I am beyond over this “skinny” trend. “Skinny” cupcakes made with refined wheat, genetically modified sugar, low-fat vegetable oil and fake eggs? “Skinny” chicken made with margarine? All so we can continue eating genetically modified, processed junk but stay within a calorie limitation?
Please.
Counting calories will not help you lose weight or make you healthier; the body thrives on calorically dense foods like pastured meat, wild seafood and grass-fed butter. These are health foods.
And can I say I’m over the word skinny in general? Call me trim, call me toned, call me strong, call me muscular, but do not call me skinny. I don’t want to be skinny, I want to be healthy.
If we shift the focus from weight loss to actually being healthy, maybe women wouldn’t count calories. Maybe little girls won’t go on diets. And maybe when we shift the focus to health, people will actually lose weight. Because the only weight to lose weight and keep it off is by eating healthy, unrefined food. Not counting calories, not eating low-fat.
A calorie in is not a calorie out, and a calorie from a grass-fed steak is sure as hell a whole lot different than a calorie from a 100 calorie snack pack.
The big problem with counting calories is that the body does not metabolize all calories the same. While the body will use the nutrients from the steak, the 100 calorie snack pack provides no nutrients and is full of chemically refined garbage. The body will turn junk food like this to fat, and furthermore, eating these products pollutes the body. Low calorie foods in general are just not as healthy as their calorically dense counterparts. Quinoa is not as healthy as salmon, olive oil is not as healthy as butter, oatmeal is not as healthy as an egg. This doesn’t mean we should only eat these higher calorie foods; it just means that we should practice a balanced diet that incorporates healthy, higher fat foods. It means that we should stop counting calories and using calories as a determination of what we should or should not eat.
Hunger is a signal that is sent to the brain when the body is low on nutrients. When you eat a nutrient deficient diet, like a low-calorie diet, you will be hungry much more often than if you ate a normal, balanced diet. Not only are you likely to overeat, you’ll eat more nutrient depleted food, and the process will start all over again. It’s a vicious cycle.
Plus, can anyone maintain a lifelong relationship with calorie counting? Not only is it unsustainable, it’s builds a really unhealthy relationship with food. People no longer see food as a source of sustenance or enjoyment, but as a numerical figure they have to fit within their own specific daily limitation. Who wants to live like that?
This doesn’t mean eat whatever you want. It doesn’t mean you should go out and down 3 cupcakes in one sitting. It means you should shift your focus to nutrient density, not calories. We need to stop counting calories in food and start counting the chemicals in food.
The key to health and to weight loss isn’t to limit calories, the key is to eat well. Eat organically, eat a variety of foods. Eat meat, eat seafood, eat a ton of veggies. Eat what your ancestors ate. If your great-great grandmother wouldn’t recognize a food, don’t eat it!
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