The 1200 calorie myth

It’s a 1, and a 2, and a double zero! 1200. This number is glued into our brains as the magical number for weight loss. Eating 1200 calories a day will guarantee a slim body. For years we have, or more or less, women have been slaves under the 1200 calorie diet.

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1200. Where did this random number come from you might ask yourself. If you’re not, I’m still going to answer it for you. 1200 calories have gotten this exclusive repp that it’s the perfect amount of calories you should consume just to be above that starvation line. But to be more exact, the 1200 calorie champ has got some history in its baggage. It all started with Lulu Hunt Peters. A female author who published a diet book for woman called Diet & Health: With Key to the Calories in the early 1900. What this book emphasized on was that starvation would keep you skinny. To be able to control your hunger and your appetite was a way to be in control, (hey early signs of eating disorders, but whatever…). To put the icing on the cake, (or maybe we should skip the icing to stay under our calorie limit) Lulu Hunt Peters was born in the 1800’s. Her book published in the early 1900’s. Guys, this is more than a 100 years ago. Yet, we are still clinging on to this 1200 calorie diet like it’s the holy scripture for magical weight loss. I mean, weight will drop since 1200 calories will put most people into starvation. The bottom line – this “diet” is not a healthy one for the majority of people. A one size fits all diet doesn’t work for everyone, just like anything in life.

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Whats wrong with 1200 calories?

Basic Metabolic Rate – Fact, we are all different. Fact 2, we all have different caloric needs to simply stay alive. Research has showed that the basic caloric need for an average woman to simply keep her alive, this means without any hard core exercise, is around 2100 calories. For men around 2800 calories a day. Imagine that you stick to your 1200 calories. You won’t even have the proper energy for you body to function the way it’s supposed to, and you’re most likely not getting enough of the vitamins and minerals you need.

Fact 3, we are again different. We are different heights, different weights,  ages, we’re more or less active, are digestion works differently, some of us might be aliens, we’re just different! We all have our own specific needs to be healthy and this includes our caloric intake as well. Gertrud from across the street might actually be healthy on 1200 calories, Doris might need at least 2300 calories and Magnus the hard core kick boxer might need up to 4000 calories a day. When we talk about the basic caloric need for every individual we refer to it as Basic Metabolic Rate (BMR). This is how much calories our body will burn by simply staying alive. Meaning that you can sit on your couch a whole day, be indecisive about what to watch on Netflix, eat some snacks, and your body will burn these calories automatically. When we add activity to that mixture in some shape or form, our caloric intake goes up.

Metabolic adaptation – Going on a 1200 calorie diet when you actually need 3000 for the long haul will cause your body to go into metabolic adaptation. We have all heard of this in some shape or form and it’s usually called “starvation mode” or something in that ball park. This simply means that after a while your body will adjust to the fact that “Hey, I guess we’re just have to start surviving on these 1200 calories a day now! Let’s slow down our metabolism so we can use this energy for the major shit to stay alive!”. When our body has adjusted to this new calorie limit we’ll stop losing weight because now we have to store as much of these calories we can. Simply, to not frikkin die. Losing weight will not become the priority. What will happen though is that when you do eat more than those calories again, you’ll gain all the weight back if not even more. If you’re lucky you can get back on track pretty quickly, but if you’ve been doing this for a while your metabolism can go into the “metabolic damage” state.

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Metabolic damage – When worst gets to worse is when our metabolism get damaged. Or actually, to call it a damage is pretty extreme. Our metabolism will become normal after some adjustments, but it might take some time because of the adaptation it has adopted. This happens when we’ve stayed under calories for a long time. We might have went on a little binge here and there and over time our body doesn’t know what’s going on at all. Are we starving? Do we have all this food? What the fudge brownie is going on!? If you add heavy exercise on top of that cocktail our metabolism goes even more crazy. When our metabolism is stressed out, he checks out and takes a vacay to the Bahamas. What usually happens in this state is that no matter how healthy you eat, or how hard you exercise you’ll keep gaining weight or just stop losing anymore. This can be very frustrating for a lot of people, especially those who have started off on a weight loss plan with great results to suddenly come to a halt or even gain weight. So what can we do about this bullshit?

Eat more to loose more – This can be provocative for some people who swears by the calorie deficit method. It is the opposite of what we have been told about weight loss since our young ears first heard about it. When you start to eat well and enough your body will slowly start to go “Oh, okay, we’re safe again. I don’t need to stress myself out to keep us alive anymore. Nutrition is coming in, and we have plenty of it!”. This is where you want to be all the time. You should always focus to get the proper amount of calories that you need everyday – at least. When we have the proper calorie needs, it’s easier for the body to let go of the stored fat. I know, it’s all just the opposite of what we’ve been told. Don’t believe the lies!!!! #FakeNews

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Strength training – If you spice it up even more you should add some strength and resistance training into your life. Building muscles while your body has all the nutrients and calories it needs will make your metabolism fire up and burn fat like its never burnt anything before! You will keep burning calories even at rest which means that you can eat even more food now and still lose weight. I mean, how can we hate this!?  This lifestyle will make sure that  you lose weight and keep it off.

We live in a world that is terrified of eating. Especially woman. Bullshit since more than a 100 years ago as an addition to social media has caused this bad food cycle.We need to eat. It’s a basic survival mechanism. Food is fuel, not the enemy! I promise you, that when you’re feeding yourself the right amount of food (healthy of course, I’m not talking three meals a day from McDonalds) with an addition to some resistance training, you will magically drop all the weight your body needs to drop, to maintain the perfect healthy weight for you.

“One size fits all” does not apply to anything in life. Remember to never compare your body to somebody else. We all have different weights and shapes that are healthy and ideal for us. The best thing you can do is to rock out and knock out the world with your uniqueness, while eating a proper dinner. Maybe even two. Bon Apple Tea! 

 

Why Calories doesn't matter

We have a lot to say about calories. We can’t eat to many of them, because we will gain weight, we can’t eat to few of them because we will reach an unhealthy weight. We count them more intense than we ever did our math homework, and we shame ourselves after eating a food containing “too many” of them.

Calories are simple. They are a unit of energy, that our bodies get from food. They are essential for our life and bodily functions. Calories are our gasoline, our fuel, the hype man that keeps us liiit.

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When we talk about calories we usually think calories in – calories out, and burning more calories than you consume leads to weight loss or weight gain, if the opposite. This is true, but the kind of calories you consume does make a difference in the way our body processes them, and determine fat loss or weight loss.

Nutrition is science, and just as a science experiment react differently to different chemicals, so does our bodies – chemicals being the different kinds of food we eat. Food comes in three major groups – proteins, fats, and carbohydrates (and vitamins and minerals).

For some reason we have put these these guys in different groups, The good group and the bad group. Lately, carbs have been put into the bad group, while fat and protein are the good dudes.

So calories, are they simply just a matter or calories in – calories out. Yes, they are, but our body does process different kinds of calories in different ways, which will result in different results in terms of our body weight and composition. Let’s paint up an example. You are about to get down and dirty on three plates of food containing equally 1000 calories each. The first plate has 1000 calories of fat, the second plate has a 1000 calories of proteins, and the third plate has a 1000 calories of carbs. Out of all these plates, which one would make you put on more weight? You might say that all of them will make you put on the equal amount of weight, right? Not really.

Carbohydrates contains 4 calories per gram. The carbs that we should be eating, from real whole plant based starch such as potatoes, rice, fruit and vegetables contains a shit load of nutrients and fiber, which helps speed up our digestive system, putting our metabolism in high gear. Carbs are not the enemy, contrary to our believes based on fad diets and media. The right form of carbohydrates will not make us fat, they will help us burn fat. Vegetables, fruits, potatoes, rice, whole grains are your best friend in terms of health and managing a stable weight. Of course there’s bad versions of carbs as well such as processed bread with a ton of added ingredients like corn syrup (fancy word for sugar), vegetables oils, and all those other chemical bullshit. Carbohydrates are not the enemy unless we make them the enemy. A pure baked potato with veggies and salsa is not the same as a baked potato loaded with butter, cheese, and bacon. The potato is not the one causing a flabby stomach, it’s the butter, cheese, and bacon. See the difference. Don’t blame the good guy.

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Proteins contain 4 calories per gram, and they are very essential for the majority of things in our body. Our DNA are made out of proteins, our hair, skin, cells, you are basically protein. When you eat the right protein, like whole plant proteins you get your proteins plus an addition of minerals, vitamins, and the astonishing fiber. Our bodies work harder to break the fiber down, and voila, we burn more calories through digestion. Beans and legumes are your best protein buddies! A bunch of your green veggies does also contain a lot of protein, and no additional fat. Eat your plants, people. Another note to think about is that everything contains protein. If you get the right amount of calories that your body needs everyday, you will never become protein deficient.

Fat contains 9 calories per gram. Fat can make us feel fuller when coming from the right sources, such as whole plants like avocados, seeds and nuts. When fat comes from processed fats such as oils and animal based fats without any fiber, it tends to leave us unsatisfied and craving more food, especially more fatty foods and sugar. The fat sources without any fiber isn’t the best friend with our digestive system. Since it’s pure fat, it goes straight into fat storage without leaving us full. It puts pressure on our digestive system, and can cause bloating and constipation. Nobody likes hard shit, let’s get real.  Fries, cookies, bacon, and other processed meats will go straight to your waistline, and also into your arteries for that matter, clogging that shit up.

Yes, calories in – calories out is a true statement, but the kind of weight we will gain or loose depends largely on the calories we eat. It also determines how we will loose or put on weight. Processed fats together with animal fat is going to make every calorie less nutritionally dense, and get stored right away on your body as flabby fat. More fiber leads to a higher satisfaction, faster working digestive system, and let’s not forget the most important part – an overall healthy lifestyle! And don’t get me wrong, just because you’re vegan doesn’t mean that everything you eat is magically amazing. Fries are vegan, Oreos, potato chips, and vegetable oils are vegan. The real key here is whole plant based foods. Real foods. Untouched and pure.

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Another side note: Of course life is about pleasure as well, and we can’t eat strictly whole plant based all the time. It’s okay to “treat yo self” and live! That’s as important for a healthy lifestyle. Kale might nourish your body, but chocolate will nourish your soul.