I still hear people talking about calories a lot. STOP IT. It’s bad science.
“We’ve all heard the fiendishly simple and completely untrue colloquialism about how to lose weight: Just eat less and exercise more. The idea that all calories are created equal has been one of the most pervasive and damaging food lies in history. Not only is it completely unsupported by science, it develops a blame-the-victim mentality that tells people who are struggling with their weight that it is just a matter of willpower.”
-Mark Hyman
If you are not familiar with him, Dr. Hyman is a ten-time #1 New York Times bestselling author and advocate in his field. He is the Director the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine along with mountains of other credentials.
I have learned from Mark Hyman for years and actually spent time with him and some of his amazing colleagues at his Wellness Summit last year. (Excuse the name-dropping, I couldn’t help myself, and no, he couldn’t pick me out of a crowd). I have included a link to one of his podcasts where he is talking with Gary Taubes who is co-founder and President of the non-profit Nutrition Science Initiative (NuSI). Gary is an investigative science and health journalist, the author of The Case Against Sugar, Why We Get Fat and Good Calories, Bad Calories. These are all great books.
This information supports the way I teach to eat for permanent weight loss. I will never ask a client to count calories. I don’t think anyone should.
“Telling someone that’s overweight that all he or she has to do is eat less and move more is like telling someone that’s poor to spend less and make more.”
There is so much more to it than this outdated, over-simplified process.
If you are interested in the science of why calorie counting is not effective, take a listen to this 10-minute portion of his interview.
