The calorie-counting dilemma

Burning more calories than you consume sounds easy, but if you want to achieve calorie deficit, here's how to get it right

- Jen Thomas

All weight loss diets work on a single premise-to eat less than your body requires to fund daily movement. Your body will tap into your fuel stores to keep you functioning, like withdrawing money from a bank account to pay your bills. The more you withdraw without depositing more, the smaller your bank balance (and, in this case, your fat stores) will be.

From a pure calorie deficit argument, no diet is the best. All methods are roads that lead to the same destination. However, I will tell you the one that I find, from my experience, is troublesome-and that's calorie counting.

Our bodies use energy derived from food to perform our daily functions, and how we measure this energy is in the form of Calories (C) or kilocalories (kcal).

According to an article titled How Do Food Manufacturers Calculate the Calorie Count of Packaged Foods? published in Scientific American, an item of food is placed in a sealed container called a bomb calorimeter' and entirely burned while simultaneously heating water. The amount of energy the food contains is, therefore, how much is required to heat the water to 1 degree Celsius. Although we primarily reference "calories" in food, it's more accurate to call them "kilocalories" (kcal) or referenced as kilojoules (kj)

It all sounds scientific and precise. However, scientists realize that's hardly the case for a staggering number of reasons.

HOW MUCH YOUR BODY NEEDS

The first thing to calculate is how many calories your body burns. A simple Google search will bring up roughly the same result: men should have around 2,400 kcal per day, women, 2,000 kcal per day. These numbers are derived from a mathematical formula; the most common one is the Harris-Benedict Equation which calculates age, weight, and height and uses a multiplier for your activity level.