Diet Myth #5: CUTTING CALORIES IS THE BEST WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT

DIET MYTH #5: CUTTING CALORIES IS THE BEST WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT Maybe you’re thinking that if fat consumption is not what makes you fat, then the culprit must be high calorie consumption... Indeed, many diets claim that the magic formula to weight loss is “fewer calories in than out.” This is sort of true in a famine situation—it is possible to starve yourself thin. If you lock someone in a metabolic chamber in a lab, you can record a caloric loss by measuring their actual caloric output and providing food accordingly. Crash diets that restrict calorie consumption mess with your hunger hormones and your metabolism, making it easier for you to gain weight later when you begin eating normally again. Insulin resistance, leptin resistance, low testosterone, and thyroid problems are all potential consequences of low-calorie diets. Regardless of calories, a diet’s number one purpose should be to fuel and nourish your mind and body. Did you know that your brain uses up to 20% of your daily calories? With that in mind, is it any surprise that you feel tired and lose motivation if you exercise more and cut calories to lose weight? Your R-complex and limbic system (the first and second brain) take all the calories, and your cortex (the third brain) is left running on fumes. I’m not saying calories don’t matter—quite the opposite. In order to be in control of your biology, it’s essential to eat enough calories. Your limbic system responds to the stress of restricted calories and intense workouts the same way it would to a famine or other natural disaster: by conserving energy. This leads to brain fog, fatigue, weight gain, and a broken thyroid. It also leaves you hungry all the time. Besides the fact that cutting calories does not help you lose weight in a healthy way, the formula “fewer calories in than calories out” has some pretty big loopholes. In the animal ranching industry, there is a measure called “feed efficiency.” By giving estrogen to cattle, ranchers can fatten their cattle on 30% fewer calories than they would typically need. This saves money for the ranchers and leaves you eating beef with added estrogen that might make you fat, just like it did the cattle. So if a tiny dose of a hormone can make a cow fat on 30% fewer calories, then clearly the number of calories you eat isn’t the only factor determining whether you’ll gain or lose weight. It’s also important to know that up to 50% of your individual calorie burn is related to things that cannot be easily tracked, such as room temperature, sleep, altitude, and how hard you breathe. So for most people, there’s no accurate way to track the number of calories you use daily or even whether those are fat calories or sugar calories. It’s also important to take into account that different foods do different things to your body. This is a simple consideration that goes against what most diets tell you.

Think about it this way—if a calorie was just a calorie, you’d be able to lose weight just by eating high fructose corn syrup or a bottle of canola oil. What we’ve found instead is that over time these foods destroy your body, brain, and performance. When I stopped counting the number of calories I was consuming and focused on quality of food and the nutrients they provide, my body responded accordingly by activating its fat burning, nutrient absorption, and natural regulation of my calorie intake. The results were weight loss and mental clarity.