Q: Should I Be Counting Calories?

Coreen: I usually get this question about counting calories a few minutes after discussing a menu plan I set up for a client.  The reason is that many people panic when they see the amount of fat I include in their plan.

This question is MOST common with people with blood sugar issues since I include a little more fat to help stabilize their blood sugars.  Fat and protein help to block the sugar from going too high in their blood stream, so if they don’t eat enough fat and protein, too much insulin will be signaled to be secreted as blood sugars climb. Then too much insulin pulls out too much sugar, and the need for food, or specifically sugar, comes back.

It often takes a lot of convincing before someone trusts me enough to do what I am suggesting.  Many people are so used to decreasing fat and avoiding it as much as possible that when I talk about the need to increase healthy fat, they can’t quite put their head around it.  There are more calories in fat, so this is why I really don’t recommend that my clients count their calories.  I allow it ONLY after a person is eating balanced.  However, when people start eating balanced, they rarely have a need to count calories since they are feeling better, not craving - not needing to limit - since they are not overeating.

People start to trust me and understand where I am coming from when they eat more calories than ever before (because of increased healthy fat and protein) and find they are losing inches and weight.  To be quite honest, I don’t ever recommend calorie counting…if someone is obsessed with calories, I work with them towards the goal of stopping calorie counting altogether.  I love the success stories of my clients when they laugh at the times of the past they were obsessed with calories, eating less food and never feeling good.  Now they have dropped their obsession with calories, are eating balanced, feel fantastic and look slimmer than ever.  The “calories in versus calories out” theory just doesn’t fit into my way of teaching and educating.