A calorie is a calorie . All calories are created equal. How many times have you heard this slogan? Is there some truth to it or is it farcical.
Let me put it this way to say all calories are equal is like saying all of the men and women's genetics on earth are equal.
The first variable most people focus on when they’re trying to lose body fat is counting their calories.
And there is some validity to counting calories based on your height and weight. After all, the law of thermodynamics taught us calories in and calories out is the first step we should embark on if we want to rid that tummy.
Let’s take a look at calories. A calorie is an energy in the form of heat. Calories are commutated by how much energy a food produces.
If you put a pizza in the oven and you burn it up and whatever the heat it produces from cooking the pizza tells us how many calories are in a pizza. A macronutrient or macro for short are the type of calories one consumes. Your three macros are protein, carbohydrates and fats.
One gram of carbohydrates and protein yields four calories. One gram of fat equals nine calories.
So why isn’t it a good idea to count calories when you’re trying to build muscle or lose body fat?
The reason why is because your body metabolizes calories differently. In other words your body is going to metabolize 1000 calories of cheesecake differently compared to 1000 calories of fish.
Foods have something called a nutrient partitioning effect on the body. The positive partitioning effect foods are fish, chicken breast, turkey. healthy fats and eggs. When you consume these foods your body will be told to use them in a positive manner i.e. energy or muscle tissue.
The negative partitioning foods are trans fats, fatty foods, sugars and processed foods. When these foods are consumed your body is more likely to store these agents as fat.
An example of a neutral partitioning effect agent would be something like fiber, this has no positive or negative impact on the body.
Have you ever been on a strict eating plan, devouring the same calories day in and day out and then you start taking a drug and out of the blue you began gaining fat even though you didn’t change your diet? Well if you or anyone you know this has happened to is because drugs can act as either a positive or negative partitioning agent.
The take-home lesson is whether your goal is to lose body fat or gain muscle the main objective should be to discern the right foods that produce a positive partitioning affect on the body.
Now you know why counting calories is not a good idea. Stick to the positive partitioning macros!
301 comments
Great article!!! Super informative and easy to understand!
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