Why health is about so much more than calories in vs calories out
Ok, so in simple terms, in order to lose weight, you must output more than you input - calories in vs calories out. But as much as a certain fitness influencer wants you to pull your socks up (not past the ankle though or you’ll offend Jordan 😂) and just “eat less, move more”, we know that the reality is - nothing in life is ever that simple.
Having battled anorexia and body dysmorphia for most of my young life, I am very much an advocate for body acceptance and kicking diet culture to the curb. Often this anti-diet culture message is mistaken as anti-dieter - which is incorrect. We maintain the belief that it is a human being's right to have bodily autonomy: if you want to lose weight or change your body, you absolutely can - it’s your body and your life!
So let’s get into it. If you want to change your body for you, how do you do such a thing without becoming absorbed in diet culture and why is it more than calories in vs calories out?
For starters, let’s talk about diets.
Show of hands how many of you have said “I tried slimming world [or insert any other generic fad diet] and IT WORKED AT THE TIME”? That’s the thing: diets do work at the time. But if they worked full stop, we wouldn’t need to diet again. That’s because diets rely on a lifetime of restriction to maintain an aesthetic, which for most of us isn’t really possible - or let’s face it, any fun! These restricted lifestyles don’t take into consideration normal things in life like holidays, bereavements, hormone changes, illness - mental and physical - and a whole host of other things that we will experience as humans. Unfortunately, when these things happen, it’s almost impossible to maintain those “good” restrictive habits, and so we “fall off the wagon”. We’ll probably get on it again in the future though, eh? AND so the cycle continues…
So how do we do it then?
Unfortunately, I don’t have a magic answer. As with anything in life, there is no one-size-fits-all, but what I would say is first of all let’s address your “why”.
Why do you want to lose weight?
Be honest with yourself. Let’s say it’s for health and let’s be even more specific and say that you have joint aches that the doctor has said will be lessened with weight loss. If you have weak knees now, you will still have weak knees 10 kg lighter. You might lessen the pain short term but you won’t guarantee healthier knees. However, if you were to work with a qualified and experienced PT or sports therapist on strengthening your muscles you’ll be much more likely to have healthy and strong joints. Weight loss might be a side effect of that training but it isn’t necessarily the main factor in getting stronger knees or healthier joints.
We’ll do one more. Let’s say you want to have a healthier heart and lungs. Losing weight by dieting won’t automatically make this so; being thinner doesn’t guarantee a higher VO2 max. However, upping your moderate-intensity cardio will and, again, you might lose weight as a result but weight loss isn't the one-track path to health that we think it is.
Now I want to touch on what the real why will be for most of us.
We believe being slimmer will make us happier.
I cannot say this enough: it will not.
Yes, a slimmer body is currently more accepted by society. This lends itself to certain privileges that in ways make life easier but you cannot hate yourself into a version you love. If you hate your body now, you’ll still hate it when it’s smaller. That’s why long-term changes in overall health rely on so much more than just calories in vs calories out. If you’re doing it to be healthier then there are other indicators that will contribute to your overall health:
Getting better sleep
Lessening stress
Eating whole foods that are nutrient-dense
Having a strong heart and lungs
Lowering your resting heart rate
Cessation of smoking and excessive alcohol consumption
…Etc
And if you’re doing it to be happier then you’ll want to work on your sense of self-worth, who you are as a human being, how you show up in the world and accepting ALL parts of you. That includes your body which might not look like the athletic frame that diet culture convinces us all we should have - I mean only 5% of people actually do!
If you decide that focusing on weight loss is the right move for you, then work with a conscientious, experienced, size-positive nutritionist who understands overall health and unfollow anyone telling you that it’s just about eating less and moving more 🙄
I hope reading this has lessened that pressure and helped you reflect and understand that it’s not you that’s failing the diet- diets are built to make us feel that way and diet culture continually feeds the proverbial beast so that we’ll always buy into its bullshit.