We all have been there done that when it comes to weight loss, calorie counting is a very familiar term, calories counting was all the rage few years back with smart phone apps popping up to help you count daily calories. But experts now suggest that it may not work for majority of people, who are trying to lose weight, especially who are over 35, trying to lose weight in 35-40 and over age bracket is a challenge, anyway. Why counting calories doesn’t work after turning 40, because your body changes, your metabolism drops, also there are foods that have less energy as calories and aren’t healthy.
The focus shouldn’t be on restricting calories in a day, but limiting portions and eating healthy, some healthy foods may be high in calories but are good for you and assist in losing weight. Calorie counting was becoming too painstaking and confusing for a lot of people, and that could work as a setback and demotivating factor for many trying to lose weight. Trust us, calorie counting is not as simple as it seems. Calorie is the measure of energy the food contains and high calorie food doesn’t always have to be bad. Some people have genetically a fast calorie burning mechanism and others have a rather slow paced one, the individual factors are varying.
The fact is all calories are not equal, high calorie foods like nuts, coconut oil, avocado, broccoli, leafy greens and chicken and eggs keep you full for longer and are actually good for you, when you’re trying to lose weight. You can have energy for the whole day and won’t feel like munching on unhealthy snacks. So, when it comes to weight loss go for high quality calories, and steer clear of unhealthy ones like in bakery items, cookies, pizza and fries. Your body takes more time to digest fiber-rich foods, as compared to processed foods that have no nutrition. Fiber-rich foods include vegetables, grains, beans and lentils.
Therefore, for weight loss aim for smaller portions and healthy calories, foods that won’t make you hungry in an hour or two, don’t fall for calories counting bang wagon. Remember, your body doesn’t run on math and calculations, it runs on genetics and physiology, over eating on one day wouldn’t cause any long-term harm, human body is designed to adjust, your metabolism is regulated by hormones, genes and your brain, if you have eaten way too many calories in a day, your body would compensate and suppress your appetite.
We hate to break it to you, but calorie counting to lose weight fails 95% of the time. While working out regularly, and restricting meal portions really work.
Starving yourself never works; when you’re starving your body goes into a survival mode and starts burning muscles and storing fat, simply put when you are eating clean and real foods, you don’t need to count calories. Calories in natural, real foods assimilate differently in the body than calories in processed foods. Just eat the right foods, sleep at the right time, work out, and you don’t need to get into the calorie counting fuss.
