Effective weight loss and maintaining optimal weight has nothing to do with counting calories - we talked about this in one of our previous publications. Today we will debunk another common myth of those who want to lose weight - that all calories are the same, and choose nutrition for proper weight loss.
Making the idea of counting calories easy to understand, we were told that all calories were the same. Let's apply the same technique (without taking into account quality) to a substance that is even more necessary for our health - water. If you are thirsty, would you drink from a dirty stream or a muddy puddle in the middle of the road? Of course not: it’s not just about quenching your thirst, the quality of the water is also important to you. When it comes to a puddle, the solution is not to drink less liquid from it, but to find cleaner water. The current obesity epidemic is similar: the solution is not to eat less, but to consume high-quality food.
The method of counting calories is ineffective not only because it contradicts the elementary laws of biology, but also because not all calories are the same .
Their calculation is based on the assumption that our body works like a scale: it does not measure quality, only quantity. On our “internal” scales, 300 kcal of vegetables should be equal to 300 kcal of pasta. However, the problem is that the body is not a scale.
Marshall University conducted a study to study childhood obesity. Participants were divided into two groups:
- “quantitative” group (children ate regular food, but in smaller quantities);
- “quality” group (children ate low-carbohydrate foods in unlimited quantities).
In two months, each participant in the “qualitative” group lost 5 kg, and in the “quantitative” group gained an extra 2 kg. While we're not interested in a low-carb diet, this study gives us a great example of how important calorie quality is: subjects ate as much as they wanted, when they wanted, and burned fat in the process.
Eat when you're hungry.
There are actually several types of hunger. We must focus specifically on physical hunger. To do this, estimate your hunger using the table below.
Place your palm on your stomach and clearly ask yourself how hungry you are. Do you want to eat because you are physically hungry or are you just bored? Maybe you are worried, so you decided to fix the problem?
Refined food creates food addiction
Large-scale production of this refined product began in the mid-twentieth century. It was then that the civilized population embarked on the path of a radical restructuring of nutrition, a path leading to obesity, premature aging, early mortality and severe chronic diseases.
Thanks to high technologies and chemical innovations, today a wide range of delicious and aromatic dishes are produced from refined products. Thanks to taste enhancers and other additives that turn food into a real pleasure.
But pleasure comes at a price. It turns out that we owe all sensual pleasures to endorphins, which are released in response to nerve impulses.
Everything that brings pleasure is remembered on an unconscious level. Repeated repetition of a positive experience leads to the formation of an unconditioned reflex.
The following picture is observed: tasty food means pleasure, tasteless food means disappointment. Please note: Compared to powerful chemically-derived flavors, natural products taste dull and disappointing.
This whole process is very similar to the formation of mental and physical dependence. This is true. Today the population of civilized countries suffers from a real food addiction.
And counting calories here is completely pointless. The fact is that almost all finished products produced by food industry conveyors consist of fast carbohydrates and trans fats.
Such regular eating increases insulin levels and leads to obesity and other problems. You can lose weight without counting calories, quickly and forever, if you refuse to eat ready-made foods and semi-finished products, replacing them with what nature has created, that is, with natural products.
Eat whatever you want.
But how? If I start eating everything, then, of course, I will gain weight, everything will get even worse.
You’re wrong, if you remove all restrictions, stop dividing food into right and wrong, and most importantly, start listening to your body, you will soon notice that you don’t crave chocolate, chips and pies so much, your body itself will tell you what exactly it needs cottage cheese or cake. The main thing is to try and remove all restrictions. This is very difficult, but this is the only way you will get the freedom you want.
How many carbohydrates should you eat?
To measure servings of carbohydrate-rich foods such as pasta, side dishes, cereals, grains, starchy vegetables and fruits , and bread , use a handful. Each handful provides approximately 20-30 grams of carbohydrates.
By the way, WHO recommends getting about half of all calories from carbohydrates. Read more “Why you need to eat carbohydrates” on Zozhnik.
For men, we recommend a total of 6-8 handfuls of carbohydrates per day . This is approximately two handfuls of servings per meal.
For women, 4-6 handfuls of carbohydrates per day are generally recommended . Approximately one handful of servings per meal.
This amount of carbohydrates is enough for clients to provide energy, maintain hormone levels and feel good without going overboard.
Enjoy every bite of food.
Imagine you are a foodie. Your body wants to eat a chicken cutlet with mashed potatoes. What are you going to do?
Just chew like a cow in the pasture? No, now you, an exquisite connoisseur of taste. You need to relax, turn off all distractions, sit down at the table and eat slowly. You have to savor it as you cut it piece by piece. Food should sparkle with new colors. Do you feel it? It’s unlikely that eating before brought the same pleasure.
How many vegetables should you eat?
Use your fist to measure servings of non-starchy vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, carrots, etc.). Once again, your portion is the same thickness and diameter as a fist.
For men, we typically recommend 6-8 fist-sized servings of vegetables per day . This amounts to approximately 2 fist-sized servings per meal.
For women, we typically recommend 4-6 fist-sized servings of vegetables per day . Approximately 1-1.5 fist-sized portions per meal.
In general , simply adding one fist-sized portion of vegetables to each meal is a good start for most people .
Stop eating as soon as you feel full.
Respect your feelings of hunger and satiety. Why shove food into yourself if you're already full. You have already enjoyed the dish, so leave it, no one will take your food away, you can always pack it in a container or put it in the refrigerator. Understand that as soon as hunger sets in, you will be able to eat again, but in the meantime, try to avoid overeating, because it is as harmful as hunger.
Is it possible to lose weight without counting calories: important rules
The most reliable way to lose weight quickly and without harm to your health is to count calories. If you want to lose weight and get smaller, you need to stay within the deficit limits. The daily calorie intake for someone losing weight is calculated using a formula - there is no universal number for everyone. The most commonly used calorie formula is the Harris-Benedict calorie formula to determine basal metabolic rate (BMR). The formula takes into account: gender, height, weight, age. Further calculation is carried out taking into account the type of activity and physical activity of the person. Complete material on how the daily calorie intake for weight loss is calculated in this article.
Counting calories has many benefits. Firstly, those who are losing weight know for sure that they are in short supply. Has an idea of how much and what else can be eaten. Secondly, it is convenient to carry out analysis. To do this, write down everything you eat in a notebook or enter it into an app. A week later, you look at your diary and realize that a handful of dried apricots on Wednesday and three nuts on Saturday were unnecessary. In the future, you will take this error into account and correct it. Finally, this approach simply disciplines. This makes it easier to get into the routine and get used to your new diet. Psychologically, a person is also calmer when counting - there is no need to think and guess whether he can eat a couple more spoons of porridge or not.
Counting calories is convenient, but labor-intensive. Many people quickly get tired of writing down every snack in a notebook. Even smartphone apps can't help. What adds to the work is that the ingredients in complex dishes need to be counted separately. If you simply enter the word “borscht” into the line, the application will give an inaccurate, very average indicator. Why? The answer is simple - everyone prepares this dish differently. Beef, pork, with frying oil and lots of potatoes or without it at all. The correct thing to do is take each ingredient separately, weigh it raw, calculate the calorie content, and only then cook it. And after you have prepared the dish, you need to re-weigh and count it.
For example, you decide to make cutlets. Weigh on a kitchen scale everything that is required in the recipe: meat, onions, eggs, vegetable oil, milk and bread. This will give you the calorie content of the entire batch of cutlets. To find out how many calories are in one cutlet, you just need to divide the total calories by the number of finished cutlets. Let us add that for this it is necessary to sculpt balls of approximately the same size. If the cutlets vary greatly in weight, this method of counting will not work. Quite difficult, isn't it? This is why counting calories scares many people.
In fact, you can still use the average value. Unless you deep fry everything in a liter of boiling oil and add mayonnaise to every recipe. You can start counting calories in this relatively inaccurate manner if you find it too difficult and are new to losing weight. After you get involved and get used to it, it is recommended to “complicate the task.” You can do without counting at all. Many fitness trainers and nutritionists claim that this is possible. True, this is also not easy. We'll tell you how to do it correctly.
Losing weight without counting calories: 4 important recommendations
- If you don't count calories, overeating is like death. Accustom yourself to small portions and a strictly defined number of meals. It's better if there are three of them. You can't have a snack.
- Include more vegetables and protein foods in every meal. Vegetables quickly fill the stomach, and proteins contribute to long-term satiety. Carbohydrates (and on a proper diet they can only be complex) - for breakfast.
- Move more whenever possible. When you don't count calories, there is always a risk of overeating. Which means you have to burn even more. Burn calories every free minute - walk, walk the dog, play with your child, wash the floors with your hands instead of a mop.
- Watch yourself, track your results. To do this, you need not only to weigh yourself, but also to take measurements. If a month has passed and no results are visible, try to keep a more accurate and scrupulous count. With a moderate calorie deficit, weight can and should decrease. Either you are still making mistakes when counting, or there are certain health problems. In this case, visit your doctor.
Finally, there is another alternative. If you have a little extra and you plan to lose weight in a couple of weeks, use a diet that suits you, the diet of which is already scheduled by day with portions indicated. All you need is a kitchen scale. For example, for breakfast two eggs and a piece of bread, for lunch - pink salmon steak and two tomatoes, for dinner - a glass of kefir and 1 piece of bread.
You can choose a diet in the “Nutrition, diets” section. When choosing a weight loss method for yourself, please read the contraindications and take into account the individual characteristics of your body.
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How much fat should you eat?
Use your thumb to determine portions of saturated fat foods: vegetable and animal fat, butter, nuts/seeds . A thumb-sized serving is the same thickness and length as your thumb and contains approximately 7-12 grams of fat.
Fats are important for our health, what they are, which ones are healthy - read the text “Why and what fats you should eat” on Zozhnik.
For men, we recommend a total of 6-8 thumb-sized portions of fat per day . This amounts to approximately two thumb-sized portions per meal.
General recommendation for women: 4-6 thumb-sized servings of fat per day . Approximately one thumb-sized serving of fat at each meal.
This amount provides enough fat to support immune system function, adequate levels of sex hormones and many other vital functions, but without excessive consumption.
