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Unrefined foods, like 100% whole grain, should replace foods that are made with highly refined white flour and sugar.
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Eat 5-7 servings of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
There is no debate. No one is claiming that counting calories, exclusively, is the only thing that will make you lose weight.
However, for people who are prone to overeating, or not understanding what they're putting in on their plates, counting calories is a useful TOOL in the overall attempt. Exercise is another tool, and consuming calories that work with your health instead of against it, is another tool.
Combined, all three tools can help lose weight. None of them are all that efficient by themselves. And no one here is claiming otherwise. So - there's no debate. And Dr. Len didn't settle it, because he encourages people to eat whole grains as PART of a healthy diet, in three of the articles I read of his on that website. I only read five of his articles. He writes a lot of them. Most of them are commercial tripe.
Anyone who thinks a calorie is a calorie regardless of where it comes from is just flat out lost. All calories ARE NOT created equal.
Even Weight Watchers recently changed their position on creating their point system based on calories alone when they realized how many people were failing on weight watchers because 100 cookie calories could be counted virtually the same as 100 fruit or vegetable calories.
Anyone who thinks a calorie is a calorie regardless of where it comes from is just flat out lost. All calories ARE NOT created equal.
Even Weight Watchers recently changed their position on creating their point system based on calories alone when they realized how many people were failing on weight watchers because 100 cookie calories could be counted virtually the same as 100 fruit or vegetable calories.
Counting calories is an outdated approach to weight loss in general. I've been skinny over a decade, have *never* counted calories.
If you stick strictly to whole grains, lean meat, veggies there isn't much need to count calories. It can actually be a challenge to get enough calories.
But if you like to have a little pizza, wine, chocolate cake here and there...you need to be mindful of the calories you are consuming because a little nibble here, and a little bite there can add up quickly.
It's a matter of choosing the lesser of the evils - eliminate certain types of foods from your diet and never count a calorie again, or continue to have your pasta, potatoes, chocolate but count/track the calories and make sure you burn off any excess through exercise.
Bottom line is that a calorie is a calorie. BUT and here comes the part that people just keep overlooking: A calorie is an ammount of energy. It DOES NOT correspond to a certain ammount of bodyweight.
The body is a complex system of chemical reactions, and you need to mind this when you think about what you put in it.
For example:
Conventional gasoline 34.8 MJ/L -->34800000J/L-->8317kcalories
This means that one liter of gasoline contains as much energy as 2kilograms of sugar.
Most of your cars will run very badly on sugar.
Your car is made for running on gas(or similar) and will run best on gas. You are made for running on other stuff, make sure that ou get the right stuff to run on.
This does in no way mean that there aren't huge benefits to be made for weightloss(or gain) when counting calories.
Calories enable us to make approximate calculations when it comes to our food, which is great in itself.
If your calorie-counting doesn't work for you, you are not eating fight or you are doing something else wrong. If you don't need it, all the better. Fact remains that there is no other qualitative way of counting your food.
If you stick strictly to whole grains, lean meat, veggies there isn't much need to count calories. It can actually be a challenge to get enough calories.
But if you like to have a little pizza, wine, chocolate cake here and there...you need to be mindful of the calories you are consuming because a little nibble here, and a little bite there can add up quickly.
It's a matter of choosing the lesser of the evils - eliminate certain types of foods from your diet and never count a calorie again, or continue to have your pasta, potatoes, chocolate but count/track the calories and make sure you burn off any excess through exercise.
Great post...I'm on a low carb, lean protein & veggie diet and I often struggle to get to 1200 calories a day, even with exercise. Cutting out refined and processed garbage helps to keep your calories where they should be.
No........has nothing to do with it. A slice or two of pizza & glass of wine are extra *carbs* which can be accounted for during the week through strict dieting & exercise. No one should have high carb foods/grains more than a few servings at most per week if they are serious about weight loss unless they are an Olympic athlete, and I've read even world class athletes do low carbs.
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Originally Posted by springfieldva
If you stick strictly to whole grains, lean meat, veggies there isn't much need to count calories. It can actually be a challenge to get enough calories.
But if you like to have a little pizza, wine, chocolate cake here and there...you need to be mindful of the calories you are consuming because a little nibble here, and a little bite there can add up quickly.
It's a matter of choosing the lesser of the evils - eliminate certain types of foods from your diet and never count a calorie again, or continue to have your pasta, potatoes, chocolate but count/track the calories and make sure you burn off any excess through exercise.
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