IS COUNTING CALORIES RISKY? Grecobe - The Green Coffee Bean

IS COUNTING CALORIES RISKY?

This is a big question these days which came from the negative outcomes from people dealing with calories counting. Calorie counting is the way of losing body weight by consuming measured amount of food according to the calories.

Calories are the measure of energy which comes from foods or beverages. It is very well known that for overweight people, energy intake is more than energy outcome from the body. This is because of more calories intake and less physical activity or metabolism by the body.

To maintain balance between energy intake and outcome, people opt for calories counting. But, consuming food or beverages by calculating their calories are of no use to lose body weight due to the following given reasons.

It’s obvious that energy is gained from calories

It is understood to everyone that our body need energy to carry out day to day activities. This energy for work is gained only and only from food. IS COUNTING CALORIES RISKY? If food is restricted by counting calories, then, the energy will be gained from nowhere. Calories are a major source of energy for human body.

More the food you eat, more the energy you will get. For exercising or physical activity also, energy is required and it also helps to convert any extra calories which the body had consumed. Thus, to gain energy for the body to walk, move, work or exercise, it is important to eat whole foods without looking for calories.

Quality is compromised over quantity in calories counting

It is being told that required amount of food should be eaten by calculating calories. But they do not differentiate healthy food from junk food as well as food with low nutrients. People on calories counting think that food with low calories, whether junk food & low nutrients, will be helpful for losing body weight.

This is completely untrue! It is recommended by doctors that junk food should be avoided for losing body weight whether it is of high calories or low calories. Junk food or processed food decreases metabolism inside human body. The whole unprocessed food should be eaten according to the need of the body which will not lead to increase in body weight.

Unprocessed food such as salad, green leafy vegetables, fruits, grains, etc should be eaten instead of packed food products, burgers, processed sandwiches, fried food, etc. By calculating your own meal, ignoring calories counting; you can easily lose body weight.

Incorrect calorie labels

IS COUNTING CALORIES RISKY? Calorie counting is done on the basis of either knowledge about calories (rare cases) or by reading labels of the products (maximum cases). In most of the cases, the calories mentioned over the labels are incorrect. The amount of calories is mentioned much less than the actual calories present in the product.

It was seen in a study published by National Institute of Health that the commonly consumed snack had high calorie content than the amount labeled over the product. Thus, the person who eats food according to the calorie counting will gain no effect even after consuming low calorie labeled food. This is the reason that the walk towards losing weight gets stopped at a point if the labels are read for calories.

Thus, if the food is consumed on the basis of calorie counting then, it is highly advised to have deep knowledge of calories of each and every food product instead of consuming food on the basis of labeled calories.

It doesn’t work for long time

When a person starts consuming food by counting calories, then, the effect does not remain for so long and even in some cases, there is not effect at all, in terms of body weight. This is because of the restriction of food items. IS COUNTING CALORIES RISKY Calorie counting remains for only few days in those cases, when body weight is not lost anymore.

Moreover, a person will stick to this calorie counting for how much time. One day, every person gets irritated for strict eating. Thus, calorie counting remained to be a short-term plan. In this case, it is better to consume healthy food, such as unprocessed and low-fat food, without any restriction so that the body weight can be maintained at certain level and not increased to higher levels.

It has also been observed that once the calories counting is stopped by a person after losing some weight, then the body weight starts to be gained back. This weight gain also comes with new other problems. This has been observed in many cases. This weight gain shows that all the sacrifices for food during calories counting gone in vain. Thus, calories counting do not give long term effects in the body.

It restricts eating intuitively

Most of the people have good knowledge about food items. This means that people know what is good for them and what is not. They know that food full of proteins, vitamins, minerals and good fat is healthy for their body.

But all this knowledge doesn’t work when they start counting calories. They convince themselves that if a food is of low calories then it is good for them. For example, everyone know that junk food is not healthy to eat but the junk food displaying lower calories is opted by people in the hope of losing weight but results in gaining weight.

Thus, intuitive eating should be opted. The food items full of vitamins, proteins and fibres should be eaten. This also provides benefit to avoid starving which automatically decreases food intake.

It invites stress

It is now clear that calorie counting doesn’t help much to lose body weight or to make the body healthy. When no result is seen by a person on calories counting, then, the mental health of a person starts to get affected. Even after strict eating no effect is seen. This makes the person stressful.

Moreover, counting calories before purchasing food items obviously makes the life stressful. The mind is majorly accumulated with the thoughts of consuming calculated food. This doesn’t allow the person to remain free-minded. It is very well-known that stress is a major reason for over-eating. Thus, stress leads to body weight gain again.

Thus, IS COUNTING CALORIES RISKY the calories counting should be replaced with intuitive eating. A food item should not be avoided just for some amount of calories. That avoided food might be full of vitamins and proteins which could be used in metabolizing food inside body to provide energy. Avoiding that food item will slow down the whole metabolism cycle and result in weight gain instead of weight loss.

Thus, nutrients for energizing body can only be gained by eating food not by avoiding food. Thus, opt for intuitive eating and say good bye to calorie counting forever. You can also opt for physical activities and exercises to lose body weight. There are number of activities to lose body weight which are not even harmful for the body.

Thus, do not count calories while eating, it will take you nowhere!

References