For years I have been telling people that from a weight loss perspective a calorie is a calorie. If you need 1500 calories to maintain your weight - then even if you overeat an addtional 200 calories of "really healthy food" daily- you will ultimately gain weight - the "healthy part" is great from other perspectives - but over eating is overeating.
That being said the quality of calories is still very, very important. If you eat 1500 calories of high salt, high sugar, high fat foods - then you will be putting yourself at risk for diseases like high blood pressure, possibly diabetes, certainly heart disease, maybe even some cancers. The quality of your foods is vital to your most important goal which is long term health; certainly keeping your calories in check is vital to your weight, which also ties into your health. but I have seen too many women eating diets that meet the "right number of calories" but whose ingredient are troubling from a quality of health perspective. It is so easy to eat a donut and coffee for breakfast, 2 diet cokes during the morning, a small taco for lunch, a processed food bar in the afternoon, and a small fast food meal for dinner OR save the bulk of their unhealthy calories for the second half of the day. It can be easy to maintain your weight - but healthgoals??Not happening on that food plan.
And diets that simply offer sugar substitutes and processed ingredients to create lower calorie food, again, may help you to meet your daily calorie tally BUT NOT health goals. They also lure you into overeating - because they are lower calorie and often full of empty calories that don't sustain you. I can also share that many of my clients do those kind of diets-repeatedly - and then find the diets annoying (your taste buds do taste the difference between artificial and real ingredients). So the moral of the story?? It does take calorie counting to be true to a weight loss goal. It also takes some relatively easy and tasty food choices to guarantee thatthose calories confer long term health. Think of it as a daily math check list-
Check off 3-4 servings of fruit daily ( a serving is a small to medium piece or 1/2 cup)
Check off 1-2 servings of fat free/1% fat milk or dairy products (or soy)
Check off 5 servings of veggies daily (steamed, fresh or canned -rinse salt - of frozen)
Check of 6 to 8 ounces of protein (go for white meat, fish, soy, beans and legumes, nuts and nut butters)
Check off CAREFULLY between 2 and 6 servings of high fiber/whole grain carbohydrate ( a serving is 80 calories)-bread/rice/potatoes/cereal
Check off 2-3 servings (45 calories each) of healthy fats - olive oil, avocado, nut oils, monounsaturated fats)
You choose the number of portions of dairy, carbs and how much protein based on age needs, gender, activity and weight loss goals.
So though the trendy diets and recipe makeovers lure you....the real deal is a calorie is a calorie BUT quality counts too.
Check out www.fatfamiliesthinfamilies.com for more about weight loss/healthy eating
Read my "Running Away From Home" blogs at: http://www.cafemom.com/journals/archive.php?type=mine
Twitter with me -HealthGal1103
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