Why Counting Calories Doesn’t Work

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Saturday, June 30, 2012 4:22 pm Email this article
As recently as 2008 I was holding classes at my office to teach groups of students how to count calories. I worked hard, and my students are very smart, but not one of them lost any weight. I understand it now. Three reasons. First, no fat person loses weight with exercise. Period. Published in TIME magazine, and everywhere. Known by everyone who ever tried to lose with exercise. Counting calories spent in exercise is useless. Second, you can't know how to count fat-calories unless you know which carbs they were eaten with, because carbs (mainly) control the insulin-switch. Third, timing matters. If identical twins eat the same food, one eats meals only and the other spreads the food out, the "spreader" gets fatter, because the insulin-switch is "on" for more of the day. The idea that "a calorie is a calorie" is plain wrong. In fact, don't even count calories. The French don't count calories and they are lean, but they don't snack and their plates are smaller. The whole subject of losing weight is so darn simple. American overeating is cultural and emotional.

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• Calorie Counting