The Calorie Counting Myth

Unfortunately, a lot of people still believe that an active balance of calories is required to lose weight. Science has shown us an easier way, the right way!

Key Points

• Counting calories doesn’t matter
• Hormones control energy in and energy out
• Over eating is a hormonal issue, not lack of willpower
• Eating too many fast digesting carbs screws up hormones
• Everyone’s body if different

Calories In vs Calories Out

The mainstream or conventional wisdom of fat loss or gain has been pinned around calories. Restrict calories and you can lose weight. Over-eat calories and you will gain weight. This idea is based on the law of conservation of energy. Calories = energy. Energy cannot be created or destroyed. If we eat too much energy (calories) the body has to gain weight because energy can’t be destroyed, it can’t disappear. If we eat too little energy, our body will use what we have stored to make up for the daily energy requirements.


The biggest flaw with this logic is that hormones aren’t taken into consideration. Our body has a mechanism to let us know when we’ve had enough energy. Leptin is a hormone that is produced to let us know that we are full. In short, our body won’t let us eat more than we can handle. If we stuff ourselves, our body will increase leptin to let the brain know that we’re not hungry. More leptin means we stay full for longer. This way we can’t consume more energy than we need. If we happen to, we’ll just stay full until we need more energy.

How to Lose Weight

So why do some people fall victim to “over-eating”? Fast digesting or high glycemic carbs have an effect on how our body handles calories. Carbs turn into blood sugar (glucose) when they enter the body. Our body can only handle so much sugar in the blood. It uses what it can of it and stores the rest. So most of that energy is stored instead of used. That means we stored more calories than we used. That’s how people gain weight.

Some people can handle carbs, but after a while can become leptin resistant. This goes hand in hand with insulin resistance. The beta cells need more insulin to lower blood sugar and the brain needs more leptin to signal that you’re full. This makes people over consume energy. Pay attention to what your hormones are doing with the energy! Eating less fast digesting sugars and starches will help your body use calories instead of storing them.