5 Issues with Calorie Counting You Need to Know About
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I have a question for you...
When you’re at the grocery store popping things into your cart, do you turn the box or bag or package over to the nutritional facts, look at the calories per serving ONLY and then decide whether or not to toss it into your cart?
Do you add up the number of calories you eat a day without paying attention to the amount of protein, fat, and carbs you eat?
Is it your goal to eat as few calories a day? And do you think that eating less will help you finally reach your goals?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, sister, I have news for you.
Counting calories and calories only are extremely flawed and will not help you reach ANY sort of goal you have. And honestly, it will end up doing way more harm than good.
And in this episode of the Embrace Your Real podcast, I’m going to explain to you WHY. I actually have five things in particular that I want to share with you that explain why calorie counting is not the solution for reaching your body goals.
P.S: If you want to play around with macro counting, but aren’t sure if you 100% want to commit yet, I have a free macro counting ebook that helps you calculate your starting macros.
I would LOVE to challenge you to download this ebook and try macro counting for AT LEAST 1-2 weeks and see how you feel. Maybe its even just counting your macros for breakfast and lunch for 1-2 weeks, that’s okay.
If you trying to change your body composition and are struggling, then please, please, please, take me up on this challenge. You will see results in just those 1-2 weeks.
You can get this free ebook by heading over to juliealedbetter.com/free-ebook.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Hey there beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter, a podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I dish you a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get it, let's go.
I have a question for you. When you're at the grocery store popping things into your cart, do you ever turn the box bag or package over and look at the nutritional facts and look at the calories per serving, and then only then decide whether or not to toss that into your cart? Or do you add up the amount of calories that you eat within a day without paying attention to the amount of protein, carbs, and fat?
Or maybe you were like me for a decade of my life. Was it your goal or is it your goal to eat as few calories a day, and thinking that eating less will actually help you finally reach your goals? If you answered yes to any these questions, I have news for you. Counting calories and calories only is extremely flawed, and it will not help you reach any sort of goal that you have.
Honestly, it will likely end up only doing way more harm than good. And so in this episode of Embrace Your Real, I'm going to explain why I actually have five things in particular that I want to share with you that explains why calorie counting is not the solution for reaching your body goals. But before I do, I wanted to share this super sweet review. It comes from Lovely [Lijah 00:01:33]. She gave a five star view and says amazing outlooks. This podcast is so great. Julie has a super sensitive way of explaining how you can change things in your life for the better. I'm an elementary school teacher who has not been really able to take care of myself the way that I need to, which leads to negative body image for me. Episode 190 really spoke to me. It actually had me crying on my way to work and the way that she explained how many things our bodies do for us.
I highly recommend listening to this podcast every day. I love this so much. First of all, you are amazing. The impact that you're having as an elementary teacher, I can tell you, I still remember some of my favorite elementary teachers. In fact, I still have them as friends on Facebook today. And I am just so appreciative of all the work that you do day in and day out, teaching our kids. So thank you so much for this review. I appreciate every single one of your guys' reviews.
If you haven't already left a rating and review, all you have to do is type in Embrace Your Real to the podcast app on any Apple device, and you can click that rating and review. It really does just help us out reach the message and spread the message of Embracing Your Real to more women. Okay, so let's dive into the five reasons why I highly suggest not only calorie counting.
Number one, not all calories are created equal. So with the calorie counting approach, you can get your calories from anything. You're not necessarily aware of the nutritional composition of the calories that you're eating. So those calories may be coming from foods that are 100% carbohydrates and zero protein. It doesn't matter. As long as you hit your calorie goal, then you're good. While I do believe a calorie is a calorie, whether you're eating 200 calories of protein from chicken or a protein shake, but I do not believe that all calories are created equal in terms of your overall diet.
Simply eating or hitting 1800 or 2000 calories or whatever your calorie goal is with zero regards to the actual macronutrients that you're eating is not the same thing as hitting your calorie goal and your macro goal. Sure, calorie wise, they're the same, but macronutrient wise, they're very, very different. Your body needs calories for energy, yes, but it also needs the right amount of macronutrients, AKA protein, carbs, and fats. Which means only looking at calories in a number based way, excludes a major piece of what contributes to your over all results.
So eating 1800 calories of a very carb heavy diet AKA like 80% of the 1800 calories coming from carbs, is going to bring you very different results than eating 1800 calories of the right amount of protein, carbs, and fats for your body and your goals. With calorie counting, you could eat 1800 calories with 70% of that being from carbohydrates. Whereas maybe your body only needs 30% or 35% of your caloric intake coming from carbs. There's a big, big difference. Calorie counting doesn't take those things into consideration. So you'll be putting in a lot of work to make sure you count your calories and hit your calorie goal, but the work you're putting in honestly really doesn't matter. It's not going to bring you the results that you want.
Number two, this leads to you having a very unhealthy relationship with food. You cannot reach long-term success with your body if you have an unhealthy relationship with food. Let me say that again, you cannot reach long-term success with your body if you have an unhealthy relationship with food. Toxic habits lead to short-term results and yo-yo dieting.
Number three, is your calorie target even accurate? To carry on with talking about low calorie when people are calorie counting, they most likely aren't trying to hit the caloric intake that they actually need. Instead, they're trying to eat as little as possible. No one is exclusively calorie counting and trying to hit 2,200 calories a day. No, they're calorie counting and trying to eat 1200 calories a day. And there are honestly some serious issues with this. Number one, you'll see the results at first, but then your body will adjust to the amount of calories you are giving it, and it will stop seeing results. You'll have to cut more calories to see results again, and then the cycle will just continue. This is not healthy or sustainable.
Number two, this kills your metabolism. You want to fuel your body to ensure your metabolism works with you, not against you. And this tactic alone is ensuring that your metabolism slows way down and you're making things way harder than they need to be. Number three, since now you've killed your metabolism, when you start to eat more, you'll gain weight very quickly.
And number four, being in a caloric deficit for too long can create some serious hormonal issues that cause things like loss of period, acne, and even weight gain, which is the opposite of what you are trying to achieve in the first place. I chat about this in particular a lot in depth in one of the OG episodes, episode 18, what happens when you don't eat enough? I will link that in the show notes so that you can easily go listen.
So going back to what I said, is your caloric intake even accurate? When people are calorie counting, they typically just pull a number out of thin air and decide that is the number that they need to hit daily. But why? Why is that the number? Is that the actual amount of calories that your body needs? The fact of the matter is you will not see results unless you are giving your body the amount of calories that it actually needs. Anything less for an extended period of time will only kill your metabolism and mess up your hormones.
Plus, did you know that on average, women need at least 1400 calories a day to healthfully exist? Seriously. So if you are laying on the couch all day long and you did not move a single muscle one time, your body will likely burn around 1400 calories on its own, just for basic functioning. Your body needs at least 1400 calories a day to carry out its basic functioning. So then add in your daily movement, not even considering workouts, our body needs way more than 1400 calories.
So if you're giving your body anything less, you're likely going to be shutting down your body, because it isn't having the energy that it needs to function properly. And for women who have lots of muscle, that number is going to be a lot higher than 1400 calories. Your body might even need 16 or 1700 calories alone to just healthfully exist. Number four, you will won't change your body composition. Now, calorie counting does not set you up for success in terms of reaching your fitness goals. If you want to have a more toned body, calorie counting exclusively is likely not going to do it for you. Sure, you may lose some fat because you're burning more calories than you're eating, AKA you're eating in a caloric deficit, but you won't build my muscle.
And it's actually muscle that leads to changing your body composition. You won't look toned if you don't have muscle, it's that simple. In order to build muscle, you need to eat the right amount of calories, which you can actually not be in a caloric deficit. In order to build muscle, you not only need to be eating the right amount of calories, which news flash, you should not and cannot be in a caloric deficit to effectively build muscle. You need the right amount of protein, carbs, and fats.
And out of that, the most important of that is hitting your protein goal since protein is the building block of muscle. So without eating enough protein, your body composition will not change, plain and simple. Again, you may lose fat, but it isn't changing your overall body composition. Changing your body composition is done through building muscle only.
Number five, not having eating and lifestyle habits that support your individual needs. So calorie counting alone does not take your individual needs into consideration. Based on your activity level, your goals, your current body weight, you need a different amount of protein, carbs, fats, and calories. And here's the thing, you may find your sweet spot with calories, but then you realize that altering your carb intake by even 20 grams could make a huge difference, or upping your protein by 50 grams or whatever it is. It may be the tweaks of the macronutrients that actually ignite the change that you want to see, not in the calorie intake itself.
And again, calorie counting will never put any of that into consideration, because when you're strictly calorie counting, you are not at all aware of protein, fat, and carbs that you are consuming. You're just strictly focused on the calorie count. This is why I am a firm believer and always recommend macro counting. It ensures that you are eating exactly what your body needs. You are no longer in too low of a caloric deficit. You aren't skimping on protein. You aren't overdoing it on carbs and you are eating exactly what your body needs to reach your goals. It's a beautiful thing. And when you learn to macro count, you actually learn how it actually feels, the energy that you have and what it feels like to be properly nourishing your body.
And that's in turn, teaching yourself. And eventually, the longer that you do macro counting and the more that you utilize that tool to teach yourself, you can eventually go into mindful and even intuitive eating properly, because you have learned the hunger cues. You have learned how to properly feel your body. You've learned what it feels like. And it's amazing. And that's why I love the tool of macro counting so much.
The goal isn't to macro count for the rest of your life. For some people, they might love doing that. But for the majority of people, utilizing the tool of macro counting to get them to a place where they can then mindfully and intuitively eat, that is ultimately what's going to allow them to actually know what it feels like to properly nourish their body. If you want to learn more about macro counting, but you are just unsure where to start, you can download my free macro counting ebook. I have that in the link in the show notes, or you can go to juliealedbettter.com/free-ebook. Again, that's juliealedbetter.com/ebook. I would love though, to challenge you to download this ebook and just give macro counting a try, even for one to two weeks to see how you feel.
And even if that is you starting with trying to hit your overall protein. So looking at the overall protein goal that you have, and then looking at your overall calorie goal, because at least you are prioritizing protein. And like I said, especially if you want to change your body composition, you have to be focusing on eating enough protein, and then secondary looking at the overall calorie goal.
So having those carbs and fats, the calories coming from them interchanging, but I'm telling you, if you even give this one to two weeks, you will see results, plain and simple. You will see that you have more energy. You will be amazed at the results that you're getting from your workouts, how your body is basically function throughout the day. And especially if you prioritize your water intake along with eating enough, that's where you're going to see the ultimate results.
So if you want to learn more about macro counting, again, you can go to juliealedbetter.com/free-ebook. And I will link that in the show notes. And then the other episode that I mentioned in this episode is episode 18, what happens when you don't eat enough, be sure to go tune into that. You likely haven't heard that in a while, especially if you're an OG listener, that came out about two years ago now. So you're definitely going to want to tune in to that episode, because that gives ton more information on this topic.
But overall you guys, I am just not a believer that calorie counting alone is what you need to do. You have to learn how to properly fuel your body. And the best way to do that is through macro counting. So let me recap those five things for those of you who just like the SparkNotes version of the episode. Number one, not all calories are created equal. 1800 calories of eating whatever macronutrient is going to bring you way different results than eating 1800 calories of the proper amount of macronutrients that you actually need.
Number two, it triggers you to focus way more on low calorie foods, rather than the foods that contain the macronutrients that your body actually needs. Number three, your calorie goal probably isn't even accurate, and it's causing more harm than good. Number four, you likely won't change your body composition cutting calories alone, won't do it. You need the proper amount of protein, carbs, and fats in order to do that. And number five, not having eating and lifestyle habits that support your individual needs.
Calorie counting does not take what your body needs into consideration. So I hope that this gave you some insight. I know for me for years, I thought calorie counting was the way to do it. And it wasn't until I learned about the tool of macro counting. And again, I will say this I've said it before, and I'll say it again, macro counting is not a diet, macro counting is simply a tool to help you learn how to properly fuel your body.
So if you have a friend or a coworker or someone in your life that you feel like would really benefit from this, maybe they just shared with you that they're starting to calorie count, or you've had conversations before. And maybe they've been talking about how they love calorie counting, or how they're having issues with calorie counting, send them this episode and just say, "Hey, I heard this episode and I would love to hear your thoughts," and maybe it will inform them that calorie counting alone is not truly the way to go.
So again, thank you so much for tuning in. I hope that you found this helpful. I would love to hear it. So be sure to screenshot that and post it up on your story, be sure to tag Embrace Your Real. We love connecting with you guys over there. Again, if you haven't already or haven't tuned in a while, be sure to tune into episode 18, what happens when you don't eat enough?
I will go ahead and link that in the show notes, as well as download that free 40 plus page ebook that will literally teach you step by step how to calculate your macros. And also shares why I am a firm believer in macro counting and just educate you more, because I know that the internet can be super overwhelming. It can feel very confusing. And so my goal with this free ebook and the daily emails for the week will break it down into a very basic, simple, but comprehensive way so that you can understand how to start implementing macro counting into your life, and not lose your social life, and not feel like you are restricting your food.
So there you have it. Again, I hope that this helps. I love you so much and I'll talk to you in the next episode. All right, sister, that's all I got for you today, but I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so. Julie A. Ledbetter. Yes, it's with an A in the middle, for that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks, and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check.
The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcast to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me, it means the absolute world. And I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface, so go out there and embrace your real, because you're worth it.