WHY CALORIES IN/CALORIES OUT DOESN’T ALWAYS WORK

Okay, I’m going to preface this post by telling y’all up front that I’ve been going through perimenopause, so my “filter” is broken. I’m being a lot more blunt than I used to be. So, if what I write seems abrupt or even straight up rude, my apologies. I’m just trying to get my point across but my finesse is currently offline.

That being said, there is actually a good reason why calories in/calories out doesn’t always work when you’re trying to lose weight.

On paper, it seems like it should be pretty straight forward – you eat fewer calories or burn more calories, you should lose weight. You’ve probably heard your body compared to a well-tuned machine many times before.

But here’s the part that is just now being studied and researched as our society reaches historic overweight and obesity rates – your body is also a complicated chemistry set. And as I have mentioned before in other posts, your body is also UNIQUE. Down to the cellular level.

So the way YOUR metabolism works is not going to be the same as other peoples. It’s why your friend “Jane” can eat a box of donuts and not gain a pound, but you LOOK at a donut and you gain 5 pounds.

And this problem is further exacerbated by the ultra-processed foods we are faced with every single day.

The chemicals used in most processed foods today, topped with the depletion of nutrients from those foods, causes MAJOR stress on your metabolism. Those chemicals combined with the LACK of nutrients causes your metabolism to malfunction.

It’s not just SLOW.

It’s straight up sabotage.

Your body needs the nutrients from REAL, WHOLE foods in order function properly. And just as importantly, for your metabolism to function properly.

Remember, CHEMISTRY SET. Not simply calories.

I know for as long as I’ve been alive, I’ve heard that health, nutrition, and weight loss are based on the number of calories you consume, and the number you burn. But as our food has become less actual FOOD and more processed substances, it is GREATLY interfering with our body’s ability to metabolize the calories being eaten.  

And not knowing what to do with all those excess calories the body can’t metabolize and burn for fuel because the proper nutrients aren’t there to help with the metabolic reactions, your body stores them as fat (along with the extra chemicals from the processed foods that your body can’t “burn off” either).

So, it’s actually a double-whammy for your body.

The chemical compounds in ultra-processed foods blocks your body’s ability to metabolize (burn) calories correctly, AND the lack of nutrients in those UPF’s ALSO contributes to the body’s inability to burn calories. It’s missing key “ingredients” for the metabolism to work correctly.

If you’re seeing ANY familiarity in your eating habits and the foods you’re consuming with what I’ve written about in this post, there is an answer.

First, begin adding whole foods to your diet again. Have a banana. Eat an apple. Add broccoli to your dinner. Have grilled chicken instead of chicken nuggets (unless you’re making your own from REAL chicken). Don’t make it complicated. Don’t worry about macros or the glycemic index or whatever latest thing is out there. If you can’t remember the last time you ate an ACTUAL piece of fruit or a vegetable, just eat the banana.

Second, begin making small shifts in your habits to cut out the ultra-processed foods. Try not to keep tempting foods in the house (and this is tough, believe me, I KNOW!). As silly as it sounds, I do keep baking mixes in our house, but not packages of cookies or cakes. If I WANT cookies, I’m going to have to take the time and effort to make them, or I can just skip it. Unless I am REALLY feeling desperate, I mostly leave them alone until my sons come for a visit or my daughter needs a baked item for a school function.

And third, once you’ve started adding whole foods and cutting out the UPFs, then you can look at shifting the ratio of what you’re eating to 80% whole foods, 20% processed. It won’t be perfect, and for a while it might look more like 60%/40% and then 70%/30%. But eventually, 80%/20% should be your goal.

If you can start looking at your health, nutrition, and weight loss through the lens of an intricate chemistry set, where each component needs to line up accordingly in order for the whole system to work properly, it can give you more insight into how to improve your health. By avoiding the chemical inhibitors in UPF’s, and adding the necessary nutrients from whole foods, you can revitalize your metabolism and help it function correctly. 

Check out my FREE Guide, Healthy Meal Hacks for Busy Moms.