Calories: Obsession, denial, and reality
by Leigh Peele
I was linked to a post over at Precision Nutrition forums about the dangers of calorie counting. I find the irony that a large (a quick review and tally of my intro reports lead to 67%) amount of my online clients used PN prior to coming to me. All of them found themselves stuck not losing the weight. For the record, ALL of them lost fat after using my programs versus PN.
Now, I am not knocking PN really. I don’t agree with all of it, and think it promotes nutrition claims not based on research sometimes. However, it sure beats the heck out of most of Oprah’s latest picks. Should that matter? I am still debating that in my mind. Everyday I ask myself, is a little wrong okay for a lot of right? Where is the line drawn and how can you define it? I don’t know yet.
To discuss the issue of caloric counting however, my line is just as blurry on the overall grand scheme, but very clear for the immediate action that needs to take place. I am not blind to the psychology of people, and I see the room for various answers to various problems. Still…
Let me provide you with a common story. By common, I mean the reason why I wrote the Fat Loss Troubleshoot in the first place.
Hi Leigh,
My name is (your name here). I have been following the PN program for about 6 months now and while I am eating healthier and I have gotten better at understand nutrition I haven’t lost any fat. If anything I have gained in pants size and I seem to appear larger in certain areas. I don’t understand what I am doing wrong. I follow the guidelines to the letter of PN, but still no budge. I am doing HIIT 3x a week and lifting 4x a week. Thanks for your help!
Anyone who is familiar with my work can already see the problems. She didn’t mention how much she eats, how much she moves, what her specific training is, and HOW MUCH SHE EATS!
Now, I did a quick search on three forums (one being PN) for the amount of people frustrated and not getting anywhere despite following the program. There are also other programs very similar to PN (I am not just ragging on them, but it was them who brought this up, so take the lumps) and the same problems were coming up. It was as if the same person, the person in my question above, was posting over and over again.
The more the programs try to get around or ignore the importance of CORRECT (or as close as possible) caloric deficit achievement, the more the frustration. Even if it has the best of intentions. The more the “tricks” are not explained, the more the problems. This is why extreme programs almost always work because they are really hard to mess up. Everything else becomes long term body recomp. Great if 10lbs overweight, sucks if 100lbs.
Tell me, what kind of person do you create when you take out the reality of a situation and you allow them to live in denial of that reality? Where can that frustration lead you? How about the reason I wrote Metabolic Repair.
This isn’t a hypothetical…
Sarah was 29 years old. She had dieted since she was age twelve. She ate cottage cheese, fruits, veggies, and meats. She ate healthy portions, she ran track, and she loved being outside. She didn’t count her calories, she just tried to “listen to her body” but she could never lose weight. She started to get frustrated with the fact that she was eating so healthy, but never seeing any change and sometimes worse in the mirror and on the scale.
She died in 2008 from overexercising and dehydration. She never counted a calorie.
She journaled “I don’t understand why I can’t lose the weight! I am eating healthy foods and eating healthy portions. I don’t eat out, I never eat bad foods! I am so tired of worrying about this everyday. I think my friends are starting to think I am crazy, but at least I am not on weight watchers!”
She suffered in misery from the frustration of never getting anywhere and things never changing. She read book after book, and program after program. At no point and time did anyone just explain to her what it was all about. All they did was talk about carbs being bad, fat being bad, meat being bad, milk being bad, sugar being bad, and how counting calories was bad.
What if just one person had said to her “Look, eating healthy is great, but if you are eating too much and not moving enough in your daily life losing fat can be next to impossible. Have you ever tracked for a period of time what you intake is, what you daily movement is like, and figured out if that is the right intake for you?” Tracking is about way more than taking a BMR formula test, and removing a starch from a meal if not losing.
People either love or hate this video, but it goes to how you that even with simple measuring cups you can be off by hundreds of calories a day with the BEST of intentions.
Do I wish that we could walk through life “listening” to our body? Actually I think we do, and I think that is exactly what the problem is.
- The best natural suppression of stress based upon sedentary work? Eating, specifically carbs.
- The best natural suppression of stress based up lack of sleep? Eating, specifically carbs and caffeine.
- The best natural suppression of depression and anxiety? Eating, specifically carbs.
- The best natural suppression for making up for lack of social interaction? Eating, specifically carbs.
Guess what folks, we ARE eating intuitively. We ARE fulfilling the needs our bodies feel that have in this new day and age.
Question: How do you think the body is going to react to the same mental stress that comes from less physical output? We were bred for working physically. When you take that away, and you force lack of mobility but raise adrenaline and stress, what do you think happens? You will respond in the exact same manner that you are naturally led to respond.
In a perfect world we would move more, eat as we needed, have great happiness, have great sex, great sleep, express our feelings, love our families, see the world, and die without regret. In that world you would live life and food would be this “thing” that you ate when you needed it.
We don’t live in that world.
Here is a big lesson for you to learn.
The sooner you realize that your life is the direct result of your actions and decisions, both good and bad, the better that life will be. People get depressed and up in arms because they are made aware of calories? GOOD! Take away denial, take away all the bs talk you have at night with yourself on a pillow when you are coming up with all the reasons of why it isn’t your fault.
Do I have dieting strategies for people which don’t involve calories or weighing your food? Yes. However, if you get stuck without the results you are going to get a big fat slap in the face from me. I am going to tell you “Look, I am sorry, but sadly you don’t have the luxury of winging it. You don’t have the luxury of the tricks, tips, and toys of fat loss that ignore what it is all about in the first place, a deficit. When you get done and you lose the weight I have some great tricks for how to never count a calories again, but until then, until you come to me and say, “I’m done” the last thing I am going to let you do is be in denial and lie to yourself. That is how I get the job done.
Word to the wise, if you are fat loss client for a year, not a regular training client, but a fat loss client for more than a year (unless morbidly obese), then they aren’t doing their job, period. If you have been trying to lose fat that long, pack it up. Pack your old ways up and do what you KNOW works. The gurus can fight with me all they want, but my method always works if you follow exactly what I say (unless ill, which is rare).
The studies in weight loss that are BS, are the ones that never track intake. All studies that have tracked intake in a ward setting, weight is lost, period. No, understand EVERYTIME. I got my no fail system locked down, do you?
Last time I looked we weren’t dying off from illness because of knowing, last time I looked what is killing us is fear and denial. Why do we have adds about the negative effects of smoking and the truth of what it does to you? That is my counting calories.
Why was one of the most popular articles to date of Men’s Health magazine’s the 20 worst foods in America? It hit chain emails world wide with people in shock and awe. At least 3 of those products are no longer available and menus were replaced with healthier item choices. My point is that a lot of good things can come from reality and truth. Sure you have to deal with the bad, but such is life.
The take home point?
I understand counting calories isn’t for everyone, but most of the time at least for a short stint I find it to be a necessary evil. It can mean the difference between living in denial, living in frustration, and living in reality.
I think this industry needs more reality, not to ignore it.
–
To find out more about Leigh Peele or the book The Fat Loss Troubleshoot, visit http://www.fatlosstroubleshoot.com
Comments
Trackbacks