 |
| thebodymindandsoul
- body
- nutrition
- calories in a banana calories in a bananaImogen Caterer explains why low calorie diets don't work and make you miserable In my work as a Nutrition Consultant I next to never calculate the amount of calories a client is eating. Why? Well, it isn't that I don't see people that are over-weight. That's very common. Why am I not very bothered about calories? Because though it may seem like good logic - eat less and you'll definitely lose weight, it isn't true. I've been lucky enough to learn this key lesson: Getting your weight right has everything to do with getting healthy and next to nothing to do with counting calories. The Case against Calorie Counting The problem using calories as a guide to weight loss is that the figures are based on how much energy is released from the food if it is completely turned into energy. The trouble with that is that many foods aren't turned all the way into energy. Some of the key foods not fully turned into energy are the oily fish (e.g. salmon and tuna), nuts and seeds. These contain GOOD fats. Yes, there is such a thing. Have you heard of the omega-3 fats or Evening Primrose, which is rich in an omega-6 fat? These are good fats. They help depression, arthritis, asthma and schizophrenia. The calorie counting diets are biased against fats in general. That's fine if the fats are saturated one (found particularly in meat and dairy) but it's a recipe for misery when it excludes the omega-3 fats. That misery often starts with dry skin. So if you are losing weight to look good watch out if you are on a calorie-controlled diet. What is worse is that the omega-3 fats help speed up your metabolism making it easier for you to lose weight. So cutting them out in order to try to lose weight isn't going to do you any good at all. "Eat one less banana a day and you'll disappear" Take calorie counting to its logical conclusion, and that's what you have to say. Here's the "logic". A banana is approximately 100 calories, so if you eat one less banana a day you'll eat 36,500 less calories per year. One pound of body fat is about 4,000 calories. You'll lose 9lb. In five years that'll be 45lb and you'll vanish completely in 15 years - all by eating one less banana a day. There you go. The claims of low calorie diets don't make sense. In fact though our calorie intake has come down and exercise (at least by women) has gone up we now have more obese people than ever before. Why doesn't it work? Because if you eat less and it looks like you are going to starve then the body slows down its metabolism to save energy. It is a bit like switching your washing machine to power saving mode. It still washes clothes and nothing obvious has changed. Yes, there are individuals who over eat (often because they have poor blood sugar control) and they are helped by a reduced calorie diet, though a diet targeted to deal with a blood sugar imbalance would probably be more effective. As soon as you try to starve the body, though, the rate you burn your foods will go down and your weight to stay stable or even go up. That's what happens with calorie-controlled diets. They may appear to work fine at first, but over the long term they fail. A Sustainable Healthy Diet Another major reason they fail is that they aren't something you would want to continue with long term. What you really need to stay well is a sustainable, healthy diet. If you get healthy, then as a beautiful side benefit you get to be a healthy weight. Wonderful! Trouble is most of us have very little idea what a healthy diet is! Sadly outlining a healthy diet is a bit too big a task for this particular edition of the newsletter. But I will tell you that one of the key principles behind a healthy diet is the control of blood sugar levels. If those levels become too high then you'll store that sugar as fat and if it gets too low then you'll crave sweet things such as sugar and grapes or things that pep you up such as tea and coffee. All of these are fattening. Why? Because they send you blood sugar levels too high and then that sugar is stored as fat. If you think it is impossible to give those things up, I assure you it isn't but it can be hard. It can be made easier by doing some good things like eating the right sort of breakfast and snacking on nuts and seeds. Good blood sugar control can be vital to the health and well-being of the person concerned. Good blood sugar control is also important for improved mood, higher energy levels, reduced inflammation, better concentration and memory and reduced PMS (pre- menstrual syndrome). By diverting attention away from blood sugar control low calorie diets can encourage some of the above symptoms to return. Often it is miserable on a low calorie diet. Who wants to be slim and miserable? The Myth of Instant Results Though many low calorie diets do seem to produce rapid weight loss, this only lasts a few weeks. This is because they aren't actually burning fat, but burning other stores in the body leading to the release of water and that comes out of the body too. It seems impressive. It isn't. Almost every diet will achieve at least that. If you've been eating a food your body is intolerant to and stop you may also achieve that. A weekly loss of a pound of weight is
a sign you are really burning fat. That's what you need to sustain. |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
||||||||
