Calories counting - yay or nay?

If you are thinking about taking your eating routine on the next level, you might consider calorie counting.

For typical person, chosing heathier food alternatives and beginning a training is enough and result in loosing weight. But later on eating clean and training out might not be so effective (it happens around 3 month after doing new training routine) . You can eat clean and healthy, but you still can have those few kilos of fat to lose. 
Whether healthy or not, food contains calories, and once our daily food intake is bigger than what we burn, we will gain weight.

To be honest, I am not a fan of countin calories. It is time consuming and pretty bad for your mindset., however I see many benefits of using this method. I will try to sum up all prons and cons to give you better perception.

Calories counting - prons:

+ you will be surprise how many calories has so little things, normally we are overestimating how much we consuming during the day

+ give you the overview of macros: how many protein, carbohydrates and fats are you consuming (it is not about number of calories, it is crucial from which source they comming from) 

+ manage your weight by adjusting your calories intake

+ shows you how many mindless calories you are consuming between meals (60kcal from those few peanuts, 20 calories from leftovers and so on - believie me, those 100 calories may do the difference)

 

Calories countin - cons:

- you will be trigger to choose 'lighter' options in order to 'spare' calories, but not always less calories is better for you (a perfect example is milk - 0% milk is a totaly artificial product, it is always better to choose 1,5-2% fat milk which is more natural and due to fat  also helps all the vitamins to be digest properly)

- messy with head - it provoke to be harsh on you once you eat something 'bad' 

- provoke to compulsive training in order to burn additional calories (ok, you will maybe burn more by running 10km than having a gym session, but your afterburn calories ratio will be higher after a long time after  gym workout than cardio one)

see how many calories contains such a big piece of fruit, comparing to tiny portion of fatty product

So what to do when there is so many disadvanteges of calories counting?

I can advise you the same, I am doing - cycling counting. Be aware of negative sides of it and you is only for your own good, treating it more like a doing research (in order to find how good is your diet) than restriction.

It works for me: once I see that I gain weight (or just once for 3 months), I am having a one week of calories counting. 

This helps me to control my portions again (we tend to having out portions bigger and bigger, not even realising it to you) and see how is my ratio between carbs, proteins and fats.

For instance, after checing my calories consumption for previous days, I noticed that I eat way to much protein and to little carbs. Of course, I love proteins and there are many advantages from consuming them, but carbs are also important, especially when you are very active. So know I know, that I have to master this part of my diet.  

How many calories you should be eating?

In order to check your daily calories needs you can use this formula.

This one is even more advanced and let you check how many calories you should be eating per each meal.

There are many other calories calculators using different types of formulas, but the basic rule is to use those which including your weekely activities, gender, weight and height.

Calories management

With the number you achieve, you will know how many calories your body are burning each day. In oder to lose weight, cut 200 calories (it is better to cut a little, than your body will respond properly, once you cut to much, body will go into 'survival mode' and slower your metabolism) One important thing - no one should be consming less then 1200 a day! 

In order to gain weight, again, add 200 calories.

To maintain your weight, eat the same as yu are burning.

Counting tools

For years I was using polish program (in Excel) called: Dziennik Posilkow Vitalmax.

But times had changed, and there are currently more advanced calories calculators for smartphones. Personally, I am a fan of My Fitness Pal. 

It is a free app with huge base of products. It has even an option of scanning barcodes of products and finding them for you.

The only disadvantege is that you cannot change ratio of protiens, carbs and fats (you have only one which is reccomended by producers) and that the number of calories they suggesting to eat during day is quite low (that is why it is always better to re-check it with calculators I've mentioned above).

many of calories are hidden in your beverages - sometimes just little adjustments can help you reduce your calories intake for 100 or 200 calories!

For beginners

 
Every time I start to train with customer who is very new to training, healthy eating and, generally, fitness, I advise them to make food journal exercise. It is about writing e in a notebook everything (no cheating!) what they have eaten during the day or two. With portion size and hour. You can apply it to yourself.This easy exercise can easily show your eating routine and helps to define your diet's weak points.

You can also read more about food journal in my previous post.