You need to be in an energy deficit to lose weight, that’s just simple physics. Calories (or joules) are a unit of energy and they are used to measure your intake and expenditure. If you learn how much your body burns and how many calories are in the foods you eat, you should be fine, right?
My Advice: Have a follow-up plan
Counting calories can be very helpful for those who don’t have much experience with dieting or for athletes who need to be very precise. It can also be useful for people who tried perhaps too many diets and need to get back on track. The thing about calorie counting is that it can be quite demanding. It takes time, attention, and a lot of discipline to note down every piece of food you take in. In other words, it’s not a sustainable strategy over the long-term. That’s why it is essential to have a follow-up plan. You should learn the principles of healthy eating so that you can improvise and rely on your judgement later when you transition from calorie counting to the real world.
You will learn all about the limitation of calorie counting, how to do it right, and how to set up a follow-up plan in this series. But before we start you can test how much you know about calorie counting in our quiz.
