Calories & Weight Loss

Today I want to talk about calories and weight loss. I know it’s been done to death but….

To start, what is a calorie? A calorie is a unit of measure, it is not energy. Just like a centimetre is a measure of length, a kilogram is a measure of weight, a mile is a measure of distance, an hour is a measure of time.

To say that calories don’t matter when it comes to loss of body mass is like saying centimetres don’t matter when establishing the length of a piece of string, or seconds don’t matter when you want to schedule a time, or miles don’t matter when working out the range of your electric car.

Humans can only get their energy from the consumption of energy in the form of food or by utilising energy stored within the body, namely body fat, but can include lean mass too. We do not photosynthesise, we’re not plants. Surplus energy leads to mass increases, deficit energy leads to mass decreases.

Imagine that your body is your bank balance. Energy consumption is a deposit to your account and energy use is a spend on your account. The balance, your body, is exactly the result of all your spending and depositing.

So, if I have £100 in my bank account. I spend £30 and I deposit £50, my new balance will be £120. I can’t ring up my bank manager and say ‘I don’t understand my balance, I don’t feel like it should be £120, it feels like I didn’t deposit as much as my statement says, and I definitely don’t remember spending £30, I’m pretty sure I spent £80.

Now before you jump into the comments section and start talking about the thermic effect of foods, and various different conditions that slow metabolism. It doesn’t matter! So, what! Your body or your bank balance will always be exactly the representative of your consumption or deposits and your spending or energy use. Let me explain.

When you eat some foods, like proteins and fibrous foods, the bank takes a little fee when you deposit, so if you put in £10 the bank may take £1 and only put £9 into your balance. This is because it takes more energy to digest and process these foods. But it’s still an exact balance of energy in and out. Digestion is energy out.

If you have a metabolic condition like underactive thyroid, unfavourable genes, or you’re taking drugs known to slow metabolism this is likened to things being cheaper to buy, so you’re spending less to buy the same things as someone else. But your body or bank balance will still be directly attributable to your spending/energy expenditure and deposits/energy consumption.

In numerous randomised human controlled trials, it has been shown repeatedly that when you equate calories and protein, dietary methodology or combination of fats and carbs makes no statistical significance.

So, if what you’re doing isn’t getting the desired result, don’t go looking for the next trend or fad, just focus in either reducing energy in, increasing energy out, or both. Be aware that the body needs time to adapt, so be patient, maintaining a weight after a crash diet requires a lot of will, as the body will make you very hungry and become difficult to satiate.

All diets work if they create an energy deficit, end of! Find the one you fine easiest to stick to for the duration required to reach your desire.

This is what the Sharmanator thinks.