Since calories aren’t the only factor to consider when it comes to your weight or health, you’re probably wondering what you should focus on!ġ. What to focus on instead of calories alone This is one factor that often leads to the infamous weight loss plateaus, which can be frustrating. To continue losing weight, you often have to continue reducing calorie intake even more which is both difficult and unsustainable to do. During calorie restriction, your body may lower the amount of calories it burns as a protective mechanism. If your primary goal is to eat less calories, you may unknowingly be making weight loss even harder for yourself. Donuts, and other sources of “empty calories” do not fill you up as much and may lead to overeating throughout the day, potentially leading to weight gain over time.Ĭalorie restriction may slow down your metabolism. This is because nutrient-rich foods like almonds contain protein, healthy fats, and/or fiber, which all contribute to a feeling of fullness. Eating 200 calories of almonds will impact your fullness in a greater way than eating 200 calories from a donut. In addition, protein takes the most energy to digest of all the macronutrients, so eating more protein is another way to boost calorie burn.ĭifferent foods impact your level of fullness. Your body may burn more calories from eating a meal containing natural, whole foods than from eating a nutrient-poor meal containing highly processed foods, even if the two meals contained the same amount of calories. Whole foods take more energy to digest than highly processed foods. The type of food you eat impacts your metabolism. The calories in/calories out model fails to address the importance of nutrient density and instead treats all calories the same. Calories from nutrient dense foods, such as vegetables, whole grains, beans, and fish benefit your health much more than calories from nutrient poor foods (like soda, desserts, and highly processed or fast foods, which are also referred to as “ empty calories”). Here are some things that the “calories in/calories out” model fail to address: This is because different foods impact your body in different ways, and can make it either easier or more difficult to achieve or maintain a healthy weight range. While it is true that you do need a calorie deficit to lose weight, there are more factors to consider. What the “Calories in/calories out” model doesn’t tell you Some foods require more energy to digest than others, so the composition of your diet can lead to either more or less calorie burn each day. This is known as the thermic effect of food, and it is perhaps the most overlooked factor when it comes to calorie burn. Your body uses between 5-15% of the calories you consume for digestion. In addition to intentional exercises like running and lifting weights, your level of activity also includes daily tasks such as walking, doing housework, and caring for children.
Some factors that impact your metabolic rate include your age, gender, genetics, muscle mass, hormone function, presence of illness, and certain life stages such as pregnancy. This is known as your basal metabolic rate (BMR), and it is entirely unique to you. Your body requires a large amount of calories to sustain essential daily functions such as your heartbeat and lungs. This makes up the largest portion of calories you burn each day. Your body burns calories through 3 major bodily processes, including: While food is the only thing that contributes to the “calories in” portion of this model, there are a few different factors that affect the “calories out” part of the equation. Thus, consuming more or less calories will cause you to either gain or lose weight. The “calories in/calories out” model is based on the simple premise that the number of calories you consume needs to match the number you burn in order to maintain a stable weight. What makes up the “calories in/calories out” model?
Keep reading to learn more about what this model may not be telling you. If you’re someone who is trying to move away from traditional restrictive dieting and into healthier patterns of eating, it’s important to understand the bigger picture of health.
Yet there may be important pieces of information that this model fails to address that impact both your weight and your health. At one point or another, you’ve probably heard the diet advice that consuming less calories than you burn off is all it takes to lose weight.
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