WHAT CALORIE COUNTING CAN MEAN FOR YOU

Learning to understand your nutrition and the density of some foods is a great step towards fuelling your body with the greatest nutrition of your life!

WHAT ARE CALORIES? 

Calories are a simple measure of energy in your food.  Kilojoules measure the same thing with a different measure; 1 cal = 0.004184kj.

1g of protein = 4 calories

1 g of carbs - 4 calories

1g of fat = 9 calories

1g of alcohol = 7 calories

PROS OF CALORIE COUNTING: 

Calorie counting will keep you more accountable for what you are putting in your mouth AND most importantly it makes you very aware of the calorie density of some foods you are choosing to fuel your body with.

For example:

Calorie counting takes the guesswork out of losing weight/gaining muscle or whatever your goal may be.  It is also great for feedback on what you can change through reflection of where you DID make choices not great for your goal. This will allow you to reach your goal faster.

Calorie tracking is great to get on top of portion control and allows you to be aware of how much you really are putting on your plate.  So many people will fill their plates with double, even triple of the service size that their body truly needs to work at it's maximum.

HOWEVER, calorie counting can have it's cons as well.

When calorie counting it can lead to obsessive behaviour.  It can lead to the good/bad mindset around movement and nutrition even leading to emotional eating and bingeing. When you are completely immersed in calorie/macro counting it can lead to social gatherings becoming "too hard" as you don't know what to eat/drink and find it difficult to let go.

A big factor to consider in calorie counting is that it does not take into account your hormonal response to certain foods.  Every food has a huge impact on the processing of insulin and glucose in your blood and how YOUR blood reacts.  EveryBODY is different, this is not completely factored in with calorie counting.

It is also important to acknowledge if you are tracking your calories as you go, this is NOT meal planning. To track in advance you need to plan and then stick to what you have in your calorie counter and can prevent you from enjoying social situations like I mentioned above.

In my opinion....

I often track my macros (not calories) as low calorie food can often not be the most nutritious food. However, even as a health and wellness expert I find it limiting and feel the obsessive behaviours start seeping in if I do it for a long time....

If you are like me, 1-2 weeks is a great tool to discover the calorie density in some foods and how you can fuel your body to it's optimum but long term eating intuitively and understanding what makes YOU feel amazing before, during and after is definitely the option to live your best life!

Love and light
Danni xx