Counting Calories Won’t Help You Lose Weight - Here’s Why!
When the body loses weight, it doesn't lose ONLY fat, which is often overlooked when people count calories to lose weight.
Counting calories won't help you lose weight which is one of the reasons that FASTer Way to Fat Loss® program gives you better results & provides a healthy lifestyle.
I am a science geek. I love to know they why and how behind all.the.things. One of the things that has interested me the most (especially since starting the FASTer Way to Fat Loss® program and realizing how damaging under eating can be) is nutrition.
I just finished up my Precision Nutrition Level 1 certificate and learned a lot about why counting calories is not enough. You have to look deeper at your nutrition if you want to function at your very best.
The Main Nutrients for Your Body
Have you heard of Macronutrients? They are the main nutrients that make up the foods that we eat and need to live a healthy lifestyle.
Three basic macronutrients, for the most part, make up the food that we eat. These macronutrients are broken down into fats, carbohydrates, and proteins.
Our body uses macronutrients in many different ways including:
- Hormone Production
- Immune System Health
- Cell Structure and Function
- Body Composition (lean muscle mass and body fat) which is also tied to our metabolic function
- And our ability to digest our food and absorb nutrients
This is a very limited list of what our body uses macronutrients for.
Calories Equal Energy
Looking at the big picture, our body needs some of all three of these macronutrients to function at its highest levels. Macronutrients are broken down into units of energy that our body can use or store.
Counting calories won't help you lose weight because calories, simply put, are just a unit of energy. It measures how much energy we get from each macronutrient, but it doesn’t look at the unit on a deeper level- is it a simple or complex molecule?
Overloading our bodies with too much of any one nutrient will affect our bodies ability to function at its very best. Our bodies are complex, dynamic systems that can recognize that not all food is created equal.
A focus on whole, minimally processed food will help deliver our bodies the best sources of macro and micronutrients our bodies need. But, nutrition isn’t a simple process. There are dozens of factors that affect how our body digests, processes, and uses nutrients from the food we eat.
Food is Fuel for Your Body
When we just look at calories in a fitness tracking app or similar, we can fail to look at what we are eating on the macronutrient level and in turn fail to deliver our bodies the nutrients it needs.
Each food we eat has a specific amount of nutrients and calories. Looking at just the calories we fail to compare the nutrient density of the foods we are choosing. We want to control our energy balance through good nutrition.
We don’t want to eat too much or too little because when we eat well, we feel good. Giving your body too little energy or nutrition and it starts to shut down, pulling nutrients from wherever it can to fuel basic processes.
When you under fuel your body processes like reproduction, metabolism and some brain function processes get shut down as they are not considered essential.
When your body shuts down your metabolism, your ability to burn fat is also pushed to the wayside. Your body will start pulling protein from wherever it can get it, namely your muscles, which will then slow down your metabolism even more.
How to Lose Weight Fast and Naturally
Are you looking for a way to lose weight fast and naturally?
In my FASTer Way to Fat Loss® groups, we learn exactly what macronutrients are, how to track macronutrients, and how macronutrient counting, paired with intermittent fasting and carb cycling, can help you turn your body into a fat burning powerhouse!
If you are ready to go beyond the deprivation and calorie restriction, then I invite you to grab your spot the next round of FASTer Way to Fat Loss®. Not only will I have a women's group starting, but a men's group as well. I will also have a group just for my ladies who are deaf as well.
If you have any questions about nutrition, exercise, or the FASTer Way to Fat Loss® program feel free to reach out to me! I would love to chat with you.