate for eating a ‘forbidden’ food is not a helpful strategy. It is always better to eat a balanced diet without depriving yourself of essential nutrients and exercise moderately.

• And although your liver and brain make up only a small part of your body weight; they each account for one fifth of the calories you need to stay alive.

Notably, calories from different foods have different effects on your body – impacting your satiety levels, insulin response, fat storage and overall energy expenditure. Hence fixating on counting calories proves futile, as it overlooks these many significant factors.

The solution lies in cultivating a healthy relationship with food, adding variety in to your diet and allowing eating to become a positive and nourishing experience.

I support women who are exhausted by the relentless cycle of calorie counting, food anxiety, and weight fluctuations, and who are eager to foster a positive relationship with food and their body. If you're ready to bid farewell to yo-yo dieting, binge eating, disordered or emotional eating once and for all, and embark on a journey of lasting transformation, I warmly invite you to book in a complimentary consultation with me HERE. Together, we can explore if a personalised one-on-one programme is the right fit for you and how I can help.

If the idea of tackling your eating patterns feels overwhelming and you're unsure of where to begin, take a look at my FREE guide Breaking the Cycle - Your First Steps to Healing Your Relationship with Food to kickstart your journey today

This invaluable resource will help you:

✔️Know when you’re really hungry and when you’re not

✔️Learn when to eat that’s best for you

✔️Know the best snacks to help you stop craving and feeling out of control

Why calories on menus are harmful + won’t solve your weight worries

A few weeks ago, it became compulsory for large chain restaurants, cafes and takeaways to print calorie labels on menus.  In order to help us make ‘healthier’ choices and solve the ‘obesity crisis’.

However, there is little evidence that the government will achieve its goals. Large chains in the US have been required to print calories on menus since 2018, and this is proving to do little for their ‘obesity crisis’. The problem is that this directive is not only flawed, but it  creates many more problems.

For many of my clients, who battle with eating disorders/ disordered eating, the idea of enjoying a meal out with friends creates a great deal of anxiety. They know their calorie intake when preparing their own food but, in a restaurant, feel a lack of control. Much of the work we do is helping them to rewire their thinking around calories and food. Seeing calories on menus is extremely triggering- a reminder that they must chose the lowest calorie option, creating added stress and fuelling their eating disorder behaviour.

The reality is that for most people weight loss is not just about knowing what choices to make….

The government may claim that this new strategy will be a game changer, for people struggling with their weight. But the reality is that for most people weight loss is not just about knowing what choices to make. Weight science is complex – it is far more than creating a deficit between calories in and calories out.

This policy ignores many of the underlying problems when it comes to the nation’s health. Instead of solving the country’s health inequalities, it places the ‘blame firmly with the individual – i.e ‘it’s up to you to make the right choice’

When we rely on the calories in calories out theory, we are ignoring the fact that each of us is unique with complicated regulatory systems, our own health history and genetics. This involves a complex interaction between hormones, brain chemicals, the gut ecosystem, energy requirements, fuel source availability, genes and hundreds of other variables, all interconnecting.

Food is so much more than calories…

We are also neglecting the fact that every calorie behaves differently within the body as food is so much more than calories. Food is information for the body that changes our genetic expression. It consists of macro nutrients (carbohydrates, protein and fats), micronutrients (minerals and vitamins), phytonutrients and enzymes which all interplay with our biology in so many ways.

And of course, for many people food is used as a coping mechanism. Providing people with the misconception that low calorie equates to healthy food is an unhelpful falsehood. If emotional eating or bingeing is involved, guilting folks to feel bad about what they’re eating is just going to add fuel to the fire.

If you think calories on menus are going to negatively impact your eating behaviour, there are a few things to consider:

• Choose to eat in smaller independent outlets as they are not required to follow the new legislation.

• Request a menu without calories (Outlets are not legally required to provide them, but some will have them available.)

• Remember, you do not need to compensate for what you’ve eaten when out, before or after the meal.

• Set yourself a time limit for how long you spend looking at the menu.

• If you can’t decide what to eat, you could order what your friends or family are having.

A focus on calories, takes away the enjoyment from food and eating, when eating out should be a pleasurable experience. What will you do to keep it that way?

If you are stuck in a diet mindset, have realised that dieting and restriction doesn’t work for you and want to understand why, then take a look at my free download - ‘What the diet Industry doesn’t want you to know’. Using evidenced based weight science research, it exposes the biggest weight loss myths and why you have been trapped in the relentless dieting cycle.

{Myth busting} The truth about calorie counting and weight-loss

How many times have you heard the phrase .....to lose weight you simply need to burn more calories than you consume?

The diet and fitness industry have consistently driven this message home for decades (and it suits their collective bank balance to do so).

But why doesn’t it work in reality? With around 95 out of 100 diets failing in the long term – surely there is something that does not quite add up?

The simple truth is it is not so simple - Yes- a calorie is still a calorie, but not every calorie behaves the same way inside the body.

Our food sources are made up of a vast variety of compounds and substances, that interplay with our biology in so many ways, these extend way beyond just energy values.

Weight management is not like your bank account.

It is a complex interaction between hormones (e.g., thyroid, sex, appetite and fat storage), brain chemicals, the gut ecosystem, energy requirements, fuel source availability, genes and hundreds of other variables, all interconnecting.

Let’s take 300 calories worth of cake and 300 calories worth of cauliflower for example.

A calorie is a unit of energy so they must be the same right?

But do you think that same calorie of cake will impact our biology in the same way that cauliflower does?

In order for your metabolism to work properly, your body must not be deprived of any food group. If you find yourself avoiding any of the food groups based on the sum of their calories, you’ll likely be missing out on key nutrients, critical for your metabolism to function at its best.

The body also needs enough food, to sustain efficient functioning of your metabolism. Your subconscious brain will do everything it can to control how much fat your body stores. If you undereat because you are restricting your calorie intake, then your basal metabolic rate (BMR) will be switched downwards – slowing down your metabolism and the rate and which it burns energy. This is something you may be able to override for a short period of time i.e. during the honeymoon period of a diet, but ultimately for most people this will not be long lasting.

The key is to understand how your body works in order to overcome society’s deeply ingrained belief that we simply must eat less and exercise more. This thinking merely serves to promote a diet mindset that leads to destructive thinking and harmful eating behaviours.

Would you love to make peace with your body and build a happy relationship with food?

If you would like to understand more about the ways to maintain a healthy metabolism, eat in a balanced way, stay motivated and be part of a supportive community then come and join us in the FOOD FREEDOM COLLECTIVE, Facebook community- a safe place where you can question, share, learn + feel supported without judgement, comparison and shame. I will be sharing tips, simple recipe, meal, and snack ideas along with strategies, motivation and supportive practices and its free to join!

It’s time to release yourself from the shackles of diet culture + empower yourself to create positive change in your life.