Several folks have opined that losing weight is as simple as reducing your caloric input and/or increasing the number of calories you burn.

For years, the FDA itself taught this nonsense even though it has been refuted literally thousands of times.  Let’s take a closer look.

The theory is based on treating the human body as a very simple machine.  If you put a gallon of the same octane gasoline into two identical machines, you would expect them to run about the same amount of time before running out of gasoline; right?

First of all, they wouldn’t.  One would stop before the other.  That is true even with very simple machines.  There are going to be differences in efficiency of the two machines and it’s simply a fact that one will run out before the other.

The huge problem with this theory though is the assumption that the human body is a very simple machine.  It isn’t.  It is amazingly complex and each of our body’s are very different.  Even our own body adapts very quickly to changes in it’s environment (especially it’s food intake) and will change from day to day and even minute to minute how it metabolizes it’s fuel.  The ancient theory of calories in/calories out is a very, very flawed theory.

Another huge problem with this theory is pretending that all calories are the same.  They aren’t.  Our bodies don’t run on gasoline.  They run on a combination of fuel types that are often broken down into proteins, fats and carbohydrates.  Even that division isn’t nearly sufficient to explain how the body metabolizes it’s fuel.  Different types of proteins, fats and carbohydrates take different routes.  The exact same food may take a different route of metabolizing just a hour later due to internal body environment and needs.

The theory is just full of holes and anyone who has tried to lose weight by following that theory and limiting calories (or expending more calories… or any combination of those two) know that theory is extremely flawed from experience.

If you haven’t yet had that experience and you don’t believe me (and you are fairly healthy or know someone that is fairly healthy and can handle this experiment), do the following:

1. For one week, eat 80% carbohydrates, 10% fat and 10% protein (by calorie count, not weight… fat has more calories per gram than protein or carbohydrates).  Keep your daily caloric intake exactly the same.  Try to expend the exact same effort daily (perhaps just lay around on the couch watching TV).  Keep track of your weight.

2. For a second week, eat 80% fat, 10% carbohydrates and 10% protein (by calorie count).  Keep your daily caloric intake exactly the same.  Try to expend the exact same effort daily.  Keep track of your weight.

You could do the third test with 80% protein if you wanted, but you already have your answer.  Your body reacted quite differently given different types of fuel even though your daily calorie intake and your expended calories were identical.  The calorie theory has been dispelled.

BTW, if you aren’t healthy enough (or stupid enough) to try such an experiment, buy a litter of mice and try this experiment on them simulateously so you can rule out biorythms, the phase of the moon and all the other reasons the calorie religion people might come up with to explain the different results.

While you are at it (since you can’t really control the mice’s activity level), notice the differences developing between your two groups of mice from the same litter.  Notice their relative activity levels.  Notice how much they sleep.  Finally notice which group dies first.  Notice that it isn’t just one mouse from one group and then a couple of mice from the other group.  Notice that nearly every mouse dies from one group first before the very first mouse from the other group dies.

Are you still willing to listen to the preachers of the calorie religion?

I’m not.

Let’s not let the pendulum swing too far the other direction though.  The calorie religion folks claim that weight is merely a function of calories eaten minus calories expended with exercise.  We have disproven that theory.  It is not science.  It is a false religion.  Stop worshipping at that altar.  It doesn’t lead to heaven, a slim waiste line or even an enjoyable day of the week when you get to rest.  It’s a dangerous cult based on lies and it lead to our fat population.  It’s followers are still getting fatter and fatter with no end in sight.

However, that doesn’t mean that calorie intake has no bearing on your health.  In fact, in many studies, a dramatically reduced caloric intake has shown to dramatically increase life span.  When you limit the quantities of identical fuel to mice, they do, in fact, lose weight and live longer.

We are not mice though and it’s not practical to have a scientist limit our calories.  Most who are obese know that we can’t be that scientist and limit our own calories.  The starvation response kicks in and we stop limiting calories and often binge resulting in even greater weight gain.

Even worse, while limiting calories, we often lose metabolism (just like the mice do) and expend less energy.  We are less effective at work, with home chores and even recreation.  We become slower people.  Although a very few people have chosen this lifestyle in order to live longer (there really are people out there living on 300 calories per day just so they can live 10 or 20 years longer), it is NOT a practical way to lose weight for most people.

Most people want to lose weight so that they can be MORE vibrant and alive, not so they can mope around with no energy.  They want to get back to when they were a teenager and could eat anything they wanted and still felt great and engaged in a wide variety of physical activities.  Those goals can NOT be achieved by restricting calories. 

If you try to reach those goals by restricting calories, you will be going in the opposite direction.  It doesn’t work.  Find another religion because this one has no god and it’s principles are simply false.

-James D. Brausch