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Calories the missing link part 2

In the part one I discussed the history of the calorie debate, my personal experience and my recent experiment on the foods consumed within my diet where I have tracked 50 days of nutrition intake.

Overall Calorie Consumption

The overall results showed that during a phase where I ate an average of 2200 calories per day I lost body fat. I lost 20 units (mm) of body fat over a 20 days period (this is not fat % but a 10 site self-measurement system used to monitor daily changes). This was done to the backdrop of around 5-9 training sessions a week.

When I consumed a diet which averaged 2600 calories over a similar 20 day period my body fat pretty much stayed the same. There was a marginal increase of 1.5 mm of body fat (Such a small change is within measurement error). This was done to around 3-6 training sessions a week.

Day to Day Body Fat Changes

While the general 20 day average calorie vs body fat gave a pattern of results, the day to day variance was much more random. A high calorie day could produce losses, no change or small gains in body fat with almost equal likelihood of the three. Significant calorie deficits would not ensure losses body fat wise from day to day. Overall there was much less than expected correlation with body fat levels vs calorie daily intake.

Other information

In regards to body fat there seemed to be little correlation with the source of calories, food quality or ratios consumed in terms of body fat changes. These factors though did affect energy, hunger, cravings and digestion

My personal conclusions

These 50 days of monitoring have been a great experiment. The experiment showed me a few things –

  1. The overall calorie consumption in a day is correlated to body fat losses/gains over a medium term period (e.g. 7 days onwards)
  2. There is a certain set minimum threshold for calorie consumption (~ 1800 calories for me) below which fat loss did not occur at the expected rate. This adds weight to the idea of a starvation point where the body becomes protective of body fat losses in the short term.
  3. Below certain calorie levels I could feel my body down regulate, e.g. drops in body temperature (thyroid related) and blood sugar levels.
  4. Increasing significantly your calories for a day would not necessarily increase body fat. Fat gains seemed to show themselves 2-3 days later. This would link to the body's ability to store excess carbs within muscles.
  5. There appeared to be an optimal calorie intake for burning body fat (for me this was around 2100-2200 calories. Higher or lower values would not change body fat to the same magnitude.
  6. Most people do not have a clue how much or what they are eating. For me it was great to remind myself of portion sizes and calories. I had forgotten a lot. A I can quote the nutrition of most foods yet still be unsure of portion size this means the average person really is guessing with their daily intake.
  7. When I was purposely eating 2200 calories the most I ever went over was by 800 calories (3000 calories). When I actively forced the diet intake to 2600 the most I ever ate was 3600 calories. This shows the expansion effect of increasing consumption leads to increasing desires/limits.

While this is a fun experiment, you must be careful to draw significant conclusions from it. I would not say I am a typical person. I have always hovered between 8% - 12% body fat with an athletic background. This does not mean my results could be transferred to you. However what can we learn from it.

Reality of clients

To me the most interesting element of the experiment was finding that zone where optimal body fat losses were made. I followed this experiment with testing of cross section my clients and non-clients for their knowledge of what they were eating, e.g. how much protein, carbs and fat within the food and how they typically put a meal and days eating together. What I discovered was that there really was a big hole on most of them when it comes to understanding what they were eating.

This has lead me to postulate that many people when they are eating “healthy” may be under-eating and causing problems for the body while when eating badly they are overeating and thus not helping themselves neither.

What does this mean for You??????

The take away from these two articles is while the basic concept of calories in vs calories out model still has flaws, especially in a short term view. It also has its benefits to be used when creating the body you want.

While it is totally impractical to count calories for any sort of time period it is quite important to gain an understanding of what food has in it and correlate it to your days eating so that you do not under eat or over eat. It is especially important in being able to restore natural food intake levels and the counteract the expansion effect above.

These elements of calories and food are now part of my Mind-body Transformation System.

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