A calorie is a measure of energy. Your body needs a certain amount of energy (calories) to do its jobs for the day.
Your metabolism is the rate at which your body uses the calories you eat, and it can change based on how much energy is available (i.e. how much you eat), how healthy your thyroid gland is and tons of other factors.
Looking at and tracking calories is a great way to get a general idea of how much you’re eating and where you can save on calories. It can be a useful way to learn portion sizes, and to see if your ratio of carbohydrates to proteins to fats is at a good balance.
In theory, losing weight is a very simple process. If you burn more calories than you eat, your body will use up its stores of energy, which are mostly fat. Understanding the basics on how to calculate your calorie requirements and your calorie intake is really helpful for getting on track with weight loss and staying accountable to yourself.
If you’ve ever tried to lose weight, though, I’m sure you know that it’s not usually as simple as that. There are factors in play in addition to this simple calorie equation, and having an understanding of them as well will not only get you better weight loss results, but keep you from feeling frustrated by not achieving your goals.
Basic Calorie Calculations
The first step is to figure out your basal metabolic rate, or BMR. This is the amount of calories that your body would burn while resting, but not sleeping. Once you have calculated your BMR, you need to add on the calories used for daily activities and for exercise. Check out the calorie calculator on my website to easily figure this out.
To track your calorie intake, keep a daily food journal to list everything you eat and drink – not forever, just for a week or even a few days. Make adjustments and then do it again next week or next month. There are lots of great online programs that allow you to plug in your intake and will give you the results, with calories and the ratio of macro nutrients.
Tracking your calories is a great way to get a general idea of how much you’re eating and where you can save on calories. It can be a useful way to learn portion sizes, and see if your ratio of carbohydrates to proteins to fats is in line.
It’s really easy to become obsessed with tracking calories though, so keep in mind that there are some uncontrollable variations in both your intake and output calculation.
Why I Dislike Calories
On the one hand, I don’t like focusing on calories because there are so many variables on both the intake and output side of things.
Variations on the “Calories Out” Side:
Knowing exactly how many calories you burn is nearly impossible since your metabolism is affected by lots of different factors.
Your specific body type, your muscle mass, the foods you eat and the health of your thyroid gland are all major factors that can cause your metabolism to be more or less efficient than average. Exercise and activity calorie burn varies based on your speed and effort, and also on your body type.
Variations on the “Calories In” Side:
Although useful as a guide, calorie intake trackers can never be 100% accurate since all foods have slight variations in size, concentration of nutrients and calories. Measurements can be slightly off if the foods are not liquids, and it can be hard to keep up with measuring and tracking everything.
It’s so easy to get obsessive about calories and measurements, and personally I don’t enjoy measuring my food. I’m very much an eye-baller when I cook.
Looking at food as a certain number of calories also gives a negative connotation to healthy food. If you see that a sweet potato has x calories, you might think to yourself that you could just not eat it and cut out those calories.
But sweet potato is much more than just calories, it gives you so much nourishment – vitamins and minerals, as well as energy your body needs to function.
Why I Use Calories
On the other hand, calories give a guideline for portion sizes. That’s important for people who aren’t sure how much to eat, and it’s easier to stay accountable to an objective quantitative measurement.
It’s also a way for me to estimate how much you should be eating when I set up meal plans, so I can give you amounts to buy at the grocery store and use in your meals. I want to make sure that you have enough to satisfy you, but not so much that you wind up with piles of leftovers.
Think In Terms Of Portion Sizes
An even simpler way to look at reducing your food intake is to think about your portion sizes. To lose weight, increase your portion of vegetables and fruits and decrease your portion of grains, beans, nuts, seeds, and anything else that’s calorie dense.
An easy way to work on serving yourself smaller portions is to use smaller plates and bowls. Taking the time to savor, chew and really enjoy your food helps you feel satisfied. Try eating with chopsticks to encourage smaller and slower bites.
I set up my meal plans showing the portion sizes appropriate for your calorie level, so that you don’t have to think about food in terms of calories. If you’re focusing on weight loss, you can aim for portion sizes that give you 15% less than your maintenance calorie intake to a minimum of 1200 calories.
You shouldn’t eat less than that. Anything more drastic can cause your body to slow its metabolism, and go into a kind of starvation mode that will prevent you from losing weight.
I give the calorie and nutrition info for the recipes and meals in my meal plans for information and comparison, but what I prefer is if you focus on portion sizes instead of the calorie numbers.
There’s just something about calories that changes how we see food – turning it from a plate of brown rice, vegetables and peanut sauce into a number that we maybe feel like we should make smaller.
My Advice?
If you have a tendency to get obsessive, or have had issues with eating disorders in the past, I don’t want you to think about calories or portion sizes, focus on enjoying your food and nourishing your body.
If you’re dealing with a lot of cravings and addictions to processed or junk foods, I don’t want you to think about calories. I’d rather you eat too much healthy food than feel deprived trying to stick to a calorie count, and wind up giving in to a craving.
If you have a good grasp on eating healthy foods and need a guideline on how much to eat to make sure you have enough energy for your day, then look at the portion sizes for your target calorie level.
If you have a tendency to overeat and want to stay accountable to lose some weight, focus on the portion sizes and on consciously enjoying all of your meals and snacks, rather than eating mindlessly.
If you’re underweight, or want to gain weight, make sure you eat enough by following the portion sizes to meet your calorie needs. If you’re hungry, go ahead and eat more.
What If I’m Hungry/Full?
On any given day, you may need fewer or more calories than what the calorie calculator said you should eat daily. Your body doesn’t burn the exact same amount each day, and slight variations can help keep your metabolism reactive rather than stagnant.
It’s not good to be swayed by cravings and such, but if you don’t feel like eating a full 1/2 cup of beans, and prefer 1/3 cup, that’s fine. Similarly, if you find that 1/2 cup isn’t quite enough and you need 2/3 cup then I’d rather you do that than stay hungry and wind up giving in to something not-so-healthy.
If you feel hungry – and I mean actual hunger, not just boredom or emotional hunger – increase your portions slightly on a meal or have an extra snack.
If you feel full, or you just don’t feel hungry for a meal or snack, then you can reduce your portions slightly or skip snacks. Just be sure you’re getting enough nourishment (calories) to maintain yourself.
Overall, I think it’s far more important to stick to eating clean, whole plant foods than worrying about being super strict about exact calorie levels – even if your main goal is to lose weight.
As you get over cravings, you’ll find yourself much more able to tune in and work with the natural flow of your hunger and energy needs. In the long term, being in touch with your body like that will be more accurate than a calorie calculator anyway.
Calorie Density
Calorie density is the amount of calories in a given volume of food. Working with calorie density is one of the key components of being successful on a weight loss plan. Eating foods that are less calorie-dense allows you to keep your stomach full with less calories.
I like to track my food intake for a few days every few months to make sure I’m on track. I used to count the calories, but now I know what portion sizes to aim for so I just look at that instead. It’s actually lots of fun and I learn a lot about my habits, and how different foods impact my mood, digestion, sleep and energy levels.
Why Diets Work Short- But Not Long-Term
When most people go out looking for a diet plan, they’re thinking about losing weight. That’s a great goal, and there are a lot of benefits to being at a healthy weight, but the goal of losing weight is a short term goal. Successful goal setting is about picking not only short term, but also medium- and long- term goals.
Once you get to your target healthy weight, what do you do next? How do you maintain this weight?
This is where most diet plans and programs fail: they don’t give a plan for shifting from a diet for weight loss to a diet for maintaining a healthy body. The basic premise of a weight loss diet is that you are eating less calories than you need for energy in your day.
If the diet plan is successful, it’ll be because you were able to maintain a calorie deficit. Once you get to your target weight, you then have to transition from a calorie deficit to a maintenance level of calories. This sounds basic, but it’s crucial to understand, since it’s the reason people experience the yo-yo effect when dieting.
Their weight comes down dramatically, they’re ecstatic, but they don’t have the tools, the goals and the motivation to transition to a healthy way of eating that maintains their ideal weight. They’re released from the restrictions of the weight loss diet, they go back to old habits, and the weight comes back. If the weight loss diet is too restrictive, it often leads to uncontrollable cravings even before reaching the goal weight, which is demoralizing and often leads people to emotional eating.
When you understand why, these results really aren’t that surprising are they? However most people don’t understand why, and just follow the short term solution. They might follow it once, they might follow it ten times, and if they don’t figure out why it isn’t working the results won’t change, no matter how different the diets might be.