clear answer to NOT counting calories

[jenvachris]

Y'all. I cannot, for the LIFE of me, figure out how to explain to my husband that you don't. have. to count. calories. EVER. again. I know it, and I know the Whole30 works (I'm starting my second one on M, 3/25/13), but I go to explain and....I'm stuck.

Anybody? Thank you in advance.

[Susan W]

The simplest answer is that it is very hard to eat too much steak and broccoli. However, he may think you are being a smart ass if you say that. It is true though.

Also, the meal template is designed to give you an idea of what you should be eating. Then you adjust it to your own personal needs.

When you eat nutrient dense foods with plenty of healthy fats, you are satiated in a way that nutrient light, calorie dense, processed foods don't provide you. You also tend to graze all day long so heck yeah..you'd have to keep a handle on it.

Last but not least, your hormones will be re-set with this method and you will learn to recognize and trust when you are truly hungry and need nourishment.

That all adds up to tossing calorie counting out the window.

I'm sure there are more reasons but those are my favorites.

[Xandra]

I think the main reason not to count calories is that it's a mind game that overrides listening to what your body is telling you. If I added up how many calories I eat in a given day, it certainly wouldn't fit into what most diet plans call for in a weight loss program. But you know what? I lost weight anyway, and now I'm in a range that doesn't change much. My body doesn't tell me numbers, it says things like "tired", "hungry", "thirsty", "full now", "need exercise". None of this is found on the nutrition label of any food product. Part of the Whole30 reset is teaching your mind to chillax a bit so that your body can get a word in edgewise. Once you can start to respect what your body is telling you, you don't need the crutches of nutritional labels to confirm whether you are making good choices, you feel them.

[Delaine Ross]

Here is a good post from Dallas and Melissa: http://whole9life.com/2013/02/you-count-more-than-your-calories-do/

[Jasperina]

I have been so relieved to not have to track food. Tomorrow is day 30, and although I did not really do this for weight loss I will still be curious to see what the scale says.

[annabel]

Personally, I'd just ask him to suspend his disbelief for 30 days and then reevaluate his opinion?

(My husband is a pain to argue with, as he's always sure he's right, so that's the method that I tend to use)

The Guardian had an article last month about how the system for assessing the calorie count in food is outdated and inaccurate. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/feb/18/food-retailers-underestimating-calorie-content

[Kirsteen]

The way I tend to look at it is 'did my grandmother count calories?' - No, she concentrated on trying to feed her family good wholesome meal, she didn't have any concept of calories. Did my father or any of his 5 siblings grow up overweight - no, they simply had a healthy relationship with food.

Does my generation have a healthy relationship with food? Ha! Our biggest chain of 'Health Food' shops sells noodles with zero calories and they're flying off the shelves. Our bodies can't use them and reject them and somehow that's seen as a good thing We wouldn't put petrol in cars if the car couldn't use it, we wouldn't feed our pets food their bodies couldn't use. Yet our society has so divorced food from the real meaning of nourishment that it thinks zero calorie food is wonderful Personally I think it's criminal