Love Food, Hate Counting Calories? This Is the Guide You Need
In this week’s blog I’m sharing the surprisingly simple secret to eating well while also losing weight
If, like me, you think there must be more to life than constantly counting calories, you are in the right place. Food is more than just fuel and it’s okay to enjoy what you eat. And, yes, you already know you need to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight. Consistently eating more calories than we burn will cause us to put on weight, but this still doesn’t mean we have to spend all of our time strictly counting calories. In this week’s blog I’m sharing one simple principle which can help you to reduce your calorie intake without reducing your portion sizes.
Before we do that, let’s take a quick look at what a calorie actually is. The word calorie, comes from the latin, “calor” and means “heat”, is the measure of heat energy needed to raise 1 gram of water by one degree centigrade. So, it’s the heat produced when we metabolise food. As you know, calories come from our food and the different macronutrients contain different amounts of calories per gram of food.
· Protein contains 4 calories per gram of food
· Carbohydrate contains 4 calories
· Fat provides 9 calories
· Alcohol gives us 7 calories per gram of food.
Fat is the most calorie dense macronutrient and provides the most energy when it is broken down.
What is Energy Density and Why Does It Matter When It Comes To Weight Loss?
The energy density of a food is the amount of calories per gram and, as we’ve just seen, the energy density of food depends on its macronutrient content. Lower energy density foods provide fewer calories per gram of food and higher energy density foods contain more calories per gram of food. Low energy density foods tend to be high in water and fibre content and include things like fruits, vegetables and whole grains. These foods are great because they can fill us up; filling up our plate without increasing our calorie intake. When we eat more low energy density foods we can decrease our calorie intake without reducing our portion sizes, which let’s face it is good news all around.
High energy density foods have a lot of calories in a small amount of food. These foods are generally high in fat and have a low water content, for example nuts, seeds and oils. Just to give an example, 2 cups of broccoli provides just 62 calories while 2 cups of almonds contains 1,360 calories.
Variety Is King - Why We Need Both Low and High Energy Density Foods In Our Diets
This is crucial - high calorie foods are not bad. I’m not demonising calories here. We literally need calories to survive. While almonds may be high in calories they are also rich in nutrients including fibre, vitamin E and magnesium. We need to eat enough calories for our energy needs, so that our bodies can carry out all the necessary processes and chemical reactions that literally keep us alive. We’re even burning calories when lying on the sofa partaking in a Netflix marathon (my blog Beyond Calorie Counting will tell you all you need to know about this). In order to meet our calorie intake we need to include both low energy density and high energy density foods in our diet. We need to eat a mixture of all three macronutrients to make sure we’re getting all the nutrients we need in our diet.
Eating only vegetables would not only leave you short on calories and nutrients, but you also wouldn’t feel full and satisfied after eating. In fact, you’d probably be exhausted. It would be a challenge to eat anywhere close to 2,000 calories a day of just vegetables.
Enjoying our foods is always important and feeling hungry and unsatisfied is likely to have you reaching for the high sugar, high carb foods later on. Balancing your meals with low and high energy density foods, to make sure we are getting a mix of carbohydrates, proteins and fats, will ensure we are full and satisfied after eating and keep us feeling fuller for longer.
Eat Well Without Stress: A Foolproof Guide to Balanced Meals
Image taken from Institute of Health Sciences
One easy way of making sure you’re getting the right balance of low and high energy density foods in your diet is to make things like salads or poke bowls where you combine large portions of vegetables and leafy greens with things like whole grains that are slightly higher in energy density. Topping this with beans, lentils, lean meat and fish and then adding a sprinkling of nuts or seeds will help you to create a meal that is delicious, nutritious, satisfying and balanced.
Use the ideal meal plate: Make sure at least half of your plate is made up of vegetables to add bulk to your plate without increasing your calorie intake. Then add whole grains or starchy veg such as whole grain rice, pasta or potatoes as roughly one quarter of the plate and a lean protein for the last quarter. Adding oils is a quick way to increase the amount of calories, so while we do need healthy fats in our diets, it’s important to be mindful of portion size when we’re trying to lose weight. If you can eat using the ideal meal plate as a guide as often as possible, you’ll find losing weight without constantly counting calories is not just possible but actually pretty straightforward. And I am all about eating well in the least stressful way possible.
How about you? What’s your biggest takeaway from this week’s blog post? Let me know if you’ll be trying this in the comments.
As always, thanks for reading. I’ll be back next weekend.
Take care,
Catherine xx