Hello,
The best thing you can ever do for your weight, your health and your piece of mind is to 100% ditch the calorie counting. Let me tell you why. Also, I lost 70 pounds over 1 year ago by not counting calories and haven't gained back a single pound, so I'm not just here with the newest thing I read online. You can see my before and after below so you know I'm real if you like.
Calorie counting is the worst thing in weight loss. First of all, no matter what anybody says, all calories are not equal. 500 calories of ice cream does not produce the same effect in your body as 500 calories of broccoli and spinach would. Not even close. One of those would produce some fat cells and some of the hormone leptin which would tell your brain that you have energy stored and you are full.
The other one creates fat cells, but that leptin is blocked so that your brain doesn't get that signal to stop eating. What blocks leptin? Insulin. And insulin is deployed in much more massive quantities with 500 calories of pure sugar. So to say that "a calorie is a calorie" is not true...they do not do the same thing in your body.
Now, I am not popular for this, but I will never change my mind on this.
Ok, so why does counting calories suck so bad? Because it makes you focus on the wrong thing. Think about it.
You are a runner, so let's look at it in these terms. What if you had never ran before and were just starting. And EVERYBODY said that running was "as simple as.." buying the most expensive shoes. You would keep buying new shoes and never finish a 1/2 mile race most likely. And that would happen because your focus would be on the shoes and not the rest of the picture.
This is calories. Calories are not the big picture in weight loss. If and when you focus ONLY on calories you miss what is in your food. And what is in your food? Sugar.
I don't mean carbs and I don't mean sweet things like ice cream. I mean pure added sugar to tens of thousands of "healthy" foods at the store. But don't take my word for it, go read some labels. Read EVERY label. If it says "fat free" it has sugar. If it doesn't say fat-free it still very likely has sugar. A Yoplait "light" yogurt has 10 GRAMS of sugar in that tiny cup. That is 2.5 teaspoons. Go get 2.5 teaspoons of sugar and put it in a pile and let me know if that looks even remotely healthy.
Sugar is in your ketchup and your yogurt. Oh,..SKIM milk is absolutely loaded with it too, at 12 grams per cup, so that's 3 teaspoons of sugar just in 1 cup of milk. The World Health Organization and the American Heart Association both agree about sugar. And they agree that 6 teaspoons, or 25 grams should be MAXIMUM for one day for any person.
If you ate a breakfast containing 1 yoplait light yogurt, 1 cup of honey nut cheerios and 1 cup of skim milk you would be over that daily amount...and without even eating any other food for the day.
When you eat foods that are void of sugar, you never again in your life have to spend one second with calorie nonsense. All you have to do is eat "whole foods".
You can get a snow shovel and put as many vegetables and healthy fats on it as you want and stuff yourself silly and you will be just fine. I eat all the time because I love eating. I never gain weight. NEVER!
Now, people always think they have me here and they say that vegetables are low in calories so that's why the weight loss. And this makes me nuts, because they are MISSING the bigger picture. And the bigger picture is that the second you read every single label for every single food you eat and avoid it if it has sugar in it, you will never in your life have a weight problem or think about calories again.
I counted calories. I ran on the treadmill and I ran outside. I lifted some weights and I used the elliptical machine. I ate foods like low fat yogurt and skim milk and cereal and low fat this and nonfat that and low cal this. And I never EVER lost a pound. If I did it was a few here and there but nothing to write home about.
The absolute second that I made a change and got sugar out of my diet, at least 90% out the weight literally melted off of me. It wasn't the calorie restriction. Read these forums...read them all day. Go to other forums and read those posts too. They are absolutely filled with people who count calories and don't lose weight.
I know you lost weight, and you may have counted calories to do that...so I am not saying it doesn't work. I am saying it is not efficient and it quite honestly sucks. It's not living. It's not life. It's not fun!
If you eat whole foods and cut out the sugar in ALL of its' forms (agave, honey, sugar, high fructose gargabe, "organic sugar") and the other 56+ names for the junk you will not put on weight. You will also never be hungry or deprived.
I eat all day. I NEVER exercise (not proud of that, I'm just busy). I eat breakfast, and then a snack and then lunch. I snack after that too. I eat high fat foods like sunflower seeds and high calorie foods like avocados every day of my life.
I eat a LOT of peanut butter, which is "fattening" isn't it? Absolutely not...it is great. And you can eat peanut butter and all of the guacamole you can fit in your mouth if you avoid sugar, and weight gain or maintenance will not be an issue for you. I'm sorry this is so long, I am passionate and I type a lot. My advice to you is that you go to your fridge and cupboards right now and look at EVERY label.
Look for sugar on the left side. If you see any number above 0 throw that food away and replace it with a vegetable and/or a healthy fat. Do this and you can absolutely live a guilt-free life that you can't even believe. Anyone can do it. Forget carbs, calories, fat and sodium. Look for sugar and avoid it and you will win this weight loss game forever!
Me and my wife and thousands of others are living proof of this. The best part about what i say here...it's FREE to try. I don't have a book or a movie or a TV show coming out. Try this for 1 month and you will be astounded at how much better you feel, and all without looking at calories ever again.
Cheers,
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good luck I found it tough to start with but think I have it pretty sorted these days