Do You Need to Count Calories on a Ketogenic Diet?
I find that nowadays, how human beings are so entangled: eat less for fear of malnutrition, eat more for fear of gaining weight, and then, work out like crazy to burn and count calories.
Many people lose weight, it is easy to fall into a misunderstanding, they believe in this formula of conservation of energy [increase weight = energy (calorie) input – energy (calorie) output], that as long as you eat less and move more, you can lose weight. Therefore, they are always concerned about the calories in and out, a little more food heart has a strong sense of guilt, like the calories consumed.
Most people lose weight and do not need to work so hard to calculate calories.
Why Weight Loss Calories Count is Not Reliable?
Calories count to lose weight sounds plausible, yet very pseudo-scientific.
→ How many calories are in food, can you count them?
When you eat a piece of bread, a bowl of noodles, a fried chicken, or a barbecue, do you know how many calories are in it? It’s impossible. The chef himself doesn’t even know how much oil he puts in, so how can you possibly know? In short, counting calories is both unreliable and exhausting.
→How many calories did you consume?
Where does the energy go in the food you eat? Let’s take a look, first of all, at the distribution of calories in the body:
- 60% resting metabolic rate: for the resting state, to maintain the body’s normal functioning of the basic calories required;
- 32% Physical Activity: energy expended for exercise;
- 8% food thermogenesis: the energy required to digest and process food.
Why is Energy Expenditure Cannot Be Grasped?
1、Food affects one’s resting metabolic rate
Even if you don’t move all day, your heart still has to beat, your lungs still have to breathe, your brain has to function, and these basic calories that your body needs are the resting metabolism.
When you eat less, your resting metabolic rate also drops, which is a compensatory mechanism by which the body conserves energy to prevent the next hunger. Therefore, how much to eat, will directly affect the resting metabolic rate of people, long-term dieting, may be slower fat burning.
2、Thermal Effect of Food (TEF)
The body also needs energy to digest food, the molecular complexity of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates are different, requiring different energy to process and store, which is the thermal effect of food.
It takes more energy to break down proteins compared to carbohydrates, with a TEF of 25% for proteins compared to only 8% for carbohydrates. Studies have found that high-protein diets consume twice as much energy compared to high-carb, low-fat diets.
This means that eating the same amount of calories can increase your resting metabolic rate by simply changing your diet to reduce your carbohydrate intake and increase your protein intake, allowing you to lose weight faster than anyone else while lying down. Therefore, dietary structure also affects energy consumption, by eating different things, the body consumes different calories.
3、Hormonal influences
Hormones play a big role in affecting appetite, satiety, and fat storage. The three major hormones that have a greater impact on weight loss are: insulin, glucagon, and leptin.
Insulin is the most important hormone, and the two, insulin and glucagon, go hand in hand and work together to maintain the body’s blood sugar balance through a kind of negative feedback regulation.
Leptin is a hormone produced by fat cells that signals the body and brain that they are well-fueled and do not need to eat.
Once these hormones are disturbed, it will not only affect a person’s appetite but also the consumption of energy.
4、Eating time
The same calorie food, eaten at different times, burns different calories.
In 2017, a study in Cell Metabolism found that eating the same amount of calories, the every other day fasting group had a more significant decrease in body fat than the normal control group.
It was also found that even if the same number of calories were consumed in a day, putting high-calorie foods in the morning, and putting them in the evening, had different effects on weight in obese women.
So, counting calories is not a bad thing, but it’s tricky because you can’t count the calories in each meal, and you can’t grasp how much you’re consuming. It’s just that it’s tricky because you can’t count each meal, and you can’t know how much you’re consuming. All things considered, it’s better to forget about it, let yourself go, and stop fighting with food.
Ketogenic Diet, Eat to Satisfy and Still Lose Weight?
One of the outstanding features of the ketogenic diet is that you don’t have to count calories, eat until you’re satisfied, and still lose weight. In a meta-analysis based on 13 studies, subjects on a low-carb ketogenic diet (<50g of carbon per day) lost significantly more weight than a traditional low-fat diet.
Why is it Easier To Lose Weight on a Ketogenic Diet Without Counting Calories?
→ Low-carb ketogenic diet with metabolic advantages
In terms of calorie consumption, low-carb diets have a metabolic advantage over high-carb diets, and this advantage is reflected in 3 ways.
1、The digestive process requires more calories (food heat effect)
Low-carb diets are very low in carbohydrates, and fats and proteins are more nutrient-dense and structurally complex than carbohydrates. When the same calorie intake, the structure of the low-carbon diet ratio, determines that it requires more energy to digest than a high-carbohydrate diet, invariably burning more calories.
2、Protein sugar isomerization process will consume energy
When carbohydrate intake is low, it will increase the intake of protein and fat. The body uses protein to make glucose for some tissue cells, a process called gluconeogenesis. Glycolysis is also an energy-consuming process, and it’s estimated that on a ketogenic diet, it may take approximately 400-600 calories per day to complete this process.
→ Low Carb Ketogenic Diet, Satiety and Appetite Suppression
The ketogenic diet’s suppression of appetite is mainly reflected in the following 2 aspects:
1、Fat and protein can provide a more lasting sense of satiety
The more you lose weight by dieting, the more painful it becomes, because the appetite is suppressed and the body is always in a state of hunger. The ketogenic diet contains a large amount of healthy fats and a moderate amount of protein, which has a clear advantage in appetite suppression.
Carbohydrates are the fastest-burning fuel for the body, and after they are burned, the body quickly creates cravings again. Proteins and fats, on the other hand, burn slower and take longer to digest and break down, providing longer-lasting energy and satiety with stabilized blood sugar, effectively reducing appetite.
Researchers have found that compared with equal calories, equal-weight bagel breakfast, an egg breakfast will bring a stronger sense of satiety, and in the short term intake of energy is significantly reduced.
2、Ketone bodies can inhibit the hunger hormone
Ketone bodies can effectively inhibit the hunger hormone, which can be used as a signaling molecule to tell the brain: “Hey, we’re full”. It was found that in the ketogenic diet, even if the calorie intake was restricted, the subjects’ hunger and appetite were reduced.
BHB monoesters, which are found in many exogenous ketolipid supplements, also suppress appetite by lowering hunger hormones. Additionally, medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) can help reduce hunger, and while MCTs are not ketone bodies themselves, they are easily converted to ketones in the body.
Since the ketogenic diet has so many advantages when it comes to weight loss, does it mean that you can just let go and not think about calories at all?
These are Ketogenic And May Require Calorie Counting
The scientific low-carb ketogenic diet is about eating raw food, less processed food, and enough fat and protein that the average person will naturally eat less and lose weight without counting calories. So, almost all proponents of low-carb diets do not recommend calorie counting, but there are special cases.
However, some people still have a very strong appetite after ketosis, and still eat three meals a day, in lots of quantities, and many ketogenic-compliant foods are high in fat and quite high in calories, so it may be easy to overconsume them if you are not careful.
Calories from any source that is more than the body needs will be stored as fat. Although one also enters a ketogenic state, the fat burned may just be that which is eaten and not that which is stored by the body. So, it is true that some people get fat instead of ketogenic, so the following people, it is recommended to control the amount appropriately.
1、People who eat three meals a day
Ketogenic generally have to cooperate with light fasting, if you eat three meals a day, and then eat a high-fat diet, it is easy to eat more, so we recommend that we reduce your meals, if you can not do it, just control the amount of each meal properly.
2、Stressful, resulting in a strong appetite
Stress and emotions will stimulate our appetite, if it is because of the pressure to make you overeat, we also really hope that you can properly control the amount of food, do not just eat and drink.
3、Eating disorder patients
For severe overeating, vomiting eating disorder patients, we do not recommend any form of weight loss, including a ketogenic diet. First of all, overeating fat is easy calorie overload, and secondly, the relationship between ketogenic and overeating varies from person to person, it is effective for many people, but it may not be effective for some people.
4、Outside eating dirty ketogenic people
Three meals a day to eat outside, the intake of a large number of herbal oils, many people think that this is also ketogenic, of course not, dirty ketogenic is easily led to inflammation recurrence, eating more, fat, appetite. Therefore, can only eat outside the person, also recommended to control the amount, because inflammation leads to lean resistance, and you can easily not receive the satiety signal.
5、People who love to eat snacks
Snacking appetite food addiction, but also may also be a sign of malnutrition, although the ketogenic diet is beneficial in relieving snacking, however, these people, often do not have enough to eat, so it is easy to eat more, it is also recommended that the amount of control, even if you eat very low carbon snacks, but also pay attention to not eat more.
6、There are often get-togethers, people who drink alcohol
Drinking is very easy to anesthetize our brain so that we are full and always eat eat eat eat, so drinking also high-fat diet, calorie overload is proper, in addition to controlling the amount of food, but also to control the amount of alcohol. Therefore, ketogenic does not count calories, really conditional, the most basic condition is: eat full stop, not hungry, do not eat.
If you can’t do it, please cooperate with light fasting, starve yourself, or control the amount of food appropriately.