Counting Calories

/Facepalm

I am mentally scolding myself for falling into the calorie counting trap. Thanks to Lisa for pointing this out. The inclination to do so is hard to shake, given how much we’ve been brainwashed into thinking that changes to our weight will result from calories consumed minus calories burned. The Calorie Counter app (see links to the app on a previous blog posting) that I am using doesn’t help matters much.

Screen capture taken midday on Thursday, April 21st

Calorie Counter, by definition, helps you count calories. It does other useful things as well, for which I am grateful. However, the notion of calorie counting is fundamental to its purpose, hence the name. As you can see above, the Diet Calendar displays the number of calories I consumed in the Food column, the number of calories expended in the Exer. column and the net difference of the two in the Net column.

According to long-taught (and mistaken) nutritional theory, I should be losing about 631 calories worth of fat on Wednesday. Of course, no consideration has been given as to what constituted the calories I consumed, whether they were fat, protein or carbohydrates. It's all just generic calories.

Therein lies the problem with calorie counting. There are different metabolic pathways for the different types of calories. Fats are handled differently than proteins which are handled differently than carbohydrates. Also, no consideration is given to fiber, specifically high density carbohydrates coming in fibrous foods like fresh fruits. All of these factors change the way the body processes food (both pathway and timing) and, hence, render calorie counting as a somewhat misleading barometer of eating goodness.

So, if calorie counting is not the best thing to be doing, why use this app? I am now trying to use it for three functions:

1.  I want a comprehensive log of what I ate so that I can either confirm or disconfirm the newer very-low-carb dietary hypotheses when I get my physical in June. I am hoping to see the similar results to those realized by Gary Taubes. I have read that it may take a several months for things to settle in, so my results may still be a little off.

2.  I want to monitor the number of grams of carbohydrates I am consuming each day, so I know that I am maintaining them low enough to keep my body in a state of ketosis for as long as possible each day.

3.  I want to monitor my fat intake, so that I am aware of what percentage of my daily calories come from fat. From what I am now learning, it’s okay to go as high as 75%, which is very easy to do.