Count Nutrients, Not Calories.

Counting calories is a blunt, slippery system that is so often doomed to fail. Give yourself a chance.

Since Wilbur O Atwater combusted different foods one by one in his patented Bomb Calorimeter, we’ve been led astray by the shakey science of Calorie counting. It’s always the simple idea that catches on: Add the Calories we consume, then minus the ones we ‘burn’, and hey-presto you have total control over your body fat. If only.

Taking in more energy than your body burns will result in fat storage. Taking in less energy than your body needs will result in weight loss. This is a universal truth, but there are a few problems. It’s impossible to be accurate when counting Calories, because of the huge margins of error at every turn. For starters, the human body is more complex than the addition of your basal metabolic rate (estimated with the bluntest of equations) + the amount you’ve moved today. Which tracking system do you use by the way because they vary wildly?

Consider that the FDA allows a 20% margin of error for each food label. Also, how much did you chew your food today? Have you subtracted the nuts and seeds that slipped unharmed through your digestive tract? And these factors come before the bias and human error in estimating Calories consumed.

There are so many variables I don’t know where to start, so I’ll address the real issue with calorie counting as I see it.

No nutrient-dense food on the planet is Calorie-free, but plenty of junk foods are.

The Real Issue

Calorie counting started gaining popularity a little over a hundred years ago but didn’t accelerate until waistlines started expanding in the 1980s, and people wondered why. Directly after the US government started offering nutrition guidelines, but that’s another story.

Most people are under the impression that to remain healthy and slim; all they have to do is add the Calories they consume and keep them under a calculated amount. If they go above this number, they must burn them off by moving more, lest they start storing the energy as fat. Eat less; move more.

This diversionary belief has elevated Calorie counting onto an undeserved pedestal. It remains there, worshipped to this day, but it has usurped the single most important reason to eat: to obtain nutrients. Not energy.

When you focus on eating nutritious foods, the energy takes care of itself. No nutrient-dense food on the planet is Calorie-free, but plenty of junk foods are. When Calorie counting becomes the priority, the quality of food is often forgotten. Choosing smaller portions of junk food, because it tastes so good, may help you lose weight for a time, but it’s sabotaging your efforts and ruining your health.

We assume nutrients are covered because food is abundant in developed countries; we eat often, and the majority of us are overweight. However, junk foods do not contain the nutrients you need to be healthy. They’re cheap, easily available, and convenient, making them the cornerstone of many people’s diets. This is a disaster.

From the Centre for Disease Control in the US, their population-based research suggests nearly a third of people are at risk of nutritional deficiencies.

Nutrient deficiencies; the hidden killer

In the richest countries, we’re overfed, yet undernourished. Snacking has diverted us from mealtimes, where the nutrient-dense, prepared at home, real foods live. Calories can be gulped down without a second thought, and eaten in the blink of an eye, but nutrients are absent.

Choosing instant gratification foods plays to our weaknesses. Focussing on flavours, our addictions, the convenience, and forgetting the nutrients you need to be healthy. Without the appropriate amount, you will become ill. Chronic disease, not just obesity-related, is on the rise.

A young British boy lost his eyesight permanently due to a lack of vitamin A (retinol) in his diet of junk foods. Also, in the UK, a 61-year-old’s dementia was reversed after a five-year stretch of profound mental health episodes. A B12 deficiency was discovered to be the cause, and the dementia was reversed quickly.

After compiling data, the NHS in Britain discovered an upswing in old-fashioned diseases. The health service found that over 100,000 people were admitted to hospital in 2018 with a vitamin D deficiency, which leaves people’s immune systems underpowered, and makes them vulnerable to disease.

From the Centre for Disease Control in the US (CDC), their population-based research suggests nearly a third of people are at risk of nutritional deficiencies. Publishing in the esteemed Journal of Nutrition, the authors tell us:

“Based on representative data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), the US Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion classified vitamins A, C, D, E, and folate, calcium, and magnesium as “nutrients of concern” that may pose a substantial public health concern in the general US population.”

Many subgroups of people are at risk of nutrient deficiencies. The following list cites more robust studies than the data used in the NHANES study, which relied on retrospective food frequency questionnaires.

• Infants and toddlers
• Children
• Adolescents
• Women in their 20's
• Pregnant and lactating women
• Obese individuals
• Older adults

Who’s left? Some remaining groups tend not to be tested for nutrient deficiencies, and so specific data doesn’t exist. But if the NHANES projections are to be taken seriously, maybe more experimental research is needed. Nutrient deficiencies can manifest in a staggering array of symptoms which, according to research published in the Lancet, can easily be overlooked by healthcare professionals with a lack of nutrition training.

Counting Calories obscures the most important reason to eat; to obtain nutrients that nourish our cells.

The proof is in the pudding

In the four decades since calorie counting became a popular, supposedly scientific method for controlling our body fat, people have ballooned. Overweight and obesity have reached epidemic proportions. Obesity-related diseases threaten our health services and shorten lives. The human race needs to slim down urgently but the current advice to count Calories is failing.

Junk foods have supplanted real, nourishing foods. Snacking is now the preferred way of eating by many. The junk food industry churns out engineered-to-be-addictive-foods and loves to remind us that we should be counting Calories and moving more to manage obesity. Despite the truth within this, low-calorie diets don’t work in the longterm. If they did, most of the world would not be classified as overweight, a problem that started when this advice went mainstream.

Calories are a human construct but have become the major focus for many people seeking health. Accurate counting of them, in and out, is impossible, so aiming off (going very low to be on the safe side) allows people to succeed, for a while. The reduced amount of food lowers total energy which causes weight loss, but makes deficiencies worse, leading to binge eating.

Counting Calories obscures the most important reason to eat; to obtain nutrients that nourish our cells. Nutrients are required to run organs, the immune system and everything else. A serious lack, developed over years for many, means disease.

Focus on real, nutrient-dense foods that make you feel satisfied, and provide you with a rich array of nutrients to help you stay healthy. Aim to nourish yourself with two or three real food meals per day and see if you need to guess at your Calories in and out, after all.