Why Calorie Counting Doesn't Work

We are all aware of the fact that portion sizes are going up...resteraunts are serving more food on a plate and sodas have gone from 6oz to 60oz in a decade. Nutritionists rightly harp on the danger of over-consuming calories and do battle daily with clients, teaching them to count calories, measure portions and have more will-power. We are inundated with articles such as this one (How much is too much? The bigger the portion, the more we overeat) from my very own Miami Herald. I used to marvel at how difficult it was to keep my clients to reasonable portion sizes. I wondered why it was so hard to just quit eating when you know you should. Some labeled it as an addiction and I watched people struggle. Some would do well for a while until their will-power buckled under the stress.
I now know that calorie-counting, in my own never-humble opinion, is crap. Yes, it is important to not consume more calories than you need...however we have been looking largely at the behavior and ignoring the cause. We have been telling people that it is mental...and just takes more will-power and education to start eating less... BULL $%!*.
I came to the realization that most of my clients were starved for the nutrients their body craved and that is why they are over-consuming foods. NOT just micro nutrients, but most of my clients were depriving their bodies of the proper MACROnutrients for their metabolic types. Many teach their bodies to turn to sugar and caffeine for energy. However, As soon after they begin eating metabolically, nearly EVERYONE decreases or eliminates thier sugar cravings. When they consume the proper ratio of carb/protein/fat for their type, they AUTOMATICALLY begin to feel full at the proper portion sizes...their bodies to not crave more food because it is getting exactly what it needs in that meal.
There are other factors which also help to balance hormonal systems and blood sugar (ie: eating organically and ridding yourself of any intestinal fungal blooms) but a vast majority of my clients begin seeing a huge difference in energy, body composition, cravings, and mood stability simply by eating metabolically.
Is metabolic eating a panacea? I believe that it needs to be worked in a way to make it easier to teach and more accessible to the general public but the science is sound and the results are amazing. It certainly has more long-term plausibility for my clientele than gems like: "Share your plate with a friend." or "Drink lots of water before you eat so you can feel full." It is my job as a coach to provide REAL solutions and provide my clients ways to get back in touch with their bodies...not tricks to ignore what their body is trying to tell them. Metabolic Eating is one such tool.
To learn more, I recommend "The Metabolic Typing Diet" by William Wolcott.

Yes! Score One For Biochemical Individuality!

Scientist are struggling to map the human metabolism with a project called the Metabolome (click here for full article). They hope to map the precursors of all of the complex chemical processes that make up our individual metabolisms and thereby understand better why medications and foods effect people in different ways. In fact, they see a day when we take our metabolic barcode to the grocery store with us for a high-tech, customized shopping experience.
In my eyes, striking thing about this project is not the Jetsonian view of grocery shopping but rather that mainstream science accepts the fact that everyone is different metabolically...that foods DO affect different people in different ways. SO the question that begs to be answered is "Why do we still have the FOOD PYRAMID?" Why are we still treating everyone as if they should eat the SAME? The answer, in my opinion, is that so many people are married to the idea and bureaucracies are slow to change paradigms. Fortunately, we have William Wolcotts work in "The Metabolic Typing Diet" to rely on as a map for determining our unique food profiles until these guys in the Metabolome project get it all sorted out. With the help of current metabolic typing and holistic lifestyle change we really don't need a lot of research to tell us what our bodies need...OUR BODIES WILL TELL US! Imagine that, our bodies actually have feedback devices to let us know what it wants and when...humm...that mother nature sure is a clever one isn't she? The key is to get all of the junk out of our diets and lives so that we can trust that our feedback signals haven't been hijacked by parasites, blood sugar issues, or fungus. With those issues out of the way, we can learn to trust our bodies and give it what it needs when it needs it. Ahh simplicity...no calorie counting, no stressing, just giving your body the good stuff it asks for when it asks for it. Isn't that nice?


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