Smartphone apps have made counting calories and “food tracking” easier and more popular than ever. But does meticulous logging really help on the way to the dream figure? We’ll tell you if and when counting calories helps you lose weight.
Are you still eating or are you already tracking? Smartphone apps and calorie information on food packaging today enable us to minutely log how much energy, sugar, protein and fat we put into our bodies. We’ll tell you if this will help you lose weight.
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How calories affect our weight
Calories – more precisely kilocalories (kcal) – serve us as a unit of measure for the energy content of food. Anyone who supplies their body with more calories than it needs to maintain bodily functions and perform movements will inevitably gain body mass. Do (strength) sport at the same time and cover your protein requirements, build up more muscle mass. However, this is not the case for the majority of the population: They store the excess calories in the form of fat mass on their hips, chin, buttocks or stomach area. Calories determine whether we gain weight or lose it. But does counting calories really make sense when losing weight, or is it overrated?
Does Counting Calories Help You Lose Weight?
The biggest benefit of counting calories is that it works. In fact, it shows up again and again in studiesthat simply logging our own diet leads to us eating more consciously and consuming fewer calories. A simple diet log can therefore help you lose weight without making any major dietary changes. From a health point of view, it also makes sense to know that there are many calories in fruit juices, lemonades and mixed milk drinks, for example. Drinking calories is rarely a good idea as they are quickly swallowed up and do not contribute to satiety. In addition, cola & co. lead to a sharp rise in blood sugar levels, which promotes diabetes and leads to a sugar crash and cravings. There are also often a lot of calories in sweets, convenience products and sausages.
However, it is not the calories per se that make these products unhealthy, but rather the sugar content, trans fats, saturated animal fat, salt content, and additives. Calories are not unhealthy per se. This is one of many myths about calories that still persist:
The biggest myths about calories
- Calories equal calories
Wrong. For example, 100 calories from white bread is not the same as 100 calories from whole grain bread. White bread mainly contains short-chain carbohydrates, i.e. sugar, which causes insulin to be released in the body. Insulin inhibits fat burning and leads to storage of body fat. Whole grains, on the other hand, contain long-chain carbohydrates and dietary fiber, which cause blood sugar levels to rise more slowly and keep you full for much longer. The healthier product is therefore more likely to lead to weight loss – despite the same amount of calories. - Calories determine whether a food is healthy or unhealthy
Unfortunately, the calorie density of a food does not tell us whether the macro and micronutrients it contains are healthy or not. For example, calorie-free sweetener drinks increase the risk of incorrect colonization of our intestinal flora, while low-calorie vegetables are good for it. Likewise, high-calorie nuts help meet our omega-3 needs and fill you up, while chips and fries contain disease-causing trans fats and fuel our cravings. - Diets with a large calorie deficit lead to the dream body
Crash diets with an extreme calorie deficit are still very popular. Two key problems, however, help prevent crash diets from working in the short or long term: First, short-term weight loss is only partially explained by lost body fat. The remaining mass lost is water and muscle. The loss of muscle puts a brake on calorie expenditure, making future weight gain more likely. Secondly, real “starvation” leads to cravings and the body switches to economy mode – the subsequent yo-yo effect is inevitable. - Kalorienzählen ist unproblematisch
Falsch. Leider kann ständiges Kalorienzählen Studien zufolge Essstörungen begünstigen. Die zwanghafte Auseinandersetzung mit überall lauernden Kalorien kann zu psychischem Stress führen und dazu, dass manche Menschen den intuitiven und genussvollen Umgang mit Essen verlernen.
Verzichten Sie nicht auf gesunde Kalorienbomben
Studies also show again and again that counting calories is not absolutely necessary and that consuming high-calorie, healthy (!) foods can even contribute to a slim figure. For example, the large-scale PREDIMED study with over 7,000 Spanish test persons showed that the increased consumption of nuts and cold-pressed olive oil did not lead to an increase in body weight within three years. Compared to a low-fat control group, the weight loss and reduction in waist circumference were even slightly greater with the high-fat diet.
Conclusion: when counting calories makes sense
It never hurts to have a rough overview of how many calories and especially how much sugar and trans fats are in certain foods. It can also help those who want to lose weight to keep a detailed food diary for a week to get an overview of their eating habits. Accurate calorie counting over a long period of time is not absolutely necessary. Much more important is the conscious regaining of the feeling of hunger and satiety as well as the selection of health-promoting foods. However, if you have been struggling to keep your weight under control for a long time or are even severely overweight, closely monitoring your calorie intake can help you lose weight, at least temporarily. Everyone else can ignore the calorie information and focus more on the fiber, omega-3 fatty acid and protein content.
dr Matthias Riedl: “Nut eaters have a smaller waist size”
dr Matthias Riedl ( @drmatthiasriedl) answered your burning questions on the subject of “Snack cravings: How can I resist?” on our Instagram account @vital_magazin . From minute 17:03 the nutrition doc explains why nuts are one of the healthiest snacks despite their high calorie content and how they affect body weight.
