michelle@thegoodhealthshop.co.za
039 315 5351

We generally don’t count calories any more these days because there are so many other more fun, sensible, user-friendly ways to tackle weight-loss. Yet we still see people who have changed their whole way of eating – paleo, banting, vegan, Weight-loss groups, sugar and/or dairy and/or gluten elimination – but they still don’t lose weight. Or they lose and gain in and endless vicious circle…

It really all comes back to the concept of Calories: If your “calories in” were pretty much equal to your “calories out,” then by now you should know exactly what you’d need to do… To lose weight, either decrease your calorie intake by a small amount, increase your activity so that you burn more calories, or do a combination of both (borrowed words from www.acaloriecounter.com/calorie-counting.php)

You don’t have to have a calorie counter or become obsessed with your portions. A little Common sense goes a l.o.n.g way…

(And yes, their source is extremely important. In fact, the phrase “a calorie is a calorie is a calorie” is very misleading, but ultimately, if you are eating too many, you WON’T lose weight.)

When you start to lose weight, your body gets to a lighter ‘set point’, and you need to eat even fewer calories in order to lose weight.

Often, people plateau because they lose 15kgs but continue to eat the same amount of food they were eating while they were still carrying that extra weight around.

The truth is, it can be REALLY hard to track how many calories you’re actually eating. It’s a pain, really. In fact, the estimate is that over 90% of people have NO idea how many calories are in the foods that they eat.

The answer may simply lie in portion control. How much food are you eating at a time? Even if it’s ‘healthy’, reducing the amount on your plate by 1/3 reduces your intake; so, if you’re eating too much for your current weight, lower your caloric intake, and you should start losing the weight again.

So simple, except we never thought about it til it was pointed out to us 😉