I’ve been thinking about why it’s important to count calories, and I’ve come up with a number of reasons. Let’s start with a lightweight list:
- I have a “charitable memory” – I can’t remember what I’ve eaten and how much.
- I don’t always eat slowly and give my brain time to catch up with my stomach.
- All those “diet plans” that tell me I can eat however much I want as long as I eat “the right things” – they don’t know me at all, do they?
- Exercise is extremely important to your overall health, but without calorie control will not make you lose weight.
Now for some more weighty items:
- Bottom line – I can’t lose if I don’t eat less calories than I burn – high protein diet, low fat diet, Atkins Diet, South Beach Diet, Grapefruit Diet, Diet of the Month Diet, Diet of the Day Diet, blah blah blah. In the end, they’re all the same plan – consume less calories than you burn.
- Once I start counting calories and having a limit, it becomes increasingly obvious what foods fill me up and make me feel good versus foods that have a lot of calories but no “staying power”. That’s what leads to the reduction or elimination of foods from my diet.