I want to tell you a story about my friend, Anna, who used to be obsessed with calorie counting.
She would constantly think about how many calories she had eaten so far each day, how many she had left, and how many she should be eating.
Anna was preoccupied with the numbers.
Calories. Her weight. Her body fat percentage.
All that analysis disconnected her from her natural ability to notice her hunger and fullness signals, and nourish her body with the foods that were best for her.
Eventually, she developed an eating disorder.
Obviously, calorie counting didn’t work well for Anna.
At the same time, most people agree that calories matter to some extent, and some say that calorie counting is an important part of health and weight maintenance.
Is calorie counting actually important?
Here’s the thing: Calories alone do not have much meaning.
Are they calories from kale, or commercial cookies?
The body absorbs whole foods very differently than processed foods.
When it comes to food, it’s all about quality over quantity.
Counting calories can also trigger an unhealthy obsession that could hurt your relationship with food and your body.
Those who have a personal or family history of eating disorders may need to skip calorie counting altogether.
Further, it’s hard to know how many calories you actually need.
The number can vary a lot, depending on your height, weight, metabolism, activity level, and more nuanced factors science doesn’t even understand yet.
If calorie counting isn’t effective, what is an effective method for health and weight maintenance?
A study from JAMA showed that overweight people who reduced sugar, refined grains, and processed foods in favor of whole foods lost weight within a year.
They did not worry about counting calories or sticking to certain portion sizes.
While having a basic understanding of calories can be a helpful foundation when you’re first learning about nutrition, once you understand the basic energetic value of everyday foods, you don’t need to continue counting calories.
Emphasizing whole foods and listening to your hunger and fullness signals will be more supportive than counting calories.
If you need more accountability, it can also be helpful to write down your meals in a food journal, and take note of how you feel before and after each meal.
This will naturally increase your awareness of how food affects you, and strengthen your connection with your hunger and fullness signals.
You’ll learn a lot about which foods work best for you, when you have that data spelled out in front of you.
Rather than wondering, it will be very clear which foods make you feel great, and which ones make you feel tired or sick.
Whether you’re on a personal nutrition journey or you want to guide your clients to develop a healthy relationship with food, focusing on whole foods over calories is our recommendation.
While food is a piece of the puzzle when it comes to stellar health, bioenergetics goes beyond the limits of food and lifestyle, and restores your energy at the cellular level.
I used to think that eating the right foods in the right quantities for my body would make me healthy.
That approach ultimately failed me.
When I was bedridden with chronic fatigue syndrome for nearly a decade, there was no amount of kale or broccoli that could bring me back to life.
I had to go beyond biochemistry – nutrition, medication, and even supplements – and reclaim my energy from the inside out.
Bioenergetics is what allowed me to do that.
Your energy is your birthright, and if it’s lacking, I want you to have the opportunity to restore it.
If you’re inspired to help other people reclaim their energy too, Bioenergetic Health Coaching may be the path for you.
Curious about Bioenergetic Health Coaching?
Team NES would love to speak with you.
Call us at (888) 205-3930, or simply respond “interested” to this email.
Our regular business hours are 9am – 5pm ET M-F, and if we miss you we’ll be sure to call you back.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Cheers,
Harry Massey
Founder, NES Health