With the recent start of both The Biggest Loser (season 7) and the Australian version (season 4), I get a lot of questions from clients and people around the ‘net about this “calories in vs. calories out” dogma. Those of you who’ve been reading my articles know that for the last 10 years I’ve been saying “a calorie is not a calorie” and that one should concentrate on nutrient quantities and partitioning/timing.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Calories can be helpful and you still need to “burn” more energy than you consume to burn off body fat. However, calories should never, I repeat, never be the base for establishing the amount of food to eat. Saying, “I’m eating 1500 calories worth of food”, doesn’t say anything. 1500 kcal of what? Bread and butter? It’s totally meaningless and it gives you a wrong idea of nutrition. What is important is the amount of nutrients you’re getting, where they come from and when you consume them.

Let me give you an example:

Some trainer says that their client consume 1500 kcal and then you, a regular guy without any deep nutritional knowledge, assumes that 1500 kcal is a good place to start, right? Or at least less than you need, so you’re calorie deficient. Right? Okay, so what will these 1500 kcal consist of? Well, you probably think that low fat diary, grains, rice, coarse rye bread, chicken, fruit etc. are healthy foods. So you just put together some meals from these choices. Heck, it’s not that important. It’s calories in vs. calories out after all, right? Thus your diet might end up something like this:

A few slices of bread with low fat cheese, oatmeal with orange juice, some fruits, a chicken salad and a fat free yoghurt. After doing some counting on the amounts of the selected food you end up with roughly 1500 kcal. Great, right? You think? Let’s sum up the nutrients you’re getting.

It might be something like this:
Protein: 60 grams (might be enough if you’re 100lbs and in a coma)
Fat: 20 grams (way too little and mostly saturated)
Carbohydrates: 260 grams (sure, if you move about all day and have good insulin sensitivity)

Now, let’s imagine a diet were we concentrate on good food choices, such as meat, fish, poultry, game, veggies, nuts and some occasional fruit, and were we will have a good nutritional balance and timing. This diet might give you:

Protein: 190 grams (protein in every meal)
Fat: 55 grams (mostly from fish oil and vegetable oil)
Carbohydrates: 55 grams (after workout)

Both diets gives you roughly 1500 kcal. But do you honestly think they will produce the same results? Of course not! A calorie is not a calorie!
A hundred calories worth of carbohydrates will not cause the same hormonal response as a hundred calories worth of protein or fat. And a hundred calories from sugar will not have the same physiological effect as a hundred calories from fiber, even though they are technically both considered carbohydrates.
People who says otherwise are either completely ignorant or are using huge amounts of illegal chemical substances.

This is, (somewhat simplified), why I prefer to use nutrient quantities to design a diet instead of using calories to establish the amount of food to eat.
Maybe we should rephrase that old dogma to “Nutrients in vs. energy out.”

 
Hello Earth – and Sweden in particular. Fredrik and I have been working on the second edition of our reFORM’s Talent Hunt and we’re now ready to start accepting applications. This year there will be 12 talents sponsored with nutritional- and training programs, supplements, clothes, competition license and fees, travelling expenses, coaching, coloring etc. Read more at our reFORM website and tell your friends!