When most people think of losing weight, they assume that the solution is a overly simple equation: calories out minus calories in. As the tale goes, as long as you are burning more calories than you are eating, you will lose weight. Period.
Oh, if only it were so simple, right?
The problem is: all calories are not created equal. The composition of the calories you consume will determine if your body is going to burn/lose or store/gain. Moreover it will determine what it’s burning.
If you want to understand why you should stop following this outdated formula, here are five reasons:
1. Food’s “Thermic Effect” Will Change How Much You Burn Later
If all calories are equal, we should see protein, fat, and carbohydrates burn at the same rate from the same amount of energy, but we don’t. Our bodies require different levels of energy and have different reactions to processing different kinds of macronutrients. Your body will actually expend more energy after processing a protein than a carb, and a carb than a fat.
The “thermic effect of food” (TEF) is the number of calories we burn after we consume a certain food. If you and your friend eat calorically equivalent meals, but yours is mostly carbs and fats, and your friends is mostly proteins and some carbs, they are going to burn more calories after that meal than you are. This means that while you may have eaten the same number of calories, worked out the same amount of time, and slept the same number of hours, your friend is still going to end up burning more calories than you that day.
2. Your Hormones Will Affect Whether You Store or Burn
Your hormones control more than your mood. For example, when you consume a meal that spikes your blood sugar and your pancreas begins to secrete insulin, your body goes into storage mode. And the insulin is going to inhibit the fat releasing hormone, glucagon.
If you’ve recently exercised there’s a good chance it will get stored as muscle or liver glycogen. But, if you’ve been eating a lot of carbs, not exercising, or your cells have become insulin resistant, it will get stored as fat.
3. Some Calories Are Digested More Quickly
Some foods can keep us satisfied for hours, while others seem to have us returning to the pantry before we know it. This is because food digests at different rates. A meal high in protein and fat digests slowly, while meals high in carbohydrates digest quickly, leaving you not only hungry sooner, but also with higher insulin levels.
Even worse, wheat and sugar have addictive properties. Not only are you digesting very quickly, but your neurological response is making you want more.
4. Your Body Composition Will Affect How Much You Burn
The more muscle you have, the more energy you burn in a state of rest. Want to increase your natural daily caloric burn? Putting a few extra pounds of muscle and eating a muscle fueling diet will make your body burn more calories every day.
5. Caloric Deficits Lead to Lowered Energy Expenditure
When you keep your body in a chronic state of calorie deficit, you might lost weight, but you will also lose muscle, your metabolic rate will slow (meaning you will gain wait faster if you return to your usual diet), and your thyroid hormone will reduce.
Your body experiences chronic calorie deficit as starvation, meaning it will start doing whatever it can to preserve energy (even during exercise). You might notice that when you have eaten much your body makes you feel tired, sluggish, dizzy. This is your body trying to get you to rest and save valuable resources it depends on to stay alive.
Conclusion
Most people (and I would argue no one) can achieve a healthy body through caloric deficit alone. Stop focusing on calories in, calories out, and instead focus on the quality and nature of the calories you are consuming. Start learning how different foods affect your blood sugar, insulin levels, hormones, rate of digestion, etc, and you’ll start making smarter decisions about what to eat and when. Better yet, you won’t have to enter into “starvation mode” just to lose a few pounds.