It’s Necessary: Counting Calories

“Hey, Gabriel. . .  Can you help me get in shape?  I want to tone up for summer; I don’t want to count calories though.”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that, or some variation of it.  Everyone wants to get the “beach body,” or “tighten up,” but no one wants to put in the proper work.  Here are a few things to keep in mind about getting in shape:  “You can’t out train a bad diet.”  And of course, “Abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym.”  And let’s not forget the very true, “A good physique is 80% diet, and 20% training.”

I have had countless people ask, “What’s a good workout to get abs,” but when I tell them they can get a six pack by going to the gym once a week and changing their lifestyle, suddenly they lose interest.  Why is that?  Convenience.  Nobody wants to count calories, but everyone should be counting–  And here’s the important thing to note:  Not only do you need to count calories if you want to lose fat. . .  You need to count calories if you want to gain muscle, and also if you want to just maintain.

What!?  Why is that!?  Counting calories is annoying!?  First, let’s look at it in terms of fat loss:  How do we lose weight?  We figure out our Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE, or “Maintenance”) and eat less calories than we that.  If you’re not counting, how do you know how many calories below maintenance you’re eating?  Are you eating below maintenance at all?

Of course, then comes: “Can’t I just do more cardio!?”  No.  Look above:  “You can’t out train a bad diet.”  If your TDEE is 2000 calories, and you eat 3000 a day, that means that you would have to train long enough to burn 1000 calories.  The more you train, the more you consume, unless you have unbelievable self control, in which case, why aren’t you just counting calories?  Let’s take it a step further, though.  If you’re consistently eating far below your maintenance (Whether intentionally or otherwise), or if you do “Chronic Cardio,” you’re eventually going to run into metabolic problems.  First, your body is going to start feeding on your muscle mass because it takes more energy to maintain than body fat–  In times of “starvation” (Which your body thinks you’re in), this is an efficient way for your body to lower your energy requirements to help you “survive.”  You will slowly become skinny fat, losing strength and definition, and it won’t stop there.  Next, you will run into hypothyroidism and decreased leptin levels, which will stop fat loss from occurring, and will even inhibit weight loss all together.  So at this point, you hit a plateau, and conventional logic says to workout harder if you want to lose more weight.  But that just further damages the little muscle mass you have left, and further damages your metabolism.  It’s a vicious cycle.  In that case, the proper thing to do is eat at maintenance and do no activity to repair your metabolism;  Of course, you would never run into that if you count your calories and diet responsibly.

Side note:  Want to do something frightening and eye opening?  Estimate how many calories are in foods you know nothing about, and then look up the calorie count–  Everyone grossly underestimates energy content in food.  Worse than that, the amount of calories in alcoholic beverages, and caloric drinks in general is even crazier!  This is the chink in the armor of most people’s diets–  They rely on their own estimates for calories.  (Fun fact:  Popular drinks like Long Island Iced Teas, Margaritas and Pina Coladas typically have more than 700 calories per drink.  We won’t go into what happens when you consume alcohol–  We already wrote about that.)

I digress. . .

So what about if you want to gain weight?  Well, if you’re not counting your calories, how do you know if you’re eating enough to gain weight?  You have to eat above your TDEE in order to gain weight;  In the same vein, though, what sort of weight do you want to gain?  When people refer to “weight gain,” they really mean “muscle gain.”  Well, to gain muscle mass, you need to eat between 10% above your TDEE, and 500 calories above your TDEE–  Anything more than that and the ratio of fat gain to muscle gain goes up.

Aw man!  So much work!  What if I just want to stay the same?  You still need to count calories.  Let’s say your TDEE is 2000 calories, but you’re only eating 1200 calories a day on average. . .  What will happen?  The same thing that will happen if you’re a chronic dieter and consistently eating a severely low amount of calories.  (See above.)

So, at the end of the day, unless you absolutely don’t care about muscle mass, aesthetics, strength, body composition, and / or a healthy metabolism, you need to count your calories.  Counting calories is not that difficult once you get the hang of it, and is absolutely imperative for your goals.