Eat the rainbow

Eat the rainbow
Eat the rainbow

Sunday 9 March 2014

STOP CALORIE COUNTING




Studying nutrition gives you access to a lot of  programs, like  DIETIST NET.   You can add all the food you eat and find out how many calories you have eaten that meal/day/week. The program also tells you  amount of calories you should eat daily, the amount of fat, carbs and protein you should eat to maintain your weight. It also tells you the macros that each food contains.

I have never cared about calories but for fun this week I wrote down in the program everything that I have eaten and the amount of exercise I have done. I was pretty surprised to find out that I eat over 4  TIMES AS MUCH (in calories) then I should for my age, sex, height, exercise level!!! And more than two times the daily recommended amount of fat.
And no I do not  suffer from hypothyroidism, in fact my thyroid (T4 and T3) leves are lower than they should be. 


Calories are not everything and this is why I am so against calorie counting. I should be a baby whale if this was true! 

Your body will thank you much more for eating a nutty avocado salad instead of a burger from Mc Donalds, and the nutty avocado salad will probably have two times as much calories than the burger! 


Here are a few things I am sure that you did  not know about calorie counting : 
  • A 20% calorie error margin is  allowed. So what you think was 1000 calorie meal could have been 1200 calories, or that 500 calorie chocolate could have been 600 calories. 
  • Calories in fruit and vegetables vary on the season and on its ripeness. 
  • More calories does not equal weight gain ! Studies comparing diets showed that people on low carb diets burned an average or 350 calories more than those eating low fat diets AND yet, nutrition guidelines advice you to opt for the low fat version of products. 
  • When it comes to nuts, 20 % of the calories are not absorbed !!!!



My advice to all of you is to get rid of that sugar craving within you and then LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. Your body will guide you. 

Eating is about pleasure and nourishment and not about maths and restrictions!!!





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