Stop Counting Calories for Health

Calorie counting is one of the most popular ways for managing our weight and the simple method of burning more calories that we consume can seem like a simple formula for success with study after study telling us that lower calorie diets have some great positive health benefits. 

Eating the right calories for our health is one thing but the problem comes when the need to eat a certain number of calories per day becomes more important that eating a well balanced diet of natural, nutrient rich foods and feeling good.

As the number of people on a diet increases so does the number of low fat diet food products.  The shelves are now packed with products that claim to be low fat or fat free and we think we are doing well to swap to these lower fat versions in our quest to shed the pounds but this is not always a good choice for our health.

When a lot of fat is taken out of a food, something has to be added back in to give the food some flavour - a lot of the time, this 'something' is more sugar, salt or other additives - you only need to take a closer look at the labels to see that the ingredient list is unusually long and contains many ingredients that you will not recognise as 'food'. 

Although these ingredients are considered safe enough to be in the foods in the first place, they often have very little or no nutritional value. 

In addition, when we calorie count, our objective is normally to get as much delicious food into our day within the calorie range that we have chosen. This often means that we will give up nutritious food such as fruit and vegetables in order to have the more 'fattening' treats, only concerned with staying within our calorie allowance - losing many essential nutrients in the process.

When we are on a calorie controlled diet, we often cut out foods that have very positive health benefits such as nuts, avocado and other healthy fat sources.  Just because food is higher or lower in calories, it is not a good indication of it's health benefits (or lack of!).

There is no reason why you cannot make a few changes to improve your health.  Here are some tips to keep your health as your top priority and let the calories take care of themselves:

• Read the labels...
  There is no need to get obsessive about the contents of some foods but a quick scan of the ingredients can help you to quickly assess whether it's a good choice.  Avoid foods with sugar as one of the main ingredients and also avoid the harmful trans fats and high fructose corn syrups.  Look for foods where you recognise most of the ingredients as being a food source and avoid the dreaded E numbers.

• Put your health first...
  Make it a goal to eat what feels healthy for your body.  Sometimes this might be lots of fruit and veg, sometimes more complex carbs, good fats or protein - even sweet treats!  Our bodies know what is best for us at any given time.
   

• Put your self esteem first...
  Don't under-estimate the longer term negative effects that dieting and body image expectations can have on your self esteem.  The Food Philosophy can help you tackle this with lasting results.

• Go natural...
  Where possible, opt for natural food sources and cook more from scratch.  Including 'real' food as the main part of your diet can have great health benefits and wean us off of the plastic, processed meals that have become such a big part of today's lifestyle.

• Beware the health risks
  Very low calorie diets can be very harmful to our health, lowing the metabolism and using muscle and organs for it's fuel.  There are also studies that show that people are more likely to be depressed when sticking to very low calorie or low fat diets.

Useful Resources

The Food Philosophy is a great online coaching course for people who are tired of diets and struggling with overeating.  Click here to find out more...