Hi guys, it's Jacob Nadav from BellyProof.com I'm here in London, it's rainy outside and
I thought I'd use the time to make a little video, sit by the window, get a bit of fresh
air and explain to you why I think you shouldn't worry about calories
One of the most frequent questions I kept getting when I did my own body transformation
is how many calories did I eat?
You might be asking the right guy but I think you're asking the wrong question.
Because I don't know. What is a calorie?
I don't think calories are relevant, sorry!
Obviously, this got me into weird conversations, even with fitness professionals because they
kept asking me that.
"What do you mean? Calories deficit.
Eat less, train more... etc...".
And I'll explain:
The very basic thing we're told about weight loss is that you need to burn more calories
than you take in, or in other words, creating a calorie deficit.
Besides counting calories, we also have the concept of high metabolism, low metabolism
and your BMR which means calories burnt at rest.
This may sound simple.
Work hard to burn more calories, eat less to get less calories in and ideally from high
quality food to get all the vitamins, minerals etc in order to keep your metabolism high.
Nice and simple.
But is it?
Here's some other stuff we know:
We know body fat breaks into free fatty acids in what's called fat breaking or Lipolysis
We know low glycogen, exercise, lack of sleep, poor gut health and too much stress all produce
Cortisol and that excess Cortisol makes us store fat.
Ironically, we also know that low glycogen & exercise are conditions to help us burn
fat.
We know that the breaking of fat tissue happens primarily with adrenaline & growth hormone,
which you get more of when you recruit muscle fibers from type 2b.
Unless your Insulin levels are too high at the time, because Insulin interferes with growth
hormone production and is directly associated with storing fat.
We know the pancreas triggers Insulin secretion when it senses a rise in blood sugar and it
is influenced by insulin resistance, insulin sensitivity, fasted states and more.
We know glycemic index, measures how fast certain foods raises blood sugar, and that
Insulin helps us clear that blood sugar by activating glucose transponders on fat cells.
We know belly fat has unique properties like restricted blood flow, high amount of cortisol
receptors and high amount of Alpha-2 Receptors which makes it stubborn to lose than the rest
of our body fat.
Importantly, we know alpha-2 receptors can't be inhibited while insulin is high, slowing
down the breakdown of fat tissue in the belly compared to rest of the body.
We know that aerobic activity burns fat, when it has been broken.
And burn glycogen, and water, when it hasn't.
We can cover other stuff from testosterone and estrogen to your thyroid and probiotics
but I think just looking at the wonderful mess in-front of you, you can now begin to
understand that calories are as real as.. well.. unicorns.
They might do if you're just taking your first steps into fitness, but seriously, counting
calories is like waving a flag saying you still believe in the tooth fairy.
You know, because it's so much easier to believe in a simple idea than to question how it fits
into the evidence we have.
Unfortunately, that belief in calories and ignorance of hormonal reactions have no place
if you are serious about proper weight loss and belly fat.
Let's make it more interesting, let's assume the scientific evidence don't exist and revert
back to counting calories.
Do the numbers even add up?
They told you that every pound of fat equals 3,500 calories.
So in essence they ask you to look at the food you eat and the calories it contains,
vs the exercise you do and the calories you burn.
This is really nice as it maintains the illusion that you can actually count that, but what
they forgot to tell you is that you can’t actually count it and here’s why:
First it’s how we measure the calories we take in.
The legal margin of error for food labeling is 20% and in many cases the margin of error
is much bigger.
So, that means those 1000 calories you were planning to eat today, might in fact be 20%
or higher (ie. 1200+) so you can't rely on what it says on the pack.
Second, there is not a single accurate way to measure the calories burnt in exercise.
You can guess it or estimate it.
You can have a machine estimate it for you or even your new digital wrist band but unfortunately
you can’t really count it.
So, counting calories?
Surprise!
It's impossible to count calories (but well done for guessing).
The other thing is that those calories you think you've just eaten don't always absorb
the same way.
-Sometime your food turns to energy, what you like to call calories.
-then some times, the very same food end up in your stool.. and unless you count the calories
in your poop...
-Other times, food doesn't absorb in your gut like it should, which can inflame your
gastrointestinal tract, bloat you and release a ton of cortisol into your system.
Even if that food was low calories - it can lead to less recovery and more fat gain if
it goes through that process.
Think this is bad?
Stay with me: If I gave you two products, both 50g each.
One of them contains 450 Calories, the other one contains only 200 calories.
You'd assume the higher calories product will make you fatter.
Right?
At the same time, most of you know for that eating low carbs can be a great starting point
for weight loss.
And here's the problem.
Fat is 9 calories per gram, and carbs are 4 calories per gram.
Multiplied by 50g and you get the quoted numbers of 450g vs 200g respectively.
So if you know that diets which are low carb high fat, are indeed good for weight loss,
you have to understand that you're talking about a higher calorie diet.
High calories and weight loss?!
Huh?
Isn't that the exact opposite of what they told you?
And what about low calorie drinks like diet soda.
They have no calories - how dare they defy the system and make us fat?
See what I mean?
Let's go a bit deeper into the roots: Ever heard the term Glycemic Index?
Most of the research into high GI low GI was done in the context of diabetics and pre-diabetics,
looking at blood sugar and insulin resistance.
It’s kind of like two people arguing about white bread VS brown bread until a third person
comes along and says ‘Well, bread.
Maybe you shouldn’t eat bread.’
Seems there are 3 sides to every story, which is why it's hardly surprising that many bodybuilders
often have pre-diabetic signs like decreased insulin sensitivity, considering they eat 6-8
meals a day but they will tell you it is to keep high metabolism by ingesting food constantly.
Sure.
And it's quite interesting to see where a lot of this research is coming from because
a lot of it is funded by companies who want to sell you food.
So let’s pause for a second and think, what are calories, who came up with that?
So yes, calories: We use them to measure the energy stored in food.
If you look a little bit deeper you’d find out that they were originally used to measure
the energy needed to heat 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius.
Yes - this is what is a calorie, water heating measurement.
Now, is it at all possible that by measuring the energy in food which dates back two centuries,
and then making all those massive conclusions towards weight loss we got a bit carried away?
How carried away?
Well, probably one the biggest examples is Starvation Mode or the fear of your body slowing
down metabolism, storing fat and degrading muscle tissue.
This has long been proved wrong, both in the Minnesota Starvation study in the 1950s and
more recently, in 1992, in a military research led by Karl E Freidl.
If you went ahead on a course to become a personal trainer or a nutritionist, you would
still be taught... today, that Starvation Mode is a real thing and you should be scared of
it because it’ll slow down your metabolism, you’ll pack on fat and you’ll lose muscle
and you’d be a mess!
Now starvation mode does exist but it's a very extreme state.
But that doesn't bother the fitness industry which still teaches people it's just around
the corner.
What do I mean? Well one of the things most associated with starvation mode
is the concept of breakfast.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, you shouldn't skip breakfast!
Why?
Because it’ll slow down your metabolism!
What it metabolism?
Oh, wait I don’t know!
See, there is a lot of money in the food industry and and it does affect what you hear.
Who said skipping breakfast is such a bad idea?
Is it possible we are influenced by food advertising, trying to convenience us we should never go hungry
because being a little hungry is a horrible thing. At least according to the tooth fairy!
If you've done intermittent fasting then hopefully you know what I'm talking about
Look at it like that, who do we resemble more?
Mechanical constructs, like a car, or living constructs like mammals?
Well I can say for a fact that while you may not be a whale or a cheetah, you're most definitely,
not a car.
And of course when you look at nature a cheetah or a lion wakes up everyday to breakfast.
Beans on toast... or cereals.
Ha.. they wish.
They wake up hungry and hunt.
By the way, hunting, is intense physical exercise, and nobody hunts if they don't need to.
More so, most animals in nature, once they feed they rest.
They don’t feed and then say ;oh, I need to work out because I’m going to lose muscle’.
So yeah, animals do intense physical exercise better
whether it's working out hard or whether it's hunting... when they are hungry!
My very last point is that the while you can confidently say good nutrition and good exercise
are important, the mainstream theories don't always add up.
There are plenty of examples of lean people who don't get enough deep sleep.
become hungry and eat a ton of calories and yet stay lean.
Some of them even went to the extreme of food challenges like the 10,000 calories challange
in one sitting.
What you might call a cheat day.
Look at them, most of them... they are not obese, they are not fat.
On the other hand, there are many individuals that gain weight almost regardless of what
they do.
The smallest piece of cake and their world is upside down and many of them will admit
that people have the audacity to call them lazy despite eating well and training.
It doesn't mean it's genetics and it doesn't mean they can't improve the way they work
but it does mean that the assumption that it's just about calories is false.
When we eat better and train and it doesn't work, we tend to blame it on genetics and
metabolism, we "fat shame" and call people lazy, And more often than not say
"oh it's just motivation, just keep going train harder"
Go on the same sort of thinking that never got us far in the first place.
Maybe we shouldn’t obsess about the calories if things don’t add up.
Maybe we should also look at other ideas.
There are a lot more good points to be made here, but please take a second and think about it.
Why is it so trendy to talk about calories and metabolism?
This is a dead-end conversation that doesn't actually factors for the biological processes
that take place.
Why not talk about the biological processes instead, and how to optimize them?
Why whenever something doesn’t add up with calories do people tend to bring up ‘oh
it must be a low metabolism or high metabolism’?
Metabolism is the sum of all biochemical reactions in the body.
So, this is the concept of talking about metabolism, or the sum of all reactions, without understanding
the reactions themselves.
I want to put some things in perspective.
Look, If you’ve never done any fitness in your life, you’re obese, you’re eating
for a family of 5 and you’re eating junk food, sure!
Maybe you can eat less and train harder and you’d lose weight, I have no problem with
that.
But if you’re trying to get serious, you can’t talk about maximum weight loss by
counting calories.
And I’ll say more than that.
If you’re reducing the human body to calories in - calories out then you are doing it a
pretty grave misjustice.
The body is far, far more complex than that.
Look, we don’t know everything.
Science doesn’t know everything, I don’t know everything.. but we know a lot!
We know calories don’t count for most of the biological processes.
We know macros are a better way to quantify food and I absolutely agree you need
to quantify food.
You can’t eat as much as you want from whatever, that’s not what I’m saying.
You do need to quantify food but why use calories when you can use macros?
I think we should stop over-simplifying things if I’m honest.
I think we’re way over simplifying, we’re saying “oh, you want to lose weight?
It’s just about the way you look, just eat less and train harder.
Be in a calorie deficit”.
You can’t really take the human body and reduce it to calories in and calories out.
There’s a bit more to the story.
Now, I’m going to put some info down the page and look, guys, feel free to ask me anything.
I’m here, I’m not anonymous in any way.
This is me, I don’t claim to know everything.
I think if you ask me good questions I will research and I will come back to you with
an answer.
That’s it from me.
Hope it was helpful and have a lovely day!