An interesting quote about calories in vs. calories out

emyinpink · May 2011

For any of the rest of you who struggle with just trying to control calories in vs. calories out, I thought this piece from Gary Taubes was really interesting.

Imagine you're a restaurant owner. It's a random Wednesday night, and your restaurant is ridiculously crowded. You ask: "Why are we so crowded tonight?" Your restaurant manager responds: "It's because more people came into the restaurant than left the restaurant."

This is how it feels for many overweight people when they're told to just "exercise more" and "eat less." Clearly, that's the ultimate goal. But HOW.

For me, it was dialing in my carb intake (and cutting out grains/legumes/sugars), that stopped my cravings and greatly improved my energy levels. I naturally started eating much less AND moving more, without any specific effort to do so.

Here's a longer post on Taube's blog about it: http://www.garytaubes.com/2010/12/inanity-of-overeating/

Those who've lost weight (or are struggling to do so), your thoughts?

MyWedding13 · May 2011

I think that is a great way of explaining the calories in vs. calories out concept!

gymbugmj2k · May 2011

interesting, but my biggest pet peeve is those who concentrate solely on a calorie number goal. (sorry. just the way i am!) I know it's an important starting point, but I get nervous when people solely rely on the number (much like a number on a scale isn't an accurate representation of weight and body mass...muscle vs. fat, etc)

i've always looked at it like this:
your body is a machine that runs off of energy (a calorie is a unit of energy, btw). kind of like a car running off of gasoline. you can give your body 1000 calories of energy, but if it's stuff like junk food or fatty foods, its like giving your car watered down gas. it wont respond well. its not what it really needs. when your body is given crap-quality energy, it throws aside the junk part and stores it as fat.....this usually causes a weight gain, and an increase in hunger. your body wants better fuel....unfortunately, if you respond by giving it MORE crap-quality fuel...the vicious cycle begins

i've always told people to focus on eating a large variety of fresh ingredients. whole grains, lots of fruits and veggies, and leaner meat (NOT deli meat). that way the 1000 calories you do eat are of premium quality. cutting out entire categories like carbs isn't the answer, as you are essentially leaving something out of the chemical equation to produce quality energy. balanced, fresh food is the way to go. you'll naturally start feeling less hungry/eating less calories because your body gets what it needs from the good-quality fuel you're giving it.

one of the easiest changes to make is to cut out pop/soda and sugary juices. a lot of those drinks have crap-quality fuel...lots of bad things, without many good vitamins or other nutrients. its essentially a waste to even ingest it. your body does nothing with the content. things like lemon water, or fresh iced tea, or fresh fruit smoothies are more nutrient-dense and will enable your body to use more of the content to produce energy for you.

....a bit longwinded, i'm sorry. i also don't mean to offend anyone. as an athlete, i've always learned that whatever you ingest has an effect/reprocussion on how your body performs. that's just the way I learned about nutrition. that may work for some people, and others may need to look at it a different way.

bottom line is that however you look at it - see it as a permanent change to make your life healthier and happier. there's no shame in taking time to take care of YOU.

An interesting quote about calories in vs. calories out

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