Time To Talk Dirty!
Shhhh – be quiet, someone might hear you!!!
Whispering: That’s right folks, today we’re talking about two evil and horrible entities straight from the depths of the underworld, likely created by the hands of the dark lord himself!
I am of course talking about CALORIES & WEIGHING SCALES!!!
Wait, what?
That’s right people, for more than a decade now, the calorie has been seen as an evil entity, responsible for anorexia, bulimia, eating disorders, body dysmorphia and a host of other issues.
Likewise, the old bathroom weighing scale, dubbed the sad step and so many other derogatory terms, has been implicated in similar crimes against humanity!
But are they guilty of the crimes for which they are alleged?!
Well, let’s start at the top – what is a calorie?
In chemistry and biology class we were taught that a calorie is defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius.
In even simpler terms, it is essentially a measure of energy and used to describe how much energy foods provide us.
Think of it like the measure of any metric, like volts, amps, kilograms, centimeters, degrees centigrade or kilometers per hour.
Can a volt, centimeter or kilogram be evil?
What about the tools that measure them like a ruler, thermometer or speedometer? Are they evil too?
The kid in physics class might say yes but at the end of the day, they’re not good or bad, they’re just units of measurement and inanimate objects!
So why the bad rep?
Because of the nature of people!
People are flesh and blood, we feel, we love, we hate and sometimes we think more with our feelings than we do with our heads!
Do you prefer McDonalds or Burger King? Iron Man or Batman? Dior or Chanel?
You just need to do a quick Google search and you’ll find numerous forums with people arguing over their preferred choices, often so aggressively and passionately that you’ll forget that these are imaginary and inanimate objects!
Dietary choices are similar, you’ll find people adamantly in the keto camp and against calorie counting and vice versa!
People can sometimes be so caught up in the calorie counting game that they lose themselves and start to become obsessed with the calorie contents of foods, developing unhealthy eating habits and eventually going down the rabbit hole of bad mental and physical health.
The same can be said of the weighing scale, people can be so scared and nervous of what they might see when they get on it that they start to develop fears and anxieties, often with no choice but to give up on their nutrition and fitness journeys and returning to their often equally unhealthy ways!
The reality is that calories and weighing scales are not good or bad.
A calorie is simply a measure of energy and the weighing scale is just a tool to measure your weight with, nothing more or less!
We often hear people say they don’t believe in calories or they don’t want to count calories because they don’t want to go crazy and let it take over their lives. That’s fine but it doesn’t change the fact that calories still count!
Not tracking calories when you eat and drink is like going shopping with your credit card but not looking at how much things cost! Imagine going to all the most expensive shops, the designer luxury boutiques, the Ferrari car showroom and blindly buying everything without looking at the prices!
Ignorance while you’re shopping might be bliss but it could be a disaster when your credit card bill comes out! There could be millions on there and bankrupt you!
Calories are the same, if you just keep eating and drinking everything without knowing how many calories you’re consuming, it might be bliss and enjoyable until you see yourself in the mirror or are hit by devastating health issues!
Ignorance, unfortunately, is not bliss, it’s avoiding the truth because some can’t handle the truth! Just because you don’t like to track calories doesn’t mean they’ll go away!
Whether you believe in calories or not isn’t going to affect the fact that eating in a calorie deficit is needed to lose weight, even if you’re on keto!
The weighing scale is equally demonized but it’s just a tool to track your weight with.
Imagine driving a car with no fuel gauge, how would you know if you needed to pump some gas or if you were going to break down on the highway? Just because seeing the measurement makes you anxious doesn’t mean you don’t need to know!
Sure, stepping on the weighing scale will only show you whether you’ve gained weight or lost weight and not whether you are more or less healthy but it can be useful.
Some of you might not even notice any change in your weight despite dropping pounds of fat (check out our post on why you don’t want to blindly lose weight: https://www.3f.energy/post/lose-fat-not-weight).
The calorie and weighing scale are just tools and any tool can be helpful if used properly.
Track yourself, your mental wellbeing as much as you track your physical health, your calorie intake and weight loss.
Enjoy the process and don’t obsess with the minutiae. If you don’t feel good physically or mentally, stop, get ahead of yourself, reframe things and get back in when you’re ready!
As always, nothing worthwhile comes without effort, but with our plans we’ll show you how you can do it while having a good time, enjoying a lot of delicious foods, to achieve your physique goals and keep them!
You can do it!
Kindest regards,
Dr. Bobby Stryker