{"id":133413,"date":"2024-11-27T14:29:20","date_gmt":"2024-11-27T12:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mandoulides.edu.gr\/blog\/why-calorie-counting-is-wrong\/"},"modified":"2024-11-27T14:29:20","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T12:29:20","slug":"why-calorie-counting-is-wrong","status":"publish","type":"blog_post","link":"https:\/\/mandoulides.edu.gr\/en\/blog\/why-calorie-counting-is-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Why calorie counting is wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">For many years, p<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">eople <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">who want<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> to manage their weight have been advised to count calories for many years. <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">But the majority of diets fail. Why is that? Lack of self-discipline or wrong advice?<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Wilbur Atwater popularized the concept of calorie counting. According to his hypothesis, a calorie gave the body the same amount of energy regardless of the type of food or micronutrient it was made of.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">According to his findings<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">:<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\">1 gram of protein provided 4 calories of energy\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-aria-posinset=\"2\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\">1 gram of carb provided 4 calories of energy<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-aria-posinset=\"3\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\">1 gram of fat provided 9 calories of energy<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">And even today, more than a century later, the numbers 4, 4, and 9 are still widely used to estimate how much energy comes from food.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Atwater overlooked that, depending on factors like a person&#8217;s genetic makeup or the type of bacteria present in their gut, different persons burn different foods at varying rates.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In addition, <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">cooking increases<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> the number of calories <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">a person can take in from food<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> by up to 39%<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">. The erroneous belief that fat always causes more weight gain than other foods, including sugar, was caused by Atwater&#8217;s research.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">For many years, Western dietary policy has been influenced by this hypothesis. <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">S<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">ince insulin converts extra sugar in the bloodstream directly into fatty tissue<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, t<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">he fastest method to gain body fat is by consuming sugar.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">C<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">ardiovascular diseases are now the leading cause of mortality worldwide<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, and it seems that we are using the wrong way to combat them.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Atwater is not solely to blame. <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Other research was misleading too. <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The U.S. Senate and numerous other countries consequently advocated for a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Atwater&#8217;s presumptions have permeated so many aspects of society<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, and<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> many people believe changing the system would be disruptive and expensive. <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">But it will be more expensive for the healthcare systems globally if we stay the course.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Photo by Klaus Nielsen: https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/photo\/electronic-scales-with-heap-of-sugar-6303718\/<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For many years, people who want to manage their weight have been advised to count calories for many years. But the majority of diets fail. Why is that? Lack of self-discipline or wrong advice?\u00a0\u00a0 Wilbur Atwater popularized the concept of calorie counting. According to his hypothesis, a calorie gave the body the same amount of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":133409,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"geographic-area":[437,441],"school-grade":[],"blog-categories":[309],"class_list":["post-133413","blog_post","type-blog_post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","geographic-area-international-en","geographic-area-national","blog-categories-nutrition"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mandoulides.edu.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_post\/133413"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mandoulides.edu.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_post"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mandoulides.edu.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/blog_post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mandoulides.edu.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mandoulides.edu.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_post\/133413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mandoulides.edu.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mandoulides.edu.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mandoulides.edu.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133413"},{"taxonomy":"geographic-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mandoulides.edu.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/geographic-area?post=133413"},{"taxonomy":"school-grade","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mandoulides.edu.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/school-grade?post=133413"},{"taxonomy":"blog-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mandoulides.edu.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog-categories?post=133413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}