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This is the
million-dollar question...do you REALLY have to
count calories to lose fat? It's something very few people
LIKE to do but is it something that everybody SHOULD
be doing to maximize fat-loss results?
And without further ado, the answer is yes...and no!
Allow me to explain...
Calorie-counting
is one of those things that you either love or hate. You either feel
like you HAVE to do it in order to get results or you feel like there's NO WAY
you'll ever be caught dead doing it. It's rare you find somebody who sits on
the middle ground in this one.
As most people know, in
order to lose fat, you've got to have a caloric deficit, taking in fewer calories
than you burn on a daily basis. No surprises there.
Now here's the thing...in
order to consistently achieve that caloric deficit and lose fat, you must be
AWARE of your calorie intake.
I
believe the REAL question we should be asking here should not be "Is calorie-COUNTING
necessary?" but "Is calorie-AWARENESS necessary?"
So if, in order to be aware
of how many calories you're taking in, you need to specifically COUNT them (by
weighing food and referencing food charts), then THAT will be what you have
to do to get results.
And that is totally fine!
But if you've already GOT
a good awareness of how many calories you're eating in a day and you know what
you need to eat (or not eat) in order to achieve that caloric deficit, then
calorie counting is NOT necessary for you.
The key here, again, is
awareness.
You see, the big problem
with not counting calories arises when a person THINKS they're aware of their
caloric intake but they really are NOT.
It's a fact that most people
dramatically under-report their caloric intake when they are asked to estimate
how much they eat in a day. When they keep a food diary and have to write down
every little thing that goes in their mouth, in some
cases their TRUE caloric intake nearly DOUBLES.
So even if you don't want
to count calories, it may be time for a quick compromise. It's a temporary calorie
count/reality check!
If you're not losing fat
right now and you feel like you're not really eating much, here's something
you can try in order to test your "caloric awareness":
First, write down how many
calories you THINK you're eating every day.
Now for the next full week,
write down everything you eat. And I do mean EVERYTHING. Every little
taste and every little snack. EVERYTHING. Just write down foods and portion
sizes - don't try and look up how many calories each thing has and don't suddenly
change your diet because you want to make yourself look good - just keep doing
what you've been doing.
At the end of the week,
go to a food chart and research everything you ate. Add it up and divide by
7. This will give you your average daily caloric intake.
If you're within a few hundred
calories of your original estimation, congratulations! You've got good "calorie
awareness!"
But if you're off by a significant
margin, this will give you some VERY useful feedback on what you need to do
to get fat loss rolling again.
So there's a vote FOR calorie
counting...let's look at the other side of the coin.
And I'll be blunt here...calorie
counting, no matter how careful you are, is simply NOT all that accurate.
Think of it this way...no
two pieces of food are alike. When you buy a steak at the grocery store, they
don't charge you per steak, they charge by the pound. And even when they charge
by the pound, two steaks of the same cut can have DRAMATICALLY different composition
- one could be lean and one could be fatty!
But if you look at a calorie
chart, you'll see "3 oz sirloin steak - 100 calories"...or something
to that effect.
So even if you weigh and
chart every single piece of food you put in your mouth, you're STILL going to
be off by a fair margin. That's just a fact.
And while how MUCH you eat
has an impact on fat loss, WHEN you eat it and what foods you eat together makes
a HUGE impact on your results. "Calories are calories" is true only
up to a point.
For example, if you eat
a big meal after a workout, most of that will get used for recovery purposes.
But if you eat that same big meal late at night, nowhere near a workout, a good
portion of that will just be stored as fat.
Another example is eating
sugary carbs with fatty foods - the insulin response you get from sugary foods
will jam that fat right into your fat cells with very little trouble!
So
now that you have absolutely no idea WHAT the heck to do now, here's my step-by-step
solution...
1. If you like to count
calories and it gets you results...keep it up!
2. If you like to count
calories but you're NOT getting results, either eat less or make sure you're
writing down EVERYTHING you're eating AND are being as accurate as possible
with your charting.
3. If you DON'T like to
count calories and you ARE getting results...keep it up! Calorie counting is
NOT necessary if you're aware of how many you're taking in AND you're getting
results.
4. If you DON'T like to
count calories and you're NOT getting results, it's time to take one week to
count your calories and improve your caloric awareness. It's only a week and
it'll give you a MUCH better idea of what you're actually taking in. This will
pay off BIG in the long run because once you get a feel for your TRUE intake,
you can very easily keep yourself honest and ADJUST on the fly.
To my mind, the bottom line is results. If you're NOT losing fat, then
you're not getting the results you want...simple as that. Your approach should
be focused on doing what you need to do to get those results.
Developing your caloric
awareness is the key to long-term success with fat loss. And if you have to
count calories to do it, then that's what you've gotta do!
Nick Nilsson is Vice-President
of the online personal training company BetterU, Inc. He has a degree in Physical
Education and Psychology and has been inventing new training techniques for
more than 17 years. Nick is the author of a number of bodybuilding eBooks including
"Muscle Explosion! 28 Days To Maximum Mass", "Metabolic Surge
- Rapid Fat Loss," "The Best Exercises You've Never Heard Of,"
"Gluteus to the Maximus - Build a Bigger Butt NOW!" and "The
Best Abdominal Exercises You've Never Heard Of" all available at (http://hop.clickbank.net/?xxxxx/betteru).
He can be contacted at betteru@fitstep.com.
