Why Calories Are Important.

Calories - they're sort of a touchy subject.

We need them on a day to day basis, we surly enjoy consuming them, yet, nobody likes talking about them when our overall health and body composition is, in fact, the main concern.

Why Calories Matter

Because in the end, calories do matter up to a point when a person is considering adopting a healthier lifestyle. Obesity, cardiovascular disease, stroke and diabetes are among the leading causes of death in the United States for a reason and our easy access to food certainly isn’t helping [1][2][7][8].

Door dash, grub hub, Instacart, Shipt; food availability has become practically instantaneous making the discussion of calories that much more important. So... why do calories matter then and when is it a good idea to consider them? Check out these 3 scenarios as they seem to be the most common.

For Weight Loss

When weight loss is the main concern, calories are usually the number one priority in order for a person to achieve substantial weight loss [3][4][5]. This is because calories, as they pertain to our body, serve to provide us the energy we need to sustain our current state (which ends up meaning much more than just how much we weigh).

For example, processes like tissue repair, exercising, thinking, breathing, synthesizing hormones, etc. all require calories in order to complete which makes their intake that much more important. However, when weight loss is the main concern, total calories consumed in a day are also very important.

They determine how energized we feel, how much fat vs muscle tissue we will carry and thus, they ultimately determine our total daily weight over the course of time [6].

Being divided into 3 specific categories which are known as macro-nutrients:

Protein
Carbohydrates
Fats

- manipulating our total daily intake of these, in conjunction with how much energy we expend, will be a deciding factor in how much weight we can loose long term. So, in a nutshell... eat less than you need daily? Weight loss will be a direct result no matter what foods you decide to eat.

For Weight Gain

Now on the contrary, weight gain is also calorie dependent for the same/inverse reason a calorie deficit will cause weight loss. If you eat more than what your body needs to sustain it's current biological state, then you create an anabolic (or growth like) environment for new tissues to grow and for current ones to get bigger. Like in the case of fat cells [11].

This happens no matter what amount of carbohydrate, fat, or protein that you eat so long as your net balance is above what you need to maintain (see graph above). Keep in mind however that your ratio of fat to muscle gain in a caloric surplus will be directly impacted by your total daily protein intake (relative to sufficient fat and carbohydrate intake), resistance training protocols, and how much of a calorie surplus you’re actually in [12][13].

Regardless, eat more than what you need to maintain your weight? Then you're likely to gain weight in some way shape or form. The smaller details (i.e, total macro-nutrient ratio intake, if you are partaking in resistance training, and your degree of calorie surplus) will impact the type of weight you gain overtime.

For Better General Health

Now when general health is the main concern; for example:

Cholesterol levels
Blood pressure [30][32]
Glucose regulation and insulin

- total calories consumed in a day can also impact these markers over time. For example, self imposed calorie restriction, in some studies, has been shown to actually lower a person's risk for developing atherosclerosis. While a very low calorie diet in other studies has been shown to increase HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol), and lower LDL cholesterol as well [27][28][31].

Common Myths & Why They Aren't Good

Now, when talking about nutrition myths, they are also worth mentioning in this article as they tend to ignore the importance of calories. Plus, they tend to cause a lot of confusion behind how to go about eating in general so mentioning them here will hopefully clear some things up.

Myth 1 - Cutting Carbohydrates for Weight Loss

Although they aren't technically wrong when it comes to lowering your carbohydrates and it resulting in weight loss (assuming total calories have been lowered as well), reducing your calories from any other source tends to produce the same results (generally speaking).

If cutting out carbohydrates results in you eating less total calories for the day, that's one thing. However, it's the total calories that will ultimately cause the weight loss... not the carbohydrates by themselves.

Myth 2 - You Can Eat an Unlimited Amount of Healthy Food

Eating an unlimited amount of healthy food sounds good, but it's often taken out of context. For example: "Because these foods are healthy, they can clearly do no harm." And again, this statement isn't necessarily correct as eating an unlimited amount of anything in excess can cause weight gain, poorer health, and a potentially negative outlook on food in general (no matter how nutrient dense a meal is).

The Twinkie Diet by Professor Haub is good example that really puts this myth into perspective. Because even when eating a high sugar, high processed diet, the participant still lost weight, improved his cholesterol, and dropped his body fat percentage significantly by simply being in a calorie deficit.

Myth 3 - Time Restricted Eating

Which comes in many different forms, such as:

No carbs after 6
Intermittent Fasting
No eating until 4pm the next day

Etc. etc. etc. All of these protocols may do nothing for weight loss considering your calories aren't being monitored.

Sumo wrestlers for example are notorious for there epic size but typically only eat 1-2 times per day ( commonly fasting throughout breakfast as well). Whereas bodybuilders and leaner athletes tend to have more meals spaced throughout the day in comparison (4-6 meals) in order to optimize their protein intake and nutrient partitioning.

The Calorie Conclusion. What We Can Take Away.

For starters, I think we can take away one very important thing: eating too many or too little calories can lead to poor health if we're not careful. Calories give us energy, they make life taste great (pun intended), and they are a necessary part of our everyday routine. When weight loss, weight gain, and our overall health is the main concern however, total calories consumed overtime will play an important roll in the outcome we want to see. Fad diets, restricting certain foods, and only eating at certain times of the day for example can be misleading pieces of advice unless otherwise advised by a medical professional.