Just another reason not to waste your time counting calories…
A really interested report was just published in Jan 2010 Journal of the American Dietetic Association that you have to know about! If you’re like all the millions of women right now that have made their vows to lose weight by cutting calories, this will help you to see that you are wasting your time… intrigued?
It’s All Lies
A recent look into the accuracy of food labels has revealed that they are plan out wrong. Restaurants who post up calories to help you make healthy choices aren’t being completely honest. In fact the research shows that out of the restaurants studied, calories were understated by 18%… that means if you order a meal you think has 400 calories, it really has closer to 472 calories.
It isn’t just with restaurants though… also “healthy” frozen meals where also studied and showed the same thing, but with an 8% difference.
What foods where they looking at? It wasn’t just random, the study was done on “healthy menu” options. The foods that were stated as (1) low calorie altneratives of 500 calories or less, (2) foods specifically geared towards helping weight loss and (3) Foods that Americans actually like eating.
Thanks FDA
The US Food And Drug Administration isn’t helping the situation. They make it far too easy for vendors and food production companies to not really care about the honesty of their nutrition labels. In fact, there is a 20% off allowance in calories,but weight must be no less than 99% of the stated value…
Don’t you just wonder if calories have such a gap, what about everything else? Does my protein that says it has 24 g/serving really only have 15 g? What about carbs? That low carb, whole wheat wrap… it says 8 g but is it closer to 14 g? Sounds silly but it’s true.
I don’t personally count calories but I do look at carb content and protein content to make sure I am getting a good balance to matches my training lifestyle. It really annoys me that what I think I am getting is most likely way off. Because remember it all adds, up… off a little here, a little there and by the end of the day you’ve eating 1000 more calories than you thought, 40 extra grams of carbs…w ell you get the picture.
It’s just another reason the FDA is pretty worthless when trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle or really with much else, but that’s just my opinion (sorry to have to put it out there).
Calorie Counting Isn’t The Answer
If foods are labeled so off then what’s the point in trying to count your calories? It is not just for this reason though that calorie counting sucks. When you cut your calories you are telling your body that you’re in a state of starvation (caveman days) and it kind of panics.
Instead of just letting your fat roll off, it actually holds on to it tighter, your body is trying to make sure you can stay the healthier possible for as long as you’re “starving” and to do this it:
- Slows down your metabolism
- Breaks down lean muscle (muscle takes energy to keep healthy and your body doesn’t see it as vital so its the first thing to go to allow you to survive off the cut calorie amount).
How Do You Eat To Lose Weight?
You give your body the foods it wants. Clean eating is the key. Avoid the foods served in restaurants, frozen meals packed with unhealthy white carbs, sugars, processed chemicals and more…
Clean eating is about going back to your roots of giving your body the foods it runs best off. Think of most of the foods Americans eat as diesel fuel and clean eating foods as regular… if you’re car runs on regular would you ever give it diesel? Nope, because you want your car to last! And you want it to have energy and get you from point A to point B… the same thing here!
Find out more about Clean Eating Help!
Want to read the entire study: Restaurant and Packaged Foods Can Have More Calories Than Nutrition Labeling Indicates
Tagged as: Calories, clean eating
