Counting calories is not only super stressful and drives you crazy. There are many more reasons why you should stop focusing on counting calories and start eating healthy food that’s good for your soul. Here are some of them:
- Calories aren’t everything!
Yes, calories exist—they’re essentially a measure of how much “energy” a food contains—and if you eat too many you will gain weight. But they’re not the whole picture—not even close. - Not all calories are equal!
Your body doesn’t treat all calories the same way. High-quality calories come from foods that are rich in nutrients, like avocados, nuts, chicken, eggs, and grass-fed beef. They fill you up quickly and keep you full for a long time. They also trigger the release of hormones that tell the body to burn fat. - Don’t cut calories to lose weight!
Dieting only tackles the symptom (e.g., you need to lose weight) rather than the underlying cause (e.g., what’s keeping you from being slim). The cause of gaining weight is eating poor quality foods that throw your fat-burning, appetite-taming hormones out of whack. - Starving yourself is the worst!
If you starve yourself, your body slows down your metabolism and burns muscle rather than fat. - Don’t restrict healthy foods with many calories!
Some foods are naturally high in fat but not necessarily unhealthy – like meat, eggs, cheese, butter, avocados, olives, nuts, and seeds. Your body likes these foods! They absorb antioxidants, have fat-soluble vitamins and make you feel full longer. To name a few benefits. - You might have no idea how many calories you actually need.
In order to accurately count calories for weight loss, you’d need to know your basal metabolic rate, or how many calories your body burns each day simply to stay alive and keep all your systems running. Yes, you can approximate the number of calories you use in a day via equations and apps, but that’s all you get: an approximation. - Counting calories can encourage ignorance!
Whether you’re eating just because you “have calories left” without being hungry or you’re not eating because you’ve “gone over” your calorie allotment for the day, but you’re actually still hungry, you’re doing the same thing: ignoring what your body is trying to tell you. Trust your body, because it knows what it needs a lot more than some random number or tracker. - Too much math.
Do you really want to spend your precious time counting the calories of what you eat? - You only have one life!
No one lays on their deathbed thinking “Glad I skipped that burger and avoided those excess calories.” Enjoy your life to the max!
When you eat healthy foods, you don’t have to count calories. As long as you feed your body what it needs, it’ll take care of the rest, including keeping you at a healthy weight. So relax about keeping a calorie journal and focus on quality over quantity.
It’s sustainable and enjoyable. It frees up so much time and energy to spend on things that actually matter to you. It’s empowering to know that your body knows best.
