“Calories In/Calories Out” Theory Revisited
You may have seen personal trainers, or even (gulp!) dieticians talk about the “Calorie In/Calorie Out Theory,” or some have called it the “Calorie Is Just a Calorie” argument. Guess what? They’re full of sh...uh...full of “Insulin Denial Syndrome.” (We just made that up—but it’s a thing—and a very pervasive thing.
Saying that losing weight is simply an equation of burning more calories than you consume, ignores the role of insulin in the body. And ignoring the role of insulin in the body is why we are currently enjoying a global pandemic of obesity and Type 2 Diabetes, the likes of which the world has never seen before.
Calories in, calories out...calories stored
One of the problems with the “Calories In/Calories Out” theory, is that calories also do something else—they get stored. The main hormone that signals whether calories are burned for energy or are stored, is insulin. For example, if you eat a plate of chocolate chip cookies that is 1000 calories, it has a very different insulin response than a 1000-calorie plate of meat and vegetables. The sugar in the plate of cookies will spike blood sugar, and consequently, insulin. The insulin then signals your body to store that energy as fat. The high insulin also sends a signal to the body to not burn fat as energy. The plate of meat and vegetables will cause a very mild rise in blood sugar, and resulting release of insulin, and the energy will not get stored as fat.
Reducing calories for weight loss
So what happens when you try and lose weight? When you reduce calories, your body’s metabolism slows down to meet the low energy intake. It’s a basic defense mechanism that we have. If food is in short supply, we better slow down and survive. How do you feel? Miserable. Cold. Hungry. Angry. Sounds great, right? So in this miserable state, you force yourself to exercise—and ignore the increased hunger signals that happen as a result. And you lose weight. And you’re miserable. And the weight loss plateaus. And you become even more miserable, and if you’re like 9/10 people that diet—you start eating more, and the yo-you dieting phenomenon is in full swing.
Reducing insulin for weight loss
There’s got to be a better way, right? Well, yes—there is. If we focus on eating low-insulin response foods, the energy we take in does not get signalled by insulin to be stored as fat. This is what happens on a low carb/high fat diet. To make things even better, your metabolism doesn’t slow down on this type of diet, and your body adapts to using stored fat as energy. Additionally, higher fat foods are more satiating than higher carb foods—so you naturally eat less.
Tools for your weight loss tool kit
This article is not meant to be a manifesto in support of low carb/high fat diets. There are many reasons why you may want more carbs in your diet, like for instance, if you are an athlete that needs to have explosive power at your disposal—then carbs would actually be the fuel of choice. But if weight loss or even weight control is a goal of your’s, then taking a look at insulin response instead of overall calories is a useful tool for your weight loss tool kit. The idea that “a calorie is a calorie” will lead to a lot of frustration and lock you into a cycle of feeling bad and yo-yo weight loss/gains.