Calories? Who counts calories anymore?
If I eat healthily and watch my portion size, I shouldn’t have to worry. Right?
Wrong? Our bodies store excess energy. If we give them more energy than they can use, the store it.
We call that storage fat!
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Whole Food Diet – 1200 calories, 20% Max Fat, 500mg Max Sodium.
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Transcript for Calories in and Calories Out. It Matters!
Hey, this is Coach Carlene from Thin Brain Training today’s podcast is about calories in and calories out. This is important because so many people hate counting calories and they see a diet, they want to use that point system or, you know, get to eat whenever they want, if it’s just a specific thing, and they don’t want to have to be worried about calories.
So I thought I would just tell you what I’ve learned over the years about calories in versus calories out. It’s all subjective. Yeah. So this is just my example, to tell you more about this from over at Raw Food Boot Camp where I’m a weight loss coach. We have different diets. One is the diet I used to lose weight back in 2005. It allowed me to lose 136 pounds and nine months. Just simple, easy, breezy, right? I didn’t measure my calories, I’m gonna be honest with you, I didn’t measure my calories. And I did a lot of exercise.
When I started boot camp, we set a limit of 1200 calories a day. That was what was going to be our ideal. And then we set a low number at 1000 calories a day. And what we found watching this was that those who did 1000 calories or below did not lose as fast as those who did 1200 calories a day. And then when people brought it up to 1300 and 1400 calories a day, they also did not get that same kind of weight loss. So that 1200 calories a day became this sweet spot for the diet we call the rock star diet over Raw Food Boot Camp.
As we watched this over the years, what I saw was, even when people were doing more of a whole foods diet, those who did 1200 calories a day lost better than those who did 1000 calories a day. Over Bootcamp we’ve stuck to that 1200 calories a day because it has proven itself over and over and over again, to be what the body seems to need to release the fat. And in my view, at 1200 calories, the body is saying to itself, I have the nutrients I need, I can expend energy, I don’t have to store anything. I can release that excess because I’m getting what I need to thrive. But when you get to 1000 and below on those calories, I believe, again, I just believe this from working with women, is that the body goes into fear, fear mode, famine mode, starvation mode, and it doesn’t want to release the fat stores. Because it feels like at any moment you’re going to hit some crisis point of starvation. So low calories, in my opinion, and from what I’ve seen over the years, is not a good choice for any diet. Yes, you can get some fast weight loss, but it’s not going to stay off for one thing. And you can’t sustain low calories without getting sick from another thing. So low calories aren’t necessarily the right option.
1200 calories just seem to be right spot on. And when you eat over that, well then your body is utilizing it and it’s not, it’s maybe burning your 14 or 1600 calories a day, but it’s not burning your fat. So we found that 1200 is just a sweet spot. But here’s something else about it. 1200 calories on our Rockstar diet, which is a low sugar, low fat, low sodium diet versus 1200 calories on our whole foods diet, which brings in more, a little bit more fat and some more, you know more carbs and stuff like that. The weight loss is not the same, the exercise could be the same, but the weight loss even with the same amount of calories is not the same. Now I’ve written a whole bunch of articles talk about how fruit which is the main state of the Rockstar diet, how fruit metabolizes differently, and why that sugar and calories don’t seem to give the same effect as when you eating other carbs, and meats and animal protein. So that’s a whole nother story. But this is just to let you know that calories count, but what you eat also counts. So I know you hate counting calories. I know that I mean I hear it every day from people who don’t want to have to do that when they join Raw Food Boot Camp. But you have to know how much energy you are putting into your body each day.
And in that respect, maybe you don’t want to have to count calories every single day of your diet. You If you work with me, but if you don’t want to do that, I strongly suggest that you you do a good week or two of your diet that you’re choosing to do this year, and see what the calories are, do not go under 1000 calories, stay around that 1200 number to get the best weight loss that you can get. I know it’s not what you want to hear. But I have got to tell you, I have watched women lose weight. And that 1200 calorie number just seems so so perfect. But if you don’t count calories, and if you don’t measure your food, which everyone hates to do, then you have no idea really what you’re eating. And you could be going anywhere from 600 calories a day, to 2000 calories a day. And in your mind, you’re still dieting. You know, people love who go on vegan diets, they love qinhuai and rice and, and noodles and stuff that is all vegan and they think oh, I should be able to lose weight. But you know, I was a fat vegan, I was an obese vegan. Because even though I thought being vegan was super healthy, I ate whatever I wanted to a vegan food, and I would still gain weight, plus some of my favorite foods and vegan. So it didn’t work that way, just picking a vegan diet wasn’t enough for me. I had to bring those calories out and my body doesn’t handle high fat. So I had to get rid of the fats. I don’t handle complex carbs. So I couldn’t eat all the rice and pasta and all that stuff. So I had to find out what was right for me. But I did need to know what I was eating. And you need to know what you’re eating, you need to check your diet out against calories for a few weeks when you start and measure. Because, you know, I wrote this book called fat brain lies and and I found as I was writing it that I did many of the things I was telling people not to do, you know, you take a tablespoon of peanut butter, and you’re counting that tablespoon from out of your kitchen drawer, and not a measuring spoon, and it’s a heaping tablespoon. And you’re saying oh, there’s my tablespoon. But if you were truly to measure that, then you probably have two tablespoons and not one. A tablespoon is a solid measurement, and you take a knife and you shave off everything that’s over the markers of that tablespoon. Same with when you’re you’re drinking, you know, eight ounces of milk or soy milk or almond milk or whatever you’re drinking is eight ounces, eight ounces is not very much. And if you don’t measure it, and you don’t know what’s what is it value wise, when it comes to calories? You’re probably overeating over drinking and then wondering to yourself, why don’t I ever lose weight. Because calories in does matter, it does matter. And to tell yourself it doesn’t matter is just falling for what the latest trend is calories matter. Your body can only take in so many calories, which is energy for the body before storing it. Because once you hit the part where the body doesn’t need those extra calories, or those calories to burn to get you through the day, that food becomes fat. So many people say to me, Oh, I just ate those three avocados. Because you know, I know they’re mostly fat, but I eat those three avocados because I just hate to waste food. My mother taught me never to waste food. And my thing is, you know either the waste pail gets them or your waste gets them. Because when you eat food your body doesn’t need you are wasting that food. So I would much rather you throw that food away then gain weight from it. Because when we overeat more than what our body can expend, it stores it as fat, plain and simple. So now you’re thinking yeah, but I run six miles a day, I should be able to eat, you know, 5000 calories a day. And boy oh boy, don’t I wish that was true. Right? I could exercise all day long. And and be happy I could go out and do dig ditches and and do manual labor all day long. If I could eat anything I wanted to I would so do that. But our bodies burn calories a lot different than that standard 3500 calories a day or once in 3500 calories expended is one pound of fat gone. That just has never worked for me or for any of the ladies over at Raw Food Boot Camp. Instead, we have to look at how we’re expanding our energy. And what we found is spinning class does not burn the same calories as walking. And believe it or not,
you lose more with the walking than with the spinning. Now maybe that’s not true for everyone, but I deal mostly with obese women and instead certainly true for us. So why is that? Well, there’s aerobic and anaerobic exercise. And when you get into anaerobic exercise, like spinning where your heart is going really fast, right, and you’re sweating, and it’s really hard, you’re burning fat differently than if you’re just doing aerobics and walking at a brisk pace is more aerobic. And what we have also found that it is duration and effort that matters. So walking up a hill, not fast, just walking up that hill. So your heart rate is is above, you know, just regular life. But below anaerobic is going to get you better results than all the spinning you can do. Yoga for as wonderful as Yoga is and and everyone should do yoga. But for us wonderful it is as it is, and how much they tell you, it burns fat, it doesn’t, it’s not going to burn the fat, your our bodies, especially remember, I deal with overweight and obese women, then naturally thin people, this is probably not true for them. But for obese and highly overweight women, you need to be walking, you need to be walking up hills, and that’s going to burn the fat off. And a lot of people come back to me and they say, Well, you know, I did the machine, the treadmill at the gym, and it told me I burned 800 calories. Therefore, if I only ate 1200 calories and I burned 800 calories over my normal what they say I should, you know be able to eat 2000 calories, that I should lose half a pound today. But they don’t lose half a pound. Because all those statistics and those numbers never seem to add up. Right? We would love if they did, but they don’t. So we get in our mind that because we get on these exercise machines. And they tell us we burned all these calories. And our fitness coaches tell us you lift those weights all this time, you’re going to burn all this because muscle burns more than fat. But it never adds up in dieting. And I’m just telling you that from working with people, it doesn’t add up to weight loss for some reason, but exertion with duration seems to work. So calories in calories out. And it’s somewhat works. But it doesn’t always work. But it’s really important that you know, what you’re eating, and what you’re expanding. You know, I, I got this job once it was at a wildlife rehab. And every day, eight hours a day, I was cleaning out animal pens, I was I was out hiking and capturing hurt wildlife and bringing it back and just you know, active active active. And this was after I lost my weight and I and I thought well man, I should be able to eat whatever I want because I’m on the go every single day for eight hours. And then many times I did back to back shifts. You know, I didn’t lose weight. In fact, I gained weight, I gained weight because in my brain I thought I was expending so much energy. I was over eating to compensate. I thought I was okay now for me to eat and I was eating tons of cashews. I was eating lots of cashews when to get through that time you know, I was still vegan still kind of raw. And so I was eating those and lira bars and stuff that they made me gain weight. So we have to we have to be realistic about the truth behind our bodies. I know for my body now after all these years, what I know is I can eat about to maintain weight about 16 maybe 80 depending if it’s primarily fruit calories a day. But to maintain that weight, I still have to walk with effort 45 to 60 minutes a day to maintain my weight. That’s my truth. It’s my truth and you’re gonna have to find your own truth. But you have to not be resistant to counting calories to learn about yourself. So many people want to be in this in this. You know, don’t tell me I don’t want to know put blinders on, you know, I’m just gonna follow whatever that person next to me is doing and not go out and truly learn and understand your own body and how it works. If you’re going to spend in class five times a week and you haven’t lost any weight, well then spendings not going to be your fat burn is it if you’re going to CrossFit and it makes you feel great and it makes you feel strong and you love it, but you’re not losing any weight then you know you need to add other things besides just a CrossFit if you want to lose weight. If you are out there lifting weights every day and All you’re thinking about afterwards is Eat, eat eat, then it’s time to put those weights away because they’re affecting your thinking and making you want to eat more.
And what’s your diet, if you ever think I can eat any of this food that I want, without it being an issue, you’re more than likely very, very wrong. Now, again, naturally thin people, probably None of this makes a difference. But to those of us who have lived with obesity and being overweight for decades, and for most of our lives, we really have to put a lot of thought into what we’re doing and and, and how we’re doing it. How we’re expending energy. I personally have found, this is working with hundreds and hundreds of women, that the major exercise that works is duration and effort. And we get that through walking through swimming, snowshoeing turned out to be huge for weight loss, hiking, especially mountain hiking seems to be huge for weight loss. But all those fast action things, the spinning, even biking for obese women, you know, biking doesn’t do anything, I believe it’s because our legs are so strong from our carrying around big heavy weight for so many years that we have really strong legs that we get on a bike, and we can just pedal and pedal leisurely or whatever, we don’t do well at spinning anyway. But we you know, however we want, but we’re not really giving the a lot of expenditure because we’re strong already. That’s just my theory. But the facts are that when women have come to Raw Food Boot Camp, doing spinning, yoga, Pilates, CrossFit, x nine, the XP, whatever it’s called, doing all that stuff, they don’t lose weight. The only ones who lose weight are the ones doing sustained effort, such as walking, hiking, swimming, snowshoeing, these things give weight loss. Walking on a treadmill on incline gives the best weight loss. The top number one weight loss, no showing, well it might be buying with no showing. But that’s a that’s a seasonal thing. So think about this, you want to think about calories in versus calories out. But it’s not. So black and white, there are lots of gray areas. But if you just ignore either one of these, you’re not going to be successful. You need to truly examine what works for you and what doesn’t. And a great way to do that is to experiment. go on a diet, whatever diet spected that you want to do. And check out which exercise burns more fat. So for a week, do it what it is that you want to do. And it can’t be the firt It can’t be the first week because the first week you’re going to lose a lot of sodium. So you want to try what is what it is that you want to do and see how that goes. And then try a week worth of just walking with a heart rate like say between 135 and 150. for an hour or two a day. Yeah, it’s a lot more work, it’s a lot more effort. But when the payoff is so much better. Give it a try. And definitely count calories and measure your food to start know the truth behind what you’re eating. And be so honest, so many people don’t when they do the calorie counting. They don’t put in every single bite look and taste they take. And they think well I just had three m&ms, why should I have to measure that? But yeah, those three m&ms have calories and your body counts those calories, it’s energy to the body, it doesn’t matter if it’s two calories, or 200. The body counts them, and two times two times two times two times two all add up really fast. So count the calories, be totally honest with what you eat. It matters, it matters. And we have to take responsibility for that. And we have to be truthful about it. Or else we just get so frustrated because we think look at I’m dieting, I’m dieting, why aren’t I losing weight, our bodies only need a certain amount of food each day. They need a certain amount of nutrients and a certain amount of food each day. And when we feed our body more than what our body is going to burn that day. Our body takes the rest of that energy and stores it. They give your body like a battery. You know, you give it more electricity than it then your car needs. And if the alternator puts it into the battery. We want to lose weight, we have to consume less than we expend. So when you’re picking your diet, keep that in mind and check yourself. Don’t eyeball it. Check yourself know the truth behind what you’re doing. Because it’s only an accepting and knowing that truth that you’re going to get results.
Based on the truth of your body, and all of our bodies are slightly different. So that’s it calories in calories out as part of my let’s get fit, but we have to think smartly. Alright, thanks a lot for listening. Hey, and if you like this podcast, subscribe to my podcast helped me build my audience and we can share the news. I’m not trying to make you do anything. It’s all free. But I do want to get the word out to as many women as I can who have dealt with obesity and weight loss their whole lives, that there are ways to beat obesity. There are ways to take control and not let food and our weight be the center of our lives. Okay, thanks for listening.
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