Here is the link to the podcast I’ll be talking about today: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/zoe-science-nutrition/id1611216298?i=1000642627314

Calorie counting became a form of dieting in the United States about 100 years ago. The idea has been upheld because taking in fewer calories than you’re burning for weight loss makes a lot of sense. I know I’ve seen tons of calculators online that will give you the calories you need to ingest to maintain or lose weight based on your weight and activity levels.

I would argue that it’s the most popular form of weight loss, something that we’ve all been exposed to and maybe even tried. While the premise of counting how many calories you’re eating seems really simple, it ignores what types of foods the calories are coming from, the first distinction of this podcast. Yeah, it sounds good to eat low calories, but what if you’re getting all of your calories from sugar? This can also impact how easy it is to eat lower calories. If you’re eating all sugar and carbs, your body won’t feel as satiated as you might if you ate all proteins and healthy fats. If you’re not as full, it’s going to be very difficult to restrict yourself.

This podcast also brings up how we store our energy, which conflicts with counting calories. From an evolutionary standpoint, our bodies are made to store calories and energy as fat. When our calorie intake is low, our bodies will begin to eat away at our fat stores (great!). However, despite how much willpower we have to keep this up, science says that evolution will begin to kick in, inhibiting our efforts. Whn our bodies recognize that we’re starving, they begin to lower our metabolism to inhibit as much weight loss. Additionally, they increase our hunger hormones and behaviors to get us to eat more, protecting us from starvation.Interestingly enough, while calorie counting seems super simple and effective at first when you dig deeper into the effects that calorie counting has on our body, we see that restriction sets us up for failure.

I really enjoyed listening to this podcast; in fact, this was one of my first exposures to nutritional science, which really got me interested into this series and informed my decision to look into nutrition for my passion blog. It’s crazy to think that almost all Americans believe in calorie counting, but the science tells us that it’s not good for us at all!