I’ve been working with clients as a Personal Trainer for over 20 years now and like most trainers who first start out, all I wanted to do was all the fun fitness exercises and methods. I always knew that diet was an important part of the training equation, but I thought that if I worked my clients hard as I did everything would just fall into place and come together. I thought my seriously intense training programs would be enough on their own to over-ride any nutrition deficits they may have. While at times I was able to have a lot of fun with some clients, and there were definitely some who did achieve great results, I felt I was failing many others for my ignorance to the real issues. I was not helping them to see where their focus needed to be which had nothing to do with fitness. Sure, I wanted them to eat well but my knowledge in helping them was flawed as I was basing everything on the calories in versus calories out equation. I felt well as long as they trained hard we could burn enough calories to counter their poor food choices. I assumed that training alone would be enough. I was wrong.
The Problem With Calorie Counting
While I acknowledge that a calorie deficit is required if you want to lose weight I also understand it is not as simple as counting calories in versus calories out. There are so many variables and huge differences from person to person that can make this equation not work.
Identical calorie counts from fructose or glucose, fructose and protein, or fructose and fat, will cause entirely different metabolic effects on a person’s body. The reason for the difference in metabolic effects is largely because different nutrients provoke different hormonal responses, and those hormonal responses determine how much fat your body will accumulate and hold on to. This is why the idea that you can lose weight by counting calories and it will work with everyone is simply not correct.
For all the internet trolls who love to bash me in the comments on social media quoting scientific references would know how flawed this system is if they actually worked with real people. They would also know how difficult it can be for someone trying to do this while raising a young family and working full time. Not that I am giving people an excuse but you have to acknowledge how unsustainable this method is and that there is a better way to achieve the same goal.
Even when counting calories does work in terms of losing weight it is still not a guaranteed way to improve your health. We must move beyond looking at weight loss or being skinny as instantly being healthy.
Someone can be a healthy weight range but extremely unhealthy as their body is deprived of essential vitamins and nutrients needed for optimal function of vital organs and bodily functions. We need our food to provide these essential vitamins and nutrients. We must look at our food as more than just fuel or energy to do exercise as it is so much more than that.
There are several problems with calorie counting that you must consider.
1.You can’t really trust that the calorie (and macronutrient) numbers you see on food packages are accurate. The way they are calculated is surprisingly imprecise and inconsistent.
2.Plus, even if food package numbers were precise, once the food is cooked, or chopped, or blended, the amount of energy available for digestion and absorption changes.
3.Then there’s what happens once that food enters your body.
4.Calorie burn estimates with trackers like Fitbit are also very imprecise.
5.Your stress levels, your history of weight gain and dieting can all dramatically influence your body’s calorie expenditure.
As you can see it is not as simple as knowing how many calories you’re taking in with food or burning up with exercise as this can fluctuate significantly due to several unique factors.
I love the info-graphics that the guys at Precision Nutrition create that give great visual descriptions of how this works. I highly suggest you read their material in the links below
•The surprising problem with calorie counting part 1
•The surprising problem with calorie counting part 2
Below is a snippet from one of their info-graphics that I love to share with a lot of clients as many will relate to this very scenario.
Now if you still don’t believe that calorie counting is not the way to go then maybe you will believe Weight Watchers!
David Kirchoff, president of Weight Watchers, the world’s largest diet company, recently said on their website:
“Calorie counting has become unhelpful. When we have a 100-calorie apple in one hand and a 100-calorie pack of cookies in the other, and we view them as being ‘the same’ because the calories are the same, it says everything that needs to be said about the limitations of just using calories in guiding food choices.”
Kirchoff and Weight Watchers have eliminated the company’s popular “Points” system, which encouraged dieters to lose weight by eating any foods as long as they kept the portions small. The new system tries to encourage dieters to consume more natural, less processed food.
According to Time Magazine: “The radical overhaul, which is the first major alteration to the Points program, comes at a time when Weight Watchers is trying to revive its recession-battered business.”
I think most people are aware that you cannot eat junk food and exercise your way into good shape. The bigger question is if they deep down know this is true why do they still try to do it?
Why People Try To Exercise Their Way Into Great Shape?
There are many reasons why people might try to exercise their way into shape.
•They love the way exercise feels and are addicted to the endorphin rush.
•They have been a keen sports person or athlete all their life.
•This is the method they used when they were younger and it used to work.
But the biggest reason is that many find exercising much easier than trying to change bad nutrition and lifestyle habits.
Changing nutrition habits is tough because there is always some pain in changing. When you have a weight problem, there is the pain it causes in your life, but there’s also a pain of trying to change it. When the payoff of trying to change is outweighed by the payoff of continuing the old way, people stick with what they’re comfortable with.
For example, the person who has exercised all their life and enjoys it would much rather increase their training sessions from 3 times per week to 5 times per week instead of giving up their Friday night fish and chips night or weekly glass of wine after dinner.
The secret to changing habits is to start small, starting with one thing at a time, and make the change easier. You can read our detailed article on this here – Aim for consistency with your health & fitness goals
If you make too many changes or a drastic change, it feels really hard and really different, and not something you can stick to for very long. By making it easier, it allows you to take that all-important first step. Once you take that first step, you have a bit of forward momentum and it becomes much easier to stay consistent and stick with something for a long time. Our minds tend to adjust over time. You can do this with any habit like always being late or getting to bed on time, just about anything.
This brings me to my second big mistake in my career as a trainer.
When I finally acknowledged that nutrition was equally as important as the exercise I tried to get my clients to do everything at once. Even though it may have been the right thing to do, and would definitely deliver the results, as we have just seen this type of plan was way too difficult. All it did was create friction and conflict between myself and the client. I thought they were just being stubborn and ignorant, and to some degree they were, but really the problem was I was trying to change too much too soon.
This is where we learned from our mistakes and created a simple step by step nutrition plan that allowed people to tackle ONE habit at a time every 2-3 weeks. You may need to change many things, but by focusing only on one the chances of succeeding are dramatically increased.
Stress Can Derail Your Plans Instantly
Another big factor in this equation that will sabotage any of your best efforts is – STRESS!
When we are under a lot of stress the first thing that gets dropped is our focus on exercise, eating healthy and getting enough rest. The body will turn to comfort foods, avoiding any hard work from exercise and basically sabotage everything you may have done up to this point to protect itself from harm. One of the first reactions is that the body thinks that it’s going to have a long-term energy crisis, so to prepare for this situation our bodies start accumulating fat right around the belly button. This is created from excessive cortisol, not from eating too much although it does tend to send cravings for salty and sugary food to help cope with the crisis.
This is something I discuss in more detail in the article – Why you are not losing weight even though you exercise
It is also the main reason why people find it hard to start a health program for they have too much stress already and just the thought of starting a health program, even though it is good for them, sounds too hard, and feels just like more stress. Again for all the trolls who love to criticize the information I provide would know this if they actually worked with people like this.
You have to factor stress in with any nutrition or exercise program and allow time to get your body in a position to adapt to your new lifestyle demands. The calmer the person the more ready they are for change and to take on the demands of changing their lifestyle.
You Must Use Strength Training To Maintain Muscle Mass When Losing Weight
Let’s say you have got your nutrition under control but you still need to lose some extra body fat. Exercise will help you for sure, but the choice of exercise is very important. Once again this is where people can make a few mistakes that will affect their results significantly.
Most people believe that the key to losing fat and getting in shape is to spend lots of time doing long slow cardio sessions. If you don’t get a sweat then it is not a good workout! Again this has really evolved from the method of calorie counting and trying to burn heaps of calories to lose weight. Unfortunately this sets people up for a series of problems.
It has been scientifically proven that when you lose weight, your metabolism slows especially if you have lost muscle. This is called metabolic adaptation, and it’s perfectly normal.
Metabolic adaptation is a natural defense mechanism against starvation.
When you’re dieting, at a certain point, your body will send out signals of:
•Starvation alert!
•There’s not enough food to go around!
•Hold onto the fat reserves!
At that point, your resting metabolic rate slows down. Metabolic adaptation can make things more complicated (and frustrating) for dieters who hope to continue or maintain their weight loss.
Once these signals are released the calorie restriction no longer has the same effect it did at the beginning of their diet. Next thing you see is that, they need to cut more calories just to maintain the same weight. This is your body’s way attempt of maintaining homeostasis to keep the system running well. If they do not cut the calories further, weight begins to creep back on even though they are eating the same as they were when everything worked the first time.
This will sound very familiar to anyone reading this who has tried to implement the plan that has worked before and now does nothing.
You can read more about this in the article – How to improve your metabolism
What is perfectly clear is that the faster your metabolism is the easier it is to maintain a healthy weight range.
And what influences metabolism more than any other thing?
MUSCLE!
The only way to add serious muscle is by using strength training.
You can see more about this in the article – What is more effective at improving health – exercise or nutrition?
Do You Want More Help?
To help you put together everything we have discussed in this article I have created a detailed PDF report that provides with everything you need to know about healthy eating.
Click here to get your copy.
Summary
Finding the balance between exercise and healthy eating is a constant struggle for people today. We are time poor, stressed out, over worked and fatigued. The longer we remain in this cycle the more our health is compromised and the potential for illness, injury and disease is increased.
We hope this article has provided you with some great ideas of how you can achieve health by adopting many of the methods shown. We know that you cannot exercise your way into good health if your nutrition is poor. You must devote as much attention to eating well, getting to bed on time, keeping your stress levels under control as you do with your exercise program. If you get it right you will be able to achieve all of your goals and be able to thrive in life with great health.
About The Author
Nick Jack is owner of No Regrets Personal Training and has over 20 years’ experience as a qualified Personal Trainer, Level 2 Rehabilitation trainer, CHEK practitioner, and Level 2 Sports conditioning Coach. Based in Melbourne Australia he specializes in providing solutions to injury and health problems for people of all ages using the latest methods of assessing movement and corrective exercise.
References
•Obesity Paradox – By Carl Levie MD
•Eat Real Food by David Gillespie
•Precision Nutrition
•How To Eat, Move & Be Healthy by Paul Chek