How to Lose Weight Without Counting Calories | Weight Loss Myth Busting
Counting Calories is not the one and only method for Successful Weight Loss.
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"Calorie counting is a great tool, but it's NOT for everyone. If you have obsessive-compulsive tendencies, calorie counting can have a negative impact on your mental space and health. Especially if you over restrict." Elaine cautions against the potential issues from strict calorie counting.
The Health and Fitness Industry has a long-running love-hate relationship with the concept of counting calories as being the only solution to weight loss.
Before continuing, we'd like to congratulate you if counting calories has led to long-term success on your weight loss journey with little to no side effects.
Without totally bashing this method for weight loss, we'd like to inform you, beautiful friend, that counting your calories is not the only way to lose weight and of the sneaky, unseen concerns that can influence your mental health and weight loss progress in the long run.
A benefit of tracking calories is seen when used at the beginning of your weight loss journey. Tracking calories encourages you to become aware of the nutritional value of the food you consume. If you allow it to be, learning the macronutrients and nutrient density can be fun and lead to a genuine interest in nutritional science and the role of food in your life.
However, tracking calories isn't practical as a long-term lifestyle. When you're too focused on the calorie count and grams of a meal, it takes all pleasure away to enjoy the meal in front of you.
Not being able to accurately add a meal to your calorie tracking app may cause guilt and shame for going "off track". This can lead to opening a blackhole of negative emotions, self-criticism and a possibility to avoid social gatherings or events altogether.
Stanford University conducted a study by monitoring 40 individuals and their weight loss success using digital food tracking over 10 years. The results showed that roughly 70% of the participants lost weight while tracking their food intake. However, the high success rate was limited to under one year. The success rate dropped to 47% for those who tracked for longer than a year, while at under a year the rate was 84%.¹
This study highlights that while you may drop a couple of inches in the short run by tracking calories, it isn't a solution to long-term weight loss success or weight-loss maintenance.
A study by researchers in California concluded that monitoring one's diet increased psychological stress, and restricting calories increased cortisol levels in individuals. The researchers added, "These findings lend support to the idea that stress may be a mechanism of diet failure."²