Should I Count Calories?
By
Ron Lagerquist

In denial about your eating? Calorie counting is the kiss of death to denial!

During the last twenty years of educating about healthy living, I have often be asked how many calories are in a particular fruit or veggie juice, and my response is always: When you eat healthily, you don’t have to count calories. I held onto that lofty ideal for years until, for my 49^th birthday, I decided to give myself the perfect gift to ward off those midlife crisis blues. On the morning of my birthday, I planned to jump out of bed, stand in front of the mirror and unwrap my perfectly defined abs while singing Happy Birthday to Me. I already had a disciplined diet, which included regular exercise and body building. All I had to do was lose 8 to 10 pounds to unveil the real ab within.  Easy. Nothing to it. Increase running and decrease a few carbs. After five weeks of what I thought was low-calorie eating, I jumped out of bed on the morning of my birthday and, sure enough, staring back at me was a 49-year-old man with a flabby belly. I had not lost a single pound.

So, instead of abs, my birthday gift was, for the first time in my life, to count the calories I ate every day for one week without making any changes to my eating habits. The results were quick and clear. For someone who prides himself on living a life of meticulous discipline, I was in denial about how much food was being deposited into my belly every day. 

Denial Killer: It’s All In The Math
Calorie counting is perfect medicine to cure denial. It demystifies weight loss, stripping it down to an unromantic mathematical equation of plus and minus. Plus is daily calories eaten. Minus is daily calories burned. It’s that simple—and that hard, because the answer forces us to face the reality of our own self-deception.

The Hard Numbers

• One pound of body fat equals 3,500 calories.
   

• A 168-pound man with moderate activity burns 2,200 calories daily.
   

• Reducing your daily intake to 1,800 calories means you will lose 400 calories worth of fat per day.
   

• Burning 400 calories more than you eat each day means you will lose less than one pound of body fat a week.

Less than four pounds of fat a month is the unromantic truth. To have seen my teenage abs in five weeks, I would have had to eat 875 calories fewer than I burned, meaning a dramatic decrease in caloric intake or a dramatic increase in aerobic output.

Have you ever heard someone say, “No matter what I do I cannot lose weight”? They shrug and sigh while quoting some study they read that states that because of genetics, some people find it harder to lose weight. Of course, this only reinforces the feeling of powerlessness over their growing tummy. The good news is the majority of your inability to lose weight is denial, not genetics, and you can do something about denial. If you say that no matter what you do, you cannot seem to lose weight, it means you are not being honest with yourself about how much you are eating. This makes you a perfect candidate for a week of joyous calorie counting.

If you accurately record, without cheating, every calorie that enters your body, including those nightly drinks, you will be amazed at how many calories you consume in a day. It will quickly become apparent why you just can’t seem to lose weight no matter what you do. Facing denial is the first big step toward taking charge of your fitness.

Counting Calories Establishes Healthy Expectations
You have likely heard the old saying, A watched kettle never boils. It also can be said that A watched belly never disappears. If you buy into the supermarket tabloid’s front-page promise of Lose 10 Pounds in 10 Days, then a week of starvation and no difference in the bathroom mirror can be enough to discourage anyone from dieting. That is where I have made my biggest mistake. After two or three days of disciplined eating, I feel as though I have really done something but, the fact is, if I have eaten only 500 calories fewer than I burned over a three-day period, that equals 1500 calories. There are 3500 calories in a pound of body fat, so you can do the math. I have lost less than half a pound—nothing to get too excited about, and it certainly does not warrant a reward of a 1500–calorie extravaganza at Chubby Chicken.

One week of counting calories will readjust weight loss expectations and will greatly reduce discouragement. False expectations and discouragement will quickly kill any diet program.

Getting Set Up
Ok, so let’s put together your Anti-Denial Tool Kit. The first thing you are going to need is a healthy measurement of commitment. It is going to take a little time and effort to weigh or measure all your food each day. To commitment, add a dash of courage. I was surprised at how much courage it took to quantify into calories every bite or gulp I swallowed. This is partly because I was also measuring my compulsiveness. If you have a compulsive nature, it’s easy to eat without any thought. A bite here, two bites there... but, once measured, there it is on paper.

You will also need measuring cups, teaspoons, tablespoons, and a food scale. All can be purchased at the local dollar store. The best free website I have found for calculating the calories in just about every food on the planet, including prepared and fast food, is http://nutritiondata.self.com/. If you want to calculate calories burned during a given exercise, here is the website I use: www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc

Last, you will need a notepad. Write down everything you have eaten for that day. Other than air and water, if it goes in the mouth, write it down. Don’t cheat! Do this for one full week; this way, it will include your weekday and weekend eating habits. Try to act normal and eat the way you always do, getting an accurate reading on what you are consuming, which will go a long way in answering the question of why you have not been able to meet your weight loss goals. 

Concluding With Some Good News
Once you have measured the calories in food, you will never again look at what you eat in the same way. Knowing that a generous plate of Poutine (a popular French-Canadian treat consisting of fries, melted cheese curds, and gravy) equals over 1,300 calories, and a McDonalds Double Quarter Pounder Supersize Combo equals a crazy 1,620 calories, you might think twice before inhaling. Knowing what you are ingesting will help create new eating habits, resulting in not just weight loss, but in better health. Once a healthy habit has been created, it will work for you.

If you’re like me and eat the same foods every day, a week of calorie counting should be enough to provide a good idea of what you will need to do to get your perfect body. I have memorized the calorie content of just about everything I eat. If you care about your weight and health, ignorance is not bliss.

Best of all, keeping the weight off is much easier than losing weight. Again, this all boils down to the math. If you have been eating 600 calories fewer than you are burning a day, once you reach your desired weight (if you continue exercising), you get to eat an extra 600 calories a day and maintain your great new body. Now that you know how many calories are in what you eat, keeping the weight off will be easier. No more excuses. No more denial. Remember, denial is fattening!