Calories In Vs Calories Out WHAT A LOAD OF BULLSHIT

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According to the experts if you’re overweight or obese, the answer is simple. Eat less calories than you burn. Now, while this may be the case, we’ve tended to become obsessed with counting those calories, both in and out and how has that worked so far? Not very well given the continual rise in our obesity pandemic, so it seems the whole calories in vs calories out message has failed, right? Or is it that we’re simply too dumb to understand the message, or maybe we understand, but we just don’t know what to do, or maybe we know what to do, we’re just too dumb or lazy to do what’s required. Surely we can’t want to be fat, sick and obese? Or do we? If it’s so easy and we’re so intelligent how come we’re getting fatter and sicker by the day?

Here’s my take.

A calorie is simply a measurement of the amount of energy required to heat 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius. (Expressed in the International System of Units as a Joule instead, 1 calorie equals 4.18400 joules.)

The macronutrients protein, carbohydrates and fat have different caloric values. 1 gram of protein and 1 gram of carbs contain 4 calories whereas 1 gram of fat contains 9.

CALORIES IN

So a simple solution to reduce your calorie intake would be to cut out all the fat because fat has more calories per gram than protein & carbs right?  The problem is we already tried that and it failed because when we cut out the fat, food tasted rubbish, so we replaced it with sugar and look what happened.

Secondly protein, carbs and fats are MORE than just calories. They also contain other things like fibre, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

If you were to simply measure your daily food intake by the value of their calories, to the ignorance of everything else, 1,000 calories coming from soft drink would be the same as 1,000 calories coming from broccoli. Now anyone with a pinch of common sense would see how ridiculous that statement is. Clearly they’re not the same because of what they contain so clearly a calorie is not just a calorie, which adds credence to the saying not all calories are created equal.

And while we’re at it, those same 1,000 calories from that soft drink would weigh around 428 grams, yet those same 1,000 calories from broccoli would weigh 3.03 kgs.  Can you now see why counting your calorie intake is such a complete waste of time?

CALORIES OUT

Now, let’s look at the other side of the equation, calories out.

Science has come up with a number of different ways for estimating the amount of calories you burn off in a day. One such method we found using a scientific approach (Google search) looks something like this:

TDCE (Total Daily Caloric Expenditure) = sum (RMR (resting metabolic rate) + TEE) + TEF (Thermic Effect of Food). Where TEF = (RMR + TEE) x 10%

To calculate RMR there’s another formula you need to follow. It takes your weight in kgs and places it into a graph that also takes into account your sex and age. The trouble with this formula to calculate RMR is that it doesn’t take into account a whole raft of genetic factors so the variance could be significant.

You then take your RMR and multiply it by your activity level (an arbitrary table of 5 levels of activity, each with a given numeric value). The end result is an estimate of the amount of calories that you burn off during a 24 hr period.

Then finally, you add your TEF (an arbitrary 10% value) to your RMR & your TEE and you end up with your TDCE.

WOW!!! Who can be bothered going to all that fuss and bother?  Definitely not me and I certainly don’t get my clients to do this either. Does anyone else see how complicated this is and I’m a maths geek?

My problem with counting your calories out is that it’s only an estimate and a fairly rough one in that. There’s too much room for error and by relying on this you could easily under or over estimate your calorie expenditure.

The other issue I have with calculating calories out is that people today have become too focused on counting the calories they burn WHILE EXERCISING.

A classic example of this is the creation of training zones; those diagrams on all the cardio machines with “fat burning zone” highlighted on them. Train with your heart in this zone and you’ll burn more body fat. This is true. It means that you’ll burn more body fat BUT ONLY RELATIVE TO GLYCOGEN. (The two preferred energy sources for the body are fat and glucose)

The only problem is when you exercise at such a low level of intensity (the fat burning zone) there’s no thermogenic effect. In other words, your body’s metabolism doesn’t speed up after a fat burning workout, meaning you miss out on the continual burning off of excess fat stores.

Whereas a high intensity interval or resistance training session could elevate your metabolism for as much as 72 hours after the workout is completed, meaning you could in effect burn off another 1000 extra calories WHILE DOING NOTHING.
Can you now see why I can’t stand the whole calories in vs calories out equation? It’s just too hard! It’s too complicated to work out how many calories you’re eating. (Who wants to weigh and measure everything you eat?) And it’s way too hard to calculate your calories out.

SO WHATS THE ANSWER?

My philosophy on fat loss is simple.

1. Stop counting calories both in and out.
2. Instead, eat real whole foods. (Your body’s built in self protection mechanisms will save you from over eating so long as you listen to them)
3. Drink plenty of clean water (Far too many people are dehydrated these days and mistake dehydration for hunger)
4. Focus your training on high intensity styled workouts (sprints and lift heavy weights).
5. Get plenty of sleep. (Get to sleep before 10.00pm as this is where all those extra calories will be burnt off)
6. Relax more and more often (In other words de-stress) and finally
7. Love your family. Happy people tend to do more positive stuff. (And people are way more important than possessions)