calorie counting is wrong. do keto. and eat organic and cleanest oils/fats.
talk to a better ai if you want good advice: https://pickabrain.ai
Discussion
I tried that and haven’t lost anything, tracking it is the only way for me to make progress since its easy for calories to sneak in otherwise
i would check if hypothyroid is the case. maybe supplement with fucus to heal that and iodine, magnesium and b vitamins for energy.
I doubt it’s that, it’s just easy for alcohol to wipe out progress. That’s why explicitly counting these things with an app makes it obvious how much you are blowing your budget with bad habits.
genuinely curious why you think this is “wrong” when weight loss is literally just maintaining a calorie deficit. What exactly is wrong about explicitly tracking this to make sure you maintain the deficit?
there is a lot going on other than calories. when you do calorie counting "they" want you to avoid fats because they claim fats are higher calories. whereas the carbs are raising insulin and insulin causes the storage in your cells, making you fat!
i watch guys like eric berg to get nutrition advice. mindy pelz is good with fasting. (and imagine add those to an AI!).
watching all the weird ass comments to your simple statements is kinda freaking me out.
calorie deficit = fat store access.
I think its a cultural thing in america where it was maybe sold as a trend but the food is so bad that it didn’t work for most people if they were solely tracking calories and nothing else. I dunno man
i was thinking about how much easier it would be to do now with apps and ai. and keep nutrient levels up.
The main problem is it just doesn't work. Very few people successfully starve themselves thin, and even fewer maintain healthy weight that way.
Those who do have a healthy weight rarely count calories.
The technical problem with calories-in calories-out, calorie restriction, calorie counting and exercise as weight loss strategies is that they reverse causality.
Instead of fixing your diet (less toxins) and quitting drugs in order to drive your appetite down and energy up, you try to reverse causality and use sheer willpower to starve or exercise yourself thin. So what happens? You get really hungry and really tired, and your body actually burns less calories (perhaps permanently).
When you see a really obese person, instead of seeing a lazy glutton (which they might be) you should see someone who is *starving*. Their body and brain are screaming at them to eat more and move less, because (thanks to diet and/or drugs) they can't access all that energy.
for me counting calories has made me realize how little room there is for unhealthy foods and alchohol to maintain a deficit, so it has helped me in that regard. If it pushes you to healthy eating via data then whats the problem?
Maybe people think i’m talking about “just tracking calories “, most apps are not that dumb. They track macronutrients as well (protein, fats, carbs, sodium, vitamins).
Or maybe food is so bad in america that when people say calorie counting by itself is a scam, which would make more sense.
I don't track anything, but when I first started keto (carnivore now) I was tracking carbs.
To my mind, if you want to burn body fat the big idea to keep in mind is that your body basically burns either fat or carbs but not both at once (and drinking alcohol is also a carbohydrate).
This is the basic reason people find success with keto or carnivore. It's also the basic reason people find success on low-fat diets (they burn sugar during the day and body fat while fasting between dinner and breakfast).
I agree with all that.
If it's informational and this prompts you to cut out sugar, alcohol and seed oils (or whatever your personal boogeymen are) that's all to the good.
My criticism is about calorie counting to enable calorie restriction as a weight loss strategy, because it failed me and I believe it's failed most people who've tried.
Another point I should make is that weight loss is not health. For best health you want to weigh more in terms of bones, organs, muscles and even skin fat. You want to weigh less in terms of fat under your ribs, cancerous growths and heart blockages.