I have made various comments regarding counting calories. I have offered wisdom to those who ask and I have my own personal story, but now I will share exactly why calorie counting doesn’t work for long-term weight loss. There are going to be people out there that read this and feel anger, resistance, fear, or many other emotions; this, however, is normal.
1. It is a stressor. Thinking about how many calories you eat, or writing it down, becomes a stressor in your life. We were never meant to count our food and exercise, we were meant to depend on our bodies’ natural wisdom. Therefore, this task becomes a stressor. Stress signals our body to store fat and burn muscle.
2. It has to be a lifestyle change. If you lose weight counting calories, then you are pretty much held to counting calories the rest of your life. If that is something you wish to endure, then you are fine. If you don’t wish to log your calories the remainder of your life, it is time for another solution.
3. What you resist will persist. If you continue to think about how many calories you have left in the day, and how you can’t eat X, Y, and Z, all you will be able to think about is how much food you want and need to consume.
4. Where attention goes, energy flows. When we continue to think about calories, calories, and calories, our entire energy shifts into little calorie counting machines. Now our lives become about numbers and have just a little less room for bigger, more amazing things to take place.
5. What’s with the skinny human garbage disposals? I know you know people who eat whatever they want and don’t gain weight. We tend to think they have some supergenes or supermetabolism, guess what, they don’t. It is impossible for me to say why thin people don’t gain weight without knowing the person, but there is a reason and it has nothing to do with their eating or exercise.
