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If fat loss is your aim, but you’re not sure where to start, don’t panic. Losing excess weight doesn’t feel so difficult if you have the right tools and strategy to guide you. While many people advocate counting calories in order to achieve fat loss, the other end of the spectrum believes counting and limiting your carbohydrate intake is the superior option to help you lose weight. So which is more effective?
Counting calories involves entering every bite that enters your mouth into tracking apps like LifeSum or MyFitnessPal, in order for them to estimate the caloric intake of your food. Often, these apps will break your meals down into their protein, fat and carbohydrate content, and give you an overall kilojoule or calorie number for each meal or snack you consume.
You can also track your movement and exercise in these apps, and they’ll adjust the number of calories you should be eating accordingly, to ensure you’re refuelling after your workouts.
The whole idea is that you should be consuming fewer calories than you ’re burning throughout the day, in order to achieve weight loss. “Calories in, calories out” is proclaimed as the sure-fire way to lose excess fat, with the aim of maintaining a calorie deficit.
But in reality, it’s not quite so simple… These apps don’t account for the fact that every single one of us has a different basal metabolic rate (BMR), body, metabolism, energy requirements… The list goes on! Breaking it down, each one of us requires a certain amount of energy, or calories, simply to keep us alive - to support critical functions like breathing, heart beat, brain function. This is known as your BMR. While these apps have algorithms which estimate your BMR based on your height, weight, age and activity level, they can never be 100% accurate.
Not only that, but each of us has a unique metabolic rate too. For example, people with more lean muscle tend to burn more calories at rest, compared to someone with less muscle mass. Again, the app doesn’t account for this, as there’s no way of entering your muscle into the algorithm’s calculation.
Plus, these apps don’t account for the fact that some foods require more energy to break down than others. For example, high-protein foods tend to be more difficult to metabolise, so your body actually burns more calories breaking these down and digesting them, impacting your so-called “calories in, calories out” equation.
As you can see, counting calories and maintaining a calorie deficit isn’t quite as simple as these apps make it out to be… Relying too heavily on them leaves you at risk of consuming too few calories throughout the day, particularly if you’re training at a high volume or intensity too. So while counting calories can act as a guide to help you stay in a calorie deficit, and therefore support weight loss, it shouldn’t be your be-all-and-end-all.
You never want your calorie deficit to be too large, as this can actually have a negative impact on your health. Not only can it cause hormonal imbalances, impaired immune function, and absent menstrual cycles in women, it can also be really difficult to sustain. This means, while you might lose weight initially, it’s unlikely you’ll keep the fat off - as once you return to “normal eating”, your body will rebound to what it was before.
Ideally, if you’re aiming for fat loss and counting calories to help you get there, you should focus on achieving a small calorie deficit which you can sustain over a long period of time. This gives you a greater chance of achieving sustainable weight loss and lifestyle change.
But if you have any history or susceptibility to disordered eating or eating disorders, counting calories is not the way to go. It can quickly lead to obsession, rigidity, classifying foods as “good” or “bad”, and soon after to restriction or deprivation.
While carbs have gained a negative perception in recent months or years, they’re actually one of the three essential nutrients required by your body for optimal function. Alongside protein and fats, carbs provide the energy your body and brain need - in fact, they’re your brain’s preferred source of fuel.
Carbs are broken down by your body into glucose, a sugar used to provide the energy you use throughout the day. So you absolutely should never aim to cut out carbs completely.
The reason cutting or counting carbs has earned a reputation for facilitating fat loss is because carbs carry water weight with them… In fact, for every 1 gram of glycogen produced from the carbs you eat, you’ll store 3 grams of water. So naturally, when you cut carbs, you also tend to lose a lot of the water you’ve been retaining, tricking many people into thinking they’re rapidly losing weight - when in reality, it’s just water weight they’re shedding.
What’s more, cutting your carb intake too much will significantly impact your performance, stamina and progress in the gym, so arguably isn’t supporting fat loss at all… You do not need to count carbs to lose weight, you just need to make wise decisions about what kind of carbs you include in your diet.
Because all calories are not equal. So while donuts, cake, biscuits, rice and quinoa are all technically “carbs”, they won’t all have the same effect on your body. Complex carbohydrates like rice and quinoa, as well as whole grains, barley, spelt and oats, can actually play a key role in fat loss when included as part of a healthy diet. So provided you’re choosing the best sources of carbs, there’s no need to limit your intake or count carbs.
Some people do tend to function better, or see better results, on high-protein or high-fat diets, like keto, but for others, the reverse will be true. So figure out what works best for you and your body, then you can loosely base your macro targets for protein, carbs and fat around your tried and tested results. There’s no basis for demonising carbohydrates in general!
The good news is, weight loss does not have to be difficult or complicated. You don’t need to obsessively track every calorie or carb you put into your mouth, or restrict your favourite foods and food groups. Instead, aim to eat a healthy, balanced diet rich in whole foods. As part of that, include whole grain sources of carbohydrates, lean proteins, healthy fats, fibre, and above all plenty of fresh vegetables! If you focus on what you should eat, rather than what you shouldn’t, fat loss seems like less of a chore, and more of a lifestyle shift. Fat loss is possible without too much hassle when you eat nourishing foods, and move your body consistently in ways you love!
Want more nutrition and fitness tips and myth-busting? Head to our blog for plenty more, and a bunch of healthy recipes and other content too!