THE CALORIE COUNTING MYTH

IF RESTRICTIVE DIETS DON'T WORK, HOW CAN WE MAINTAIN A HEALTHY BODY WEIGHT?

- LARA KILNER

We’re all familiar with the idea of counting calories. In fact, four in 10 of us are obsessed with it.* It’s science, isn’t it? Eat more calories than you burn = gain weight. Burn more than you eat = lose weight.

So why is it hard to shift the pounds? And what if science has got it wrong? Those are the questions London UCH bariatric surgeon Andrew Jenkinson has asked during his studies of 2,000 obese people.

“I was intrigued why someone would want me to remove their stomach rather than go on a diet. How could it be so difficult?” says Dr Jenkinson. “It got me thinking that maybe we had this wrong, that diets aren’t as simple as calories in and calories out; that there are other things going on with our metabolism.”

The good news is he has proved restrictive diets don’t work. Even better, he knows how we can lose weight for good. But we need to understand the reasons before fixing the problem. So here comes the science bit in three simple steps…

1 WISE UP ON YOUR HORMONE SIGNALS

Never heard of leptin? It’s the reason you’re not losing weight. Leptin is a hormone that comes from fat cells and is released into the bloodstream. The more fat cells you have, the more leptin.