Are you a dedicated calorie counter? Do you get excited when your macros align completely together with your every day targets? Does seeing a inexperienced quantity in your calorie finances deliver you pleasure?
What concerning the days that your numbers aren’t fairly proper? Do you get down on your self once you’re just a little off? Does disappointment set in when these inexperienced numbers flip purple?
Calorie counting is frequent. It’s a easy strategy to managing your every day meals consumption, and one which many select to take. Nonetheless, frequent options aren’t at all times the most effective options.
Whereas calorie counting has its advantages, it additionally has its drawbacks, which is why it’s not the strategy we take.
Right here at OnPoint Vitamin, we’ve helped hundreds of individuals shed extra pounds and enhance their well being with out counting a single calorie.
Now that doesn’t imply we’re not aware of what we’re taking in and we don’t observe something. We have now developed a system that we really feel is way extra profitable, and may help you attain your targets, each short-term and long-term.
On this article, we’ll dive into why we don’t depend energy, together with 4 frequent pitfalls of calorie counting. We’ll additionally clarify our diet philosophy and why it might aid you discover lifelong success.
Why We Don’t Rely Energy At OnPoint Vitamin
Calorie counting is without doubt one of the commonest approaches to controlling meals consumption and dropping pounds. Nonetheless, it’s not at all times your best option to achieve your targets.
4 Frequent Pitfalls Of Calorie Counting
1. Amount, Not High quality
Calorie counting solely accounts for the amount of meals you’re consuming.
Whereas how a lot you eat is necessary to stability your consumption, it isn’t the one issue to think about when striving for optimum well being.
The standard of your weight loss program issues, too.
The easiest way to elucidate that is with an instance. In case your every day calorie objective is 2000 energy, you possibly can eat these energy in countless alternative ways.
- You can select to eat 2000 energy value of cookies and name it a day.
- You can additionally simply eat 2000 energy of broccoli and cauliflower to satisfy your targets.
- You’ll extra probably select to eat a wide range of meals from a wide range of meals teams to hit your 2000-calorie objective.
Whereas all of those choices obtain the objective of consuming the “appropriate” variety of energy to your physique, they don’t seem to be all created equal.
The cookies provides you with extra sugar and fats than you want within the day and go away you low on protein, nutritional vitamins, and minerals. The veggies provides you with an abundance of fiber, nutritional vitamins, and minerals, however go away you low on protein and fats.
Merely energy, and even energy and macros doesn’t paint the total image of what’s wanted to keep up your healthiest physique.
Calorie counting alone ignores each macronutrient and micronutrient consumption.
Calorie and macronutrient counting nonetheless ignores micronutrient consumption, and nutritional vitamins and minerals are important for well being.
2. Practicality
In case you are consuming easy meals and getting ready meals at house, calorie counting is pretty straightforward.
You possibly can seek for meals or scan barcodes and know the calorie values inside seconds.
Nonetheless, what occurs at eating places, social gatherings, and vacation meals?
What about when your mother makes your grandma’s selfmade macaroni and cheese that you simply love, however there isn’t a concrete recipe to make use of to calculate the energy?
What do you do when your pals wish to cut up appetizers at joyful hour however you possibly can’t decide your exact parts?
Calorie counting just isn’t at all times sensible.
It’s additionally necessary to think about what occurs in these conditions:
- Do you give it your greatest guess and really feel alright realizing that it’s shut, however not excellent?
- Or do you stress that your numbers aren’t 100% correct?
- Do you contemplate simply not consuming the meals that you simply don’t know how one can observe, even when it feels such as you’re lacking out?
This leads us completely to our subsequent level.
3. Disordered Consuming
Chances are you’ll hear the time period disordered consuming and assume it sounds just a little bit dramatic to explain the behaviors of many individuals who depend energy. Nonetheless, disordered consuming and calorie counting usually go hand in hand.
So what’s disordered consuming precisely?
Disordered consuming describes a spread of irregular consuming behaviors which will or might not warrant a prognosis of a selected consuming dysfunction.
Indicators and Signs of Disordered Consuming:
- Frequent weight-reduction plan
- Anxiousness related to specifics meals or skipping meals
- Continual weight fluctuations
- Inflexible routines surrounding meals and train
- Emotions of guilt and disgrace related to consuming
- Preoccupation with meals, weight, and physique picture
- A sense of lack of management round meals
- Utilizing meals restriction, fasting, train, or purging to make up for “dangerous selections”
Calorie counting is a type of weight-reduction plan and sometimes causes anxiousness, guilt, and disgrace if you’re not assembly your every day targets.
The routine of monitoring meals so particularly is inflexible and may result in preoccupation with meals, together with continuously desirous about what you’ll eat subsequent and the way it will match into your every day targets.
Nobody is ideal, and anticipating perfection units us up for failure.
Likewise, going over a every day calorie finances usually causes a compulsion to limit your meals consumption to make up for it. Over time, the restriction can result in overeating, binge consuming, and shedding management of meals.
We’re not right here to say that calorie counting will result in disordered consuming or an consuming dysfunction each time. Nonetheless, research have proven associations between calorie tracker use and consuming problems.
4. Sustainability
The ultimate huge concern with calorie counting is the lack of sustainability.
The objective that’s motivating you to depend energy is more likely to shed extra pounds. Nonetheless, the unstated a part of that objective is to hold the burden off.
That is the place most calorie counters go mistaken.
Calorie counting is often solely sustainable for a brief time period. You’ll really feel motivated to make adjustments and excited to have a plan. Nonetheless, monitoring each calorie you eat for the remainder of eternally just isn’t sustainable.
This could loop again into the practicality of calorie counting.
Take into consideration holidays and holidays, the basic occasions when weight-reduction plan goes out the window. Is it real looking so that you can observe all the pieces you eat (and drink) throughout these occasions? I’m unsure about you, but it surely’s not for me!
The opposite a part of this dialogue is the extent of restriction you’re implementing with calorie counting. Typically once you arrange your app to get your every day calorie objective, the app will put you into a really giant calorie deficit to attempt to shed extra pounds as shortly as potential. This may occasionally appear environment friendly however it’s removed from sustainable.
One downside with too giant of a calorie deficit is that restriction usually results in overeating. In case your every day calorie objective is so low that you simply really feel, consciously or unconsciously, restricted, your physique will sign your mind to hunt extra meals. This usually results in overeating, which, as mentioned above, could be a slippery slope into disordered consuming patterns.
The opposite downside is that weight reduction will inevitably plateau sooner or later in your journey. You’ll cease dropping pounds, and must make changes. In case your calorie consumption has already been drastically lowered, you don’t have a lot room to make changes to proceed dropping pounds whereas nonetheless consuming sufficient to present your physique all the vitamins it wants every day.
The lengthy and wanting it’s calorie counting may match within the short-term, however not in the long term.
The OnPoint Vitamin Philosophy
At OnPoint Vitamin, our philosophy is anti-diet with a deal with meals teams and portioning. We don’t depend energy, get rid of main meals teams, or strategy your journey as a fast repair.
We’re right here that will help you obtain your well being targets whereas sustaining a optimistic relationship with meals.
We deal with entire meals from six main meals teams and educate you to make higher selections day-after-day. Your nutritionist or dietitian will work with you to find out how one can construction your meals to incorporate all meals teams so you’re feeling glad and energized all day.
As an alternative of counting energy, we deal with holistic well being together with:
- Meal and snack selections
- Day by day meals group targets
- Water consumption
- Motion
- Day by day reflections
- Progress towards your private targets
The place To Go From Right here
In case you are reconsidering calorie counting and would like an strategy that can carry you thru the remainder of your life, we’re right here for you.
Should you’re able to dive into the world of bettering your well being with out obsessively counting each calorie, our workforce is right here and prepared for you.
Schedule a free session right this moment to study extra about OnPoint and the way we will work collectively to attain your targets.
