Sarahs Weightloss Blog

Dear All,

I think (*touch wood*) that I have solved my weightloss plateau problem!  I’ve found that it’s not just about how many calories you consume in comparison to how many you burn off but what those calories are made up of.  Say for instance you’re allowed 1500 calories per day, and for that 1500 calories you eat a battered deep fried cadburys cream egg (yes these do exist – visit scotland!). Now I have not done this, but what I’ve been doing is pretty close.  I’ve been counting carefully while eating things like burgers, all you can eat chinese and rich xmas food, snacking a lot, but kept up the exercise – the calories said I should have been losing weight, at least 1kg/wk, but I just stayed at exactly the same weight.  However I pledged to clean up my eating mid last week with home cooked food, loads of veggies and snacking on fruit, salad, grains and low fat yoghurt and soya milk etc etc.  With this change back to the healthy eating regime, I am eating exactly the same amount of calories as before (around 1500 kcal), exercising off exactly the same amount of calories as before, but in the last 4 days since I last weighed myself I have lost 0.5 of a kg!  I’m now down to 77.7kgs

So basically in changing the content of my food, rather than the energy the food apparently contained (i.e. how many calories) I have suddenly gone back to exactly the same rate of weight loss as before my slip off the healthy eating wagon.

Now we all should know this, because every nutritionist worth their salt will tell you exactly the same thing – ‘its not all about the calories . . . ‘, ‘don’t count calories, just eat good, pure, honest food that’s good for you in sensible quantities!’, but to be honest it never hit me as completely true until now. The fact is, that if is you JUST COUNT calories and don’t think at all about WHAT you are eating, you can easily find yourself not losing any weight and getting disheartened – what’s the point of depriving yourself if its not working right?  My advice to you therefore is not to look at the calories on the packet but other things as well – salt, fat, saturated fat etc.  Try changing the content of the diet rather than adjust the calorie intake.  

There are other confusing things as well. For example I was put off eating nuts, seeds, dried fruits and avacado, because if you look at their nutrition, they are really high in calories and fats.  I would therefore always opt for a low fat muffin or diet coke because of the lower fat and calories.  However this was not better for me at all.  Now I include these in my diet and have lots more energy, feel fuller, happier and healthier while losing weight.

So take home message – don’t get obsessed with counting calories, think about what make up those calories.

I’ll let you know if this change of diet content rather than calories maintains my weightloss over the coming weeks.

Till next time