Calorie counting: understanding “expensive” foods
But Andre, do I have to count calories?” insert sniffling crying noises Okay, maybe I should be nicer, but this is how my clients sound when they don’t want to track their caloric intake. But is there any other way? Maybe, sure. But humor me this.
Let’s pretend you’re at the mall, and you have a hankering for new shoes. You get to the store, find a pair you like, and go to the cash register. There’s only one problem: you don’t know how much the shoes cost, nor do you know how much money you have in your bank account. The cashier swipes your card, and you hear a loud buzzer noise. You’ve been declined. As embarrassing as this is, this is precisely what we do when we eat food without accounting for the calories and without knowing our own caloric needs. How could that end up in a good result? No wonder a significant percentage of Americans are overweight or obese. Sure, at its crux, it’s a consumption problem, but it’s also a budgeting issue.
We all have a caloric number we need to maintain our weight, and another number to lose weight. So when you’re trying to maintain or even lose weight, you need to know those metrics. And if the food you’re consuming doesn’t have a calorie number attached to it, how will you know if you’re going over budget?
“Well Andre, can’t I just avoid bad foods?” Sure, but what is a "bad food"? I prefer to say some foods are just expensive. Let’s pretend it’s payday, and you get $800. You’re about to do some shopping. You need new socks, dinner for your family, and a new necklace for your Mom. With your $800, you could go to a department store and get a pair of socks for $4.99, but you prefer the finer things. You choose to go to the fancy section of the mall and buy Gucci socks because it’s been a long week and you deserve them. These socks are $799. um, Do they make you fly? Why are these socks so expensive? Well, you’re in the store already, the socks feel so soft and luxurious, so you buy them anyway. Now, with your new socks in hand, you have a single dollar left from your paycheck. The family dinner will now be a pack of ramen noodles, and Momma isn’t getting her gift.
So, let’s reflect. Where did it all go wrong? Were the socks evil? No. Were they malevolent? No. They are just socks. The socks were just too expensive for your budget. So now you have to skimp out on other purchases or overdraft your bank account. The real-life food comparison is if you have a 1200 calorie daily limit, and for breakfast, you treat yourself to a muffin and a mocha latte frappuccino with sprinkles and fairy dust. Yum. This delightful breakfast is 1100 calories. Now what? For the rest of the day, you can only eat 100 calories. All you can do is lick an apple and scream, otherwise, you’ll go over your calories for the day. All because of one meal decision. Now, was your breakfast “bad,” evil, or malevolent? Just like the socks were just expensive socks, this was literally just a muffin and frappuccino. But it was just too expensive for your caloric budget. So your choices are to either lick the apple and suffer, or eat more and go into caloric overdraft, aka, fat gain.
In conclusion, we do not have a bad food problem. We have a budgeting problem. Count your calories, plan your meals, and let’s keep our bank accounts and body fat percentages healthy.
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