We Need To Stop Calorie Counting

0:00Sunna Van Kampen:Welcome to Catching Up With The Royals, a brand new show with me, Richard Coles. And me, Emily Andrews. Every week we'll be going beyond the headlines, lifting the lid on what life is really like behind the palace walls. Hello sir, good morning. I'm the Sun's new royal correspondent. Oh, he said, look at me up and down. Things are looking up. We'll be diving into the moments everyone's talking about. What does the world owe you if all of a sudden you've handed back your crown? Meghan and Harry can't keep hold of their stuff. We'll reveal the secrets of an organisation usually shrouded in mystery and explore defining moments of royal history to see how the past still shapes the monarchy today.

0:38Now, you actually knew Princess Anne.

0:40Sunna Van Kampen:I think one of the ways she acquired power was through that relationship with the present. But before that interview, no-one had really spoken and been so open. Was that a game-changer? So, join us every week wherever you get your podcasts, on YouTube and on Saturdays on 5, as we catch up with the Royals. Hi, this is Monica Reinagle of Nutrition Diva. Today's show is sponsored by Nature Raised Farms. Grocery shopping can be a little overwhelming, especially if you're reading labels. And in my opinion, chicken shouldn't be complicated, which is why I appreciate Nature Raised Farms. It's chicken that's just chicken, and their lightly breaded chicken nuggets are free from gluten, dairy, and soy.

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2:08Why calorie counting isn't the secret weapon we thought it was. I need to break this down to you today because all the gym bros all over their socials just talk about calories. And look how many calories this is versus that is. And this is how you lose weight. And it's the secret to losing weight. The truth is, it's not that simple. Calorie counting can be obsessive. It can be time consuming. It can be painful and it can cause, you know, psychological food issues, I believe. So let's break it down. Let's get into calories, the basics and look at the truth. A calorie is just a unit of energy. It is essentially taking some food, putting it in an oven and burning it and measuring how much energy comes off burning that food.

2:59Now, that isn't what happens when we put food in our body. There's a lot more nuance to it. So to be clear, if you eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight. So it does work as a tool, but it's not the whole story. The kicker is your body's not a simple calorie calculator. It's a dynamic adaptive system that has hormones, hunger signals, and a metabolism that all shift in response to what and how we eat. Two meals with identical calories can affect your body very differently depending on the processing, the nutrient content, and how they make you feel. Essentially, we should be nutrient seekers.

3:44We need vitamins, minerals, fiber, nutrition to fuel our body. You know, 300 calories from a donut is not 300 calories from a nice juicy steak. They're very, very different. So let's look at some of the label lies. Packaged food calorie counts also, believe it or not, can be up to about 20 % wrong due to rounding and variations of issues in production. So they're not always a reliable measure and there are tolerances within the food industry because it's very hard to measure everything exactly with real food. Cooking methods can change the available calories and how your body utilizes that calories.

4:27You all have all heard the famous cases of, you know, if you cool your rice after cooking it and then eat it cold or reheated, there's more resistant starch buildup in the rice. So you don't absorb and have as much, you don't absorb as much carbs and you have a smaller blood glucose spike on rice when it's just been cooled. But calories are the same, right? And then one of the key points about calories, I believe, is when we eat intuitively, when we eat for our own body and our own fuel and our own hunger signals, you want 500 calories from a whole unprocessed food like beans, veg or meat. If you get 500 calories from a real whole food source is going to fill you up.

5:12The protein will digest slowly. It will keep you full and trigger hormones that say, I'm good. I've had a nice filling meal and I've got the nutrients I need. Now, if you eat 500 calories from sugary snacks and donuts, you get a quick blood sugar rush. You then get a crash and that crash will make you feel hungrier, which then means, A, you haven't eaten enough nutrition. So your body is going, well, but wait a minute, you put this stuff in my body. I've had a bit of sugar. Great. But where's the vitamins? Where's the minerals? Where's the fiber? I need more. So you get hungrier and then you're seeking more food out, which will then mean weight gain because you'll actually overeat and consume too much food, which then means you'll have weight gain.

6:01The other point in this, which is really important, is your body actually adapts to what we do to it. So if you cut calories hard and you go into kind of survival mode, your body thinks it's starving and it's hungry all the time, your body may lower its metabolism. It will make you feel hungrier. So whenever you've been on a diet, I'm sure you all can relate where you're like, oh my God, I'm just starving. I need to eat something. that is the effect of not getting enough calories making your hormones tell you that you're hungrier and hungrier and essentially it can also make you store fat more efficiently so that when you do get food it's like i need to hold on to this because i don't know where my next meal is coming from um so all these mechanisms are working against you and that's why calorie restriction can sometimes cause diets to work at first but then plateau or then when you finish them you rebound very heavily because your body wants food as fuel.

7:01Like to think that we need to be in a constant calorie deficit to maintain our optimal weight is crazy. We need to be in a constant optimal state of fueling our body with nutrition so that it can live the life it needs to do. It can take us on our journey, do whatever we want to do, play the sport we want to do, or just get through the day however we want. That's what fuel is designed for. Our body needs it. It's not that we need to restrict calories. That doesn't make any sense. And when you even look at, you know, ultra processed foods, it's been proven by many studies that, you know, when you eat ultra processed foods, you end up eating more calories and you end up consuming more because you're not getting those hunger signals filled, which is a big problem.

7:50So I've also seen it with personal friends of mine who have been on, you know, who have been bikini fitness champions, professional bodybuilders and on stage where everything is calorie controlled, everything is weighed, measured, tracked on hardcore programs to the point where, you know, they look amazing on stage, but their body is just in a state of stress because they're not getting enough period stop they have then weight issues afterwards because they'll finish a three to six month consistent restrictive regime and then afterwards they're just binge eating anything they want takeaways junk food you name it and their bodies freak out and it's not optimal at all so the simple solution is really just focus on food quality.

8:41Eat intuitively, eat minimally processed foods. And when you're just eating vegetables, fruits, beans, proteins, healthy fats, dairy, I believe you don't need to track anything because your body will tell you that you're full. And then you just need to listen to that because these foods are higher satiation. They make you feel full and then you won't be constantly reaching for a snack bar or a packet of crisps because you're not all always hungry. You will feel full. These are the keys. Fiber also slows down digestion, stabilizes blood sugar, supports your gut in a way that an ultra-processed food will not.

9:21Really, for me, as much as I played sport, as much as I wanted six-pack abs when I was a 20-year-old, I could never get my head around calorie counting because I just didn't fundamentally have the time to track every bit of food I put in my mouth. I thought it was just complete nonsense. And as soon as you figure out it's just about listening to your body, eating intuitively, and sticking to whole, unprocessed, or minimally processed foods where you're eating meat, vegetables, dairy, fish, you name it, you're going to be on the right track. It really is that simple. That's the good news. The answer to this isn't another diet.

10:00The answer is so simple. Just eat minimally processed whole foods and listen to your body and you will feel amazing. Your biology will do the work it needs to do to keep you healthy. Now, there are certain instances, don't get me wrong, if you are already overweight or obese, a calorie controlled counted diet where you're on a proper program might make a lot of sense to you. I'm just talking about the average person, what the average person should do on their weekly shop and how you can simply not need to worry about calories in a normal situation. Don't get me wrong. There are medical conditions and instances where we might need to look at calories, where we might need to do more controlled things.

10:41But as a general principle for the general population to stay healthy, to maintain a healthy weight, I think the simplest thing you can do is focus on good proteins and fats, which fill you up, focus on whole foods, and then you don't need to worry about the numbers of the calories. Just focus on the nutrition. Am I eating real food that's going to benefit my body and fill me up. It's really that simple. Yes, calories matter in certain instances, but counting them obsessively misses the point of food. Food is nourishment. It is not calorie. And focusing on nourishment is the key. Eating real food is the key.

11:20Listening to your body is the key. And that will take care of the numbers and your weight itself. It really is that simple. Thank you for listening.

11:33Hi, this is Monica Reinagle of Nutrition Diva. Today's show is sponsored by Nature Raised Farms. Grocery shopping can be a little overwhelming, especially if you're reading labels. And in my opinion, chicken shouldn't be complicated, which is why I appreciate Nature Raised Farms. It's chicken that's just chicken, and their lightly breaded chicken nuggets are free from gluten, dairy, and soy. Look for nature-raised farms on your next grocery trip and feel more confident about your choices. Quick question. When was the last time a display ad changed your mind? Now think about the last time a friend told you about something they loved.

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