I recently read a short e-book, “Talking Back to Diet Gurus” by Mike Howard, who is an online fitness guy. I like the way he expressed his point of view on the Calorie issue in the article below, which was posted at Tom Venturo’s website, burnthefatblog.com.

Calorie Denialism: Why It’s Hurting Your Fat Loss Efforts 
             by Mike Howard

Calories have become a perfect target for diet book authors and gurus alike to play on the emotions of those who struggle with weight. In the typical diet book and health blog world, calorie (and any mention of counting them) is met with an illogical amount of hostility. It has become one of the greatest sources of confusion in the world of fat loss and has undoubtedly led to much frustration for those looking to shed pounds. Rest assured you are not alone if you are befuddled by the whole thing…

My aim here is to untangle some of the misconceptions regarding calories, food and eating for fat loss. I wish to arm you with the best knowledge we have regarding fat loss to make the best decision for YOU.

The Anti-calorie Arguments

There are a number of different ways people will try dismiss or at least downplay the importance of calories when it comes to fat loss. How many of these have you heard before?

• Advice to eat less and move more implies that you are calling people gluttons and sloths.
  
  
• Overweight people eat no more than do skinny people.
  
  
• Counting calories doesn’t work.
  
  
• Counting calories is obsessive (extreme, OCD, orthorexic, etc)
  
  
• It’s the carbs/insulin that increases fat – not calories.
   
• Focus on the QUALITY of food because QUANTITY is less relevant/irrelevant
  

In essence, counting calories is responsible for the obesity epidemic, obsessive compulsive disorder and The Kardashians.

Is a Calorie a Calorie?

The answer to this question is a resounding …“kind of”. I’m going to make this as mercifully short and un-nerdy as possible. The calories in/calories out model is an imperfect one due mostly to the differing affects carbohydrates, proteins and fats have on the body during processing. In this case, protein is more metabolically costly to handle than carbs or fats. This renders the model imperfect but not incorrect.

My thesi...

Discipline is broadly defined as "controlled behavior".

Simply wanting something is not enough,
we must define, refine, focus, and schedule
the specific actions that we are going to take
in order to get what we desire.

“I count him braver who overcomes his desires
than him who conquers his enemies;
for the hardest victory is over self.”
-Aristotle (384 – 322 B.C.)