Ditch the calorie counting, it doesn't work!

We live in a culture obsessed with body size. Most of us are well aware that our idolization of the beauty ideal - a slim figure for women and tall, muscular physique for men, leads us down a path of misery, causing us to feel inadequate if we don’t meet these standards. But most of us would agree that striving for a slim, toned body for the benefit of our health is something to be encouraged and admired.
The messages we receive about weight and health are straightforward – to be healthy you need to be thin and to be thin you need to monitor the calories taken in (diet) relative to the calories expended (exercise). However, these messages are at best grossly over-simplistic and may even, according to many experts, be completely incorrect.

If this simple formula, drummed into us over and over, really was the secret to long-term weight control we wouldn’t currently be facing an obesity crisis. And while it’s easy to imagine that the overweight choose to ignore health recommendations and are irresponsible or lazy, a picture often painted by the media, research shows that even under controlled clinical conditions long-term weight loss is rarely maintained using the calorie-restriction approach. You see, obesity is a complex metabolic (not to mention psychological and social) condition with a range of contributory physical factors such as hormone imbalances, disturbances to the micro biome (our body’s community of microorganisms), toxin accumulation and of course sometimes also an excess intake of calories. Until scientists, health professionals and policy makers accept the complexity of this condition and start treating it accordingly, little progress can be expected. Placing people on restricted diets until they’re half-starved may make for entertaining reality TV but it’s not a realistic or long-term solution for the nation’s obesity problem. And one of the reasons it’s not a viable solution is that calorie restriction itself contributes to weight gain by causing the body to compensate by slowing metabolic rate.
While many scientists and health professionals continue struggling with the problem of how to help people lose weight, others are questioning the validity of the idea that drives this struggle in the first place; the idea that thinness equals health. Dr Linda Bacon, professor, researcher and author believes that the current heavy focus on weight management as a route to good health is misplaced and she cites shocking evidence to support her claims in her recent book: ‘Health at Every Size’. Who knew that on average ‘overweight’ people live at least as long as ‘normal’ weight people (What??!! Hard to believe I know but Linda provides good evidence to support this). Other astonishing statements include the fact that no study has ever shown that weight loss prolongs life, and that most people regain the weight they lose, even if they maintain their diet and exercise programs.
Linda, along with other eminent scientists such as Professor Traci Mann, who’s spent years researching the health and behavioral effects of calorie restriction and has linked low-calorie dieting to increases in the stress hormone cortisol, think we should be giving more consideration to the mind-set of those trying to lose weight. The message coming from these scientists is that it’s time to end this ludicrous battle with weight for appearances sake, a damaging process that sends self-worth spiraling downwards, and instead the focus should be on developing practices of self-care and self-acceptance as the means to discovering true physical and psychological health.
I whole-heartedly agree with this sentiment. Whenever we fight against anything we do so from a standpoint of fear and hatred, we hold ourselves in a place of resistance where a solution cannot be accessed. If we learn to accept and even embrace our current situation, realizing that we are perfect whatever our size, and at the same time focus on how we wish to feel (healthy, strong and happy) then the solutions will come and the process of achieving good health and psychological wellbeing will be a great deal easier. If you need convincing that a positive change in mind-set is the most important step in achieving a healthy body shape then I highly recommend you read the books of Geneen Roth, a long-term compulsive eater and dieter who finally ended her struggle by challenging deeply-held beliefs about her self-worth.
So to conclude; obesity remains a complex issue with many physical contributory factors that are not being addressed adequately by the majority of those trying to solve the problem. More than that, the psychological and emotional issues that often accompany poor weight control and which undoubtedly are the most important factors to address for a long-term solution are also given far too little attention. And so as policy makers and health professionals continue to feed us the same old inadequate message that to be healthy we should be thin and to achieve this all we need do is restrict calories, we continue to get fatter and our self-worth continues to fall and of course, the diet industry gets richer.
I don’t want to end this article on a depressing note, the point of highlighting the inadequacies of the current approach to weight management offered through mainstream channels is to help you realize that an alternative approach is available. If you would like to know more about how you can achieve a healthy weight and feel good about your size and shape then I recommend checking out the resources listed below, also keep your eyes peeled for my next post on exercise and the one after which will provide you with great tips on achieving healthy weight loss.