Weight Loss Is Much More Than the Simple Formula of Calories in, Calories Out – but It’s a Great Place to Start!7 min

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I have a bazillion diets to talk about and a boat load of wisdom gained from each one, but I constantly find that when I’m gaining weight, and then I look back in retrospect (sometimes too late), I always realise that I was eating far more than my body required.

Be it post marriage when I tried to match my portion sizes to my husbands like it was a competition, or post giving birth when I was eating all the apparently milk producing, ghee (clarified butter) laden laddoos and concoctions recommended for lactating and healing mothers, or when I was bored, or sad, or celebrating, my growing pant size boiled down to one simple thing – I was eating too many calories. 

After a lifetime of losing and gaining weight, I get it. No matter how you slice it, weight loss comes down to the simple formula of calories in, calories out.

Valerie Bertinelli

Now, why I was eating so much can be attributed to a combination of several factors like hormonal imbalances, lack of sleep, system shock, boredom/ emotional eating etc, but the why always leads to the ‘what actually made me gain weight’, and the what is always this – eating more than I would or could burn. 

Undoubtedly, your hormones, mindset, and the toxins we put into our body affect our cells, metabolism, and our tendency to gain weight, and a better focus for long term wellness is looking at living better – eating well, moving well, and sleeping well!

That being said, if you’re gaining weight, and inversely, to drop some weight, understanding your calorie intake is a great start point!

Hear me out. 

Lack of sleep would cause an increase in ghrelin, which is the hunger hormone and a decrease in leptin which is the ‘now I’m full’ or the ‘appetite satiating’ hormone… which would ultimately lead to severe hand to mouth action, and I would find myself endlessly stuffing my face. And I would then thus find myself heavier and heavier as the days would pass. 

And therefore, first things first – it’s always important and helpful to be able to draw awareness to how much food one is consuming.   Of course all foods aren’t the same in terms of nutrients, but that’s phase two.

So quantity is who you first invite to the party, and quantity can then bring quality along as a plus one! 

Let me explain.

The Science of Tracking Calories 

Losing weight is not easy. But it is, technically, simple. Let’s first look at the general mechanism of how human bodies function. 

A car needs fuel to drive. A car also needs fuel to turn on. And so it is, with the human body. The basic amount of fuel needed to turn your body “on” is called the Basal Metabolic Rate, or BMR. This is the amount of “fuel” your body needs to wake up, sleep, breathe etc. 

Basically, if you were sitting on your tushi all day doing nothing, you’d still need a certain amount of fuel to be able to do this. Like a car with the engine on would need fuel, even if simply parked all day. 

While a car measures it’s fuel in litres, the measurement for human fuel is a “calorie”. 

Just like different cars have different fuel tank capacities, different humans have different BMR’s. While BMR is not a complete reflection of your metabolic health, it is a start point for an estimate to know how much fuel you generally need. 

Your BMR is calculated using basic math which considers your height, your weight, and your age. 

Based on how Active or Sedentary your lifestyle is, a BMR calculator would then multiply your BMR by a certain factor which would give you your TDEE. This is your Total Daily Energy Expenditure. 

When we talk of increasing our metabolism, we’re speaking of increasing how many calories our bodies would burn when lounging around watching Netflix! 

Now the math of weight loss, or the start point that will help you understand why you are gaining weight (or not losing it) is this –

You need to expend more calories than you consume. 

So, if your car was parked in the  garage all day long, but you kept needlessly adding fuel to it, where would all the extra fuel go? Similarly, if you ate more than your body needed, and you were simply sitting all day, all the extra “fuel” has nowhere to go, and thus gets stored as fat. Simple? 

That being said, hormonal issues, digestive issues, metabolic diseases etc can cause your body to function very differently from someone else  with the same weight and height. Just like a Ferrari with a faulty engine would function very differently from a Ferrari without an engine issue. But the knowledge of how big the fuel tank is, is your empowering start point to monitor whether you are eating too much, or too less, for your own good. 

And so, we track calories. 

How to Track

Some do it with a food diary or a journal, and some do it with apps. 

If simple math like  9 plus 16 stresses you out, like it does me,  please use an app. 

The easiest way to track calories – 

 Download an app like MyFitnessPal (there are many others too)

• Enter your height, weight and age details
• Pick a goal (Lose 0.8 kg/ week, lose 1 kg/ week)
• The app will set your daily calorie limit for you 
• Login your foods on a daily basis 
• Monitor your weight. If it’s going up, you’ve probably overshot your recommended calorie intake the previous day or week

It gets easier every day, and soon you’ll be able to gauge your quantities with your eyes. Chances are you’ll realise when you do this, that you generally eat more than your body needs. 

The Psychology of Tracking Calories

Ever wanted to do something just because someone said you can’t? A lot of diets provide heavy restrictions – no wheat, no dairy, no carbs, no sugar etc etc

But going from eating without abandon to eating with restriction takes time and transition to get there.

The beauty of counting calories is that technically, there are no restrictions. Well, technically. Which means you could eat pizza all day and still lose weight.

Jeff Wilser, the Author of The Good News About What’s Bad for You, ate only junk food and whiskey for an entire month, and lost 11 pounds! 

While that’s an interesting experiment, it’s a stupid way to live because obviously all foods are not the same, and one must eat more of what’s good for you, and less of what’s bad for you. 

But the fact that you can eat all types of food, takes away the element of restriction and adds in an element of self regulation. 

It removes will power from the equation, and replaces it with choice! 

. 

Scenario 1 :

You can only drive your car up and down “Apple Street”. All other streets are strictly forbidden. 

VERSUS 

Scenario 2 : 

You can drive your car anywhere you like, but within a 2 km radius. 

In scenario two, there is freedom within boundaries. As long as you stayed within your perimeter, you could visit Happy Street, Junky Street, and Silly Street too. Perhaps you chance upon Apple Street and discover just how much you like it, that you start visiting it every day. 

And therefore, you go there, by choice. Not compulsion. 

There are wonderful lessons in Self Trust, Better Choices, and Moderation that Calorie Counting can teach you. 

I lost seventy pounds eating nothing but Jello for 4 months. But of course there is great variety in the colors! I think, if I remember correctly, it’s 230 calories for a whole bowl. Maybe 270? In the 5th month, I added fruit. – John Malkovic

What to Watch Out For

1. Don’t get obsessive! 

Extreme obsession with counting calories has led to many a eating disorder, and we don’t want that! Be chill about it, have fun with it and let those slip ups happen without guilt. This is a lifetime awareness program and not a quick fix. 

2. Plan ahead 

If you generally eat more on weekends, carve aside more calories on the weekend, and lesser during the week. You can use this with the premium feature of My Fitness Pal. As long as you’re in a weekly calorie deficit, the scale should collaborate with you. It takes 3,500 burnt calories to lose 1 pound (0.45 kgs)  of fat. So to lose a pound a week, you would aim for a 500 calorie deficit per day – Maybe – 250 calories from reducing your food, and -250 calories from exercise. Or all 500 from reducing your food. Each to his own. 

3. Fatigue 

After tracking for a consistent period of time, you could get tracking fatigue. It takes a certain mental practise  to keep drawing yourself back to awareness. Because it’s not just daily, but also hourly that you have to be aware of what you’re putting in your mouth. Mindless snacking can kick in when you’re fatigued. So pace and brace yourself. 

Another fabulous weight loss read is Andie Mitchell’s It was Me All Along . She’s also a firm believer in calorie counting

For How Long?

Ideally, one would track calories until you reach your ideal weight. At every mini goal, your BMI wouid change and so would your daily calorie count. 

By the time you reach maintenance, you’ll possible have found the right amount of portions and food your 

Your body needs, and you’ve habituated your eating a certain way, and you won’t need reliance on daily tracking anymore.

For now, while losing weight, keep tracking. 

 If you stay within your radius, in time, you’ll naturally find yourself steering towards Apple Street when you start to see that, in the long run, the sewage, traffic and pot holes on Junky Street messes with the speed and performance of your car! 

May the math be with you! 

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions on tracking calories!