food-journal

Should You Count Calories?

You’ve seen the statistics. Americans are more overweight than ever and the trend is expected to continue. The lifespan of our children will likely be shorter than ours for the first time in the history of mankind, due to chronic diseases related to obesity. In this day and age, weight loss doesn’t happen by accident, but weight gain does. Why? Consider the following:

  • The majority of Americans do not get the minimum physical activity needed
  • The average American takes approximately 3,000-5,000 steps per day, which means they’re sitting most of the day
  • Portion sizes are significantly larger than before
  • Food is available in endless quantities, anytime of day, and high-calorie foods are often cheaper

The bottom line is our environment encourages sitting and eating 24/7. Sitting while commuting to work, sitting at a desk to make a living, sitting for entertainment (phones, movies, video games, TV), and of course sitting while eating. To make matters worse, humans are programmed to eat and take the path of least resistance — a survival mechanism that helped our hunting and gathering ancestors survive, but is now killing us. Literally.

Here are more facts to ponder:

  • 1 out of 10 people do not know how many calories they need to maintain their weight
  • Most people think they eat less than they actually do (20-50 percent less on average)

Translation — we’re not very good at consuming the right amount of food and beverages to maintain a healthy body weight.

If you want to change something, like your clothing size, body fat percentage, or the number on the scale, the first step is to become aware of your body’s needs and the choices you’re making. In other words, awareness opens the door to change. Otherwise, you’re clueless and you don’t even know it. You end up becoming a victim of creeping obesity — that 1-3 pounds the average American gains during adulthood because they’re not paying attention.

Perhaps you are paying attention, maybe even counting calories, and you’re wondering, is it worth it? Here’s what the research shows:

  • People who track what they eat at least 5 days a week lose twice as much weight as those who don’t
  • People who track what they eat regularly maintain weight loss better
  • People who use a body sensing device that tracks activity and calories burned lose 2-3 times more weight than those who don’t

This makes sense. After all, how do you manage something, whether it’s your checkbook, your blood pressure or your waistline, if you’re not tracking it? Well…you don’t. You end up with bounced checks, uncontrolled blood pressure and having to buy bigger clothes.

What you don’t know does hurt you. Especially when it comes to your health.

When you pay attention and discover that your morning coffee drink and muffin is nearly 1,000 calories AND you know your body burns about 1,800 calories a day, you are empowered to make a smarter choice. When you use measuring tools to find out that your morning bowl of cereal is five times more than it should be, you can make an adjustment. When you read the nutritional guide in a restaurant and see your favorite salad is over 1,200 calories, you can choose something else.

Counting every single calorie to the point of obsession is probably not healthy, as most obsessions aren’t, but getting and staying informed about your body, your activity level and your food choices is 100 percent empowering. In my opinion, tracking is not a chore but a choice. A choice to pay attention and stay in control of my body and my health.

Do you count calories or keep a food log? Do you know how many calories you eat in a day? Let us know in the comment box below.

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File under: In the News

Contributor

Kat Barefield

Kat has 15 years of experience in the health and fitness industry. As the lead registered dietitian for dotFIT, LLC she develops learning tools such as nutrition and online weight control programs and services, consumer articles, continuing education courses, demos and interactive tutorials. Kat’s personal mission is to empower individuals to realize their inner greatness through education, fitness and wellness.

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Comments

  1. Linda Hamilton

    at the advice of a a friend and trainer I joined Dotfit about 3 or so years ago-after having 4 kids in 6 yrs and gaining some weight I was in need of a program that would work to lost the weight and keep it off-Fad “diets” just didnt work for me-when I first started the Dotfit program I only used the online program, not the exerspy band-it did not matter-once I gave the program some basic information, it set up a journal with the amount of calories I need to eat and burn in order to lose weight-BINGO it worked wonders-in 6 months with counting calories I was able to go from 170lbs to 140lbs-in addition to calorie counting I was doing some running/walking/jogging and light weights 3 days a week-nothing major-I was able to keep the 30lbs off for over a year-I had some personal things spring up and went off the journaling and and working out-I gained about 10 or so pounds back-I regrouped and started the journaling again and within the first week i was back on track-it has been 3 weeks since I restarted and I am beyond happy with my progress.

    What I like about calorie counting is it is not a “diet”, you can eat whatever you want as long as you start within your target calories-you never feel frustrated cause you cant have something-For some it might seem like a lot of journal or calculate all the calories you are eating-It really isn’t and once you get in the habit of doing it and is no big deal.

    July 20th, 2012, 2:21 pm
  2. Trudy

    I counted calories within this website for a year. I did lose bout 17 pounds. During that time I increased my physical activity to riding my bike about 60 miles a week, doing weight resistence training for an hour, two times a week and doing the elyptical and hydro pilates 2 times a week. Now during the 2nd year, I have kept up the exercise – or increased it more but find that my weight has increased whether I log or not. When I log it, I am about 150 calories more than what I used to log but I am exercising so much more and feel I need it to keep up.

    July 21st, 2012, 4:46 pm
  3. Sammye

    Counting Calories?? NEVER, I thought. After being a habitual WW repeat offender on and off over the years with the point system, I refused to go back to ‘counting calories’.. It seemed SO OLD FASHIONED… Well, guess what? The end result is CALORIES COUNT! I had been struggling with what I thought was my ‘estrogen pool’ because I had picked up weight and it all seemed to settle around my waist, and a little here and there to keep things rounded out. I had struggled to go back to the new WW system and no doubt it is a great tool, but the new system didn’t seem to do that much for me. I had prided myself in staying in pretty good shape for being over 55. Well, about the time I decided there was nothing I could do but watch the scale slowly go up, I started using the app MyFitnessPal and started counting calories. It has changed my life. I have dropped almost 10 pounds over the last four weeks, just by watching my calories. I had minor back surgery two months ago so my activity has not gotten back to normal so just watching my calories has been the trick. I even have my husband using the MyFitnessPal tool and he’s lost about 10 pounds over the last two weeks also. Gosh, did we really overeat that much? Apparently so, and using this tool has helped both of us to ‘do this together’ and to journal your food in a much more fun way than with pencil & paper. So yes, calories do matter! It’s the original plan for weight loss before all of the thousands of weight lost programs that have come and gone, so the end result is “YOU HAVE TO COUNT CALORIES”…

    August 25th, 2012, 7:07 am

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