But as it turns out, experts are learning that this decades-old strategy is actually pretty misguided. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity specialist and assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
The truth is that even careful calorie calculations don't always yield uniform results. How your body burns calories depends on a number of factors, including the type of food you eat, your body's metabolism, and even the type of organisms living in your gut.
You can eat the exact same number of calories as someone else, yet have very different outcomes when it comes to your weight.
It's time to take a different approach, she says, putting the emphasis on improving diet quality and making sustainable lifestyle improvements to achieve a healthy weight. Your gut microbiome. Trillions of organisms live in your gut, and the predominant types may influence how many calories your body absorbs from food.
Researchers have found that people who are naturally thin have different types of organisms living inside them than those who are overweight. This may occur because some types of organisms in the gut are able to break down and use more calories from certain foods than other types of organisms.
Your metabolism. Each body has a "set point" that governs weight, says Dr. This set point reflects several factors, including your genes, your environment, and your behaviors. Your hypothalamus, a region at the base of your brain that also regulates things like your body temperature, stands guard to keep your body weight from dipping below that set point—which is not really a bonus if you're trying to lose weight.
The resting metabolic rate for contestants, which measures the number of calories the body uses just running its everyday functions, plummeted after their dramatic weight loss. This means it became very challenging to avoid regaining some weight because of "metabolic adaptation," says Dr. The type of food you eat.
Your food choices may also influence your calorie intake, and not just because of their specific calorie content. One study published in Cell Metabolism found that eating processed foods seems to spur people to eat more calories compared with eating unprocessed foods.
In the study, 20 people 10 men and 10 women were split into two groups. They all were offered meals with the same number of calories, as well as similar amounts of sugar, sodium, fat, fiber, and micronutrients. But there was one key difference: one group was given unprocessed foods, and the other got ultra-processed options.
Part of HuffPost Wellness. All rights reserved. It puts us in a restrictive diet mentality. You lose touch with your hunger cues. You might fixate on a number rather than on nutrition. You may develop an unhealthy preoccupation with food.
Counting calories is a hard habit to break. Westend61 via Getty Images. Think about how what you eat makes you feel. Tune in to what your body actually wants. Cheese, eggs, poultry and unprocessed red meat can be eaten in moderation, he added. Suggest a correction. Calculate this using an online calculator. Once you know this number, you can create an eating plan that provides this approximate calorie count without going over it. This will help keep you from gaining weight while also helping you maintain your previous weight loss.
Keeping track of your calorie intake helps you better understand the number of calories your body needs to lose, gain, or sustain a certain weight. Whatever your goal, knowing how many calories you are eating is key to getting the desired effect. One way to count your calories is by keeping a food diary and writing down everything you eat, then looking up each item's calorie count.
Another option is to download an app that counts your calories for you. The general range for adult females is 1, to 2, calories per day. For adult men, it's 2, to 3, calories daily.
However, the amount of calories you need depends on a variety of factors such as age and activity level. Using an online calculator can help you determine your individual calorie needs. The — Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that your diet be split according to these percentages:. A food is considered high-calorie if it has calories or more per serving think a fast-food double cheeseburger or two scoops of ice cream.
Foods that offer the body very little nutrition, if any, are said to provide empty calories. Soda, chips, and baked desserts all fall into this category. A low-calorie diet is an eating plan that supplies around 1, to 1, calories each day while a very low-calorie diet is closer to calories per day. Consuming too few calories can be harmful to your health, so a very low-calorie diet is only recommended when under a doctor's supervision. Everyone is different, so the number of calories you need to lose weight depends on your sex, age, activity level, and more.
Reducing your calorie intake by calories per day is often recommended, but it's better to personalize your calorie goal. To do that, you can use a weight loss calculator or consult with a registered dietitian.
There are many different ways to follow a healthy diet that supplies the energy your body needs to lose, gain, or maintain weight. Counting calories is just one. Portion control and choosing nutrient-rich foods are important factors too.
Remember that there are no "good" or "bad" calories, or even foods. Instead, the better you understand what a calorie is and how it may affect your body, the easier it is to make choices about which calories will help you reach your specific goals.
If you want to learn more about your own calorie needs, check out a few healthy recipes and use a recipe nutrition calculator to see how many calories are in your favorite foods.
Looking to lose weight? Our nutrition guide can help you get on the right track. Sign up for our newsletter and get it free! Hargrove JL. Nutr J. Department of Agriculture. What is the difference between calories and kilocalories? A systematic review of the effect of dietary saturated and polyunsaturated fat on heart disease. Here are a few common ways to measure portion sizes:. Here are some common serving sizes compared to household items that may help you estimate your portion sizes:.
Just make sure to record your intake as accurately as you can. Under-recording these foods can cause a big difference between your recorded and actual intake. To improve your estimations, you can try using scales in the beginning to give you a better idea of what a portion looks like. This should help you be more accurate, even after you stop using them Scales are the most accurate. When it comes to foods and the human body, a calorie is not necessarily a calorie.
For example, calories of broccoli will affect your health differently than calories of french fries. This is important because your overall diet and the types of foods you eat have an effect on your health 23 , 24 , Additionally, the effects of different foods on hunger , appetite hormones and the amount of calories you burn can vary considerably.
It is best to base your diet on high-quality foods from plants or animals that have been minimally processed. High-quality foods not only provide health benefits, but they also make it a lot easier to consume fewer calories in the long run.
Basing your diet on minimally processed foods is beneficial for long-term health and weight loss. Aim for slow and steady weight loss, and make sure you have a plan. Reading food labels and keeping less junk food in the house can also be helpful for success. Counting your daily calorie intake is a common tactic if you're trying to lose weight. But does it actually work?
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