How to Move Away From Calorie Counting
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Georgie: [00:00:00] This is the breaking up with binge eating podcast, where every listen moves you one step closer to complete food freedom hosted by me, Georgie fear and my team at confident eaters. Hello, and welcome to the next episode of breaking up with binge eating. As always, I am your host, Georgie Fear, and my co host is here, Christina Holland. And we have a great topic today. We've picked out one that we see quite a bit, and we're going to walk you through the process of breaking up with calorie counting.

Christina: Yes. Specifically, this came up with a client recently, and we're going to share sort of the process that we've been going through and what you can do if you also want to move away from calorie counting. So we're going to talk about my client, Kyle. Kyle came to me for help with [00:01:00] stopping his binge eating.

He has read all the books and listened to all the podcasts and understands really well what his struggle is. He just hasn't been able to put the knowledge to action. Part of the reason for that was that he has counted calories for a while. He really likes quantifying things because in his job, he routinely works with numbers.

So counting calories just made sense for him. He knew his allotted calorie amount each day and would diligently log them into MyFitnessPal, but it actually would make him feel more disconnected from his body and started perpetuating some diet perfectionism he was already dealing with.

Until, like many of my other clients, he would say screw it and then the binge would happen. Because counting calories often goes hand in hand with binge eating. The reasons for this link are complicated and in some ways they reinforce each other. When you count calories, you are making food decisions in a state of scarcity.

You can't eat as [00:02:00] much as you want. There's a limit. Every item you choose to eat reduces the amount of food you can eat later in the day, and this triggers a sense of anxiety for many people. You crave the freedom of just being able to eat whatever and not weigh out your oatmeal, and the constant vigilance and carefulness required to limit your calorie intake gets old too.

Binge eating offers not only the chance to eat those high calorie foods, but the truly craveable experience of eating without limits.

Georgie: Yes, and we see it so commonly in people that struggle with binge eating, that calorie counting has also become part of their eating pattern for a long time. Binge eating correlates with higher body weight. And after a binge, people typically feel guilty and regretful about what felt like a loss of control. The desire to lose weight. Coupled with the appeal of feeling back in control can make it irresistible to go right back to calorie counting. It can almost feel like cutting back [00:03:00] on your food for a few days will undo or fix any consequences of the binge. But if you've been on this merry go round for a while, You know, cutting back only pulls back the pendulum for the next swing into a binge. And yet, knowing that something isn't a good idea, or isn't good for us, is surprisingly ineffective at dissuading us from doing something that emotionally we really want. For a lot of people, calorie counting makes them feel safe, secure, and like they're in control of their food. Those are powerful motivators to keep it up.

Christina: And for Kyle, it hasn't been easy to stop counting calories. Our recent conversations have all included him sharing something like. I try to eat without counting calories, but it's just automatic at this point. It's really hard not to think about the amount of calories in my meal because I've just been doing this for so long.

I know how many calories are in my food. If this sounds like something you would say, or MyFitnessPal is one of your [00:04:00] most used apps, then this episode is for you. A lot of people come to us with experience in calorie counting.

Sometimes people do it for a week and they realize, yeah, that's not for me. While others feel reliant on it for decades and never miss a day. Or maybe they're very strict with counting calories Monday through Friday and let loose on the weekends and frustratingly wonder why they haven't made any progress.

Because he is also stopping binge eating, Kyle's perceptions of his food intake are skewed. It feels to him like he's eating so much more than he was, but the total amount he is consuming is certainly less because he isn't binging. What we added were fruit and vegetable snacks, and what he stopped eating was Many servings of processed foods.

Georgie: I can tell that his work with Christina is definitely working to help Kyle stop binges. According to Christina, he's only binged once or twice since they started, whereas he used to binge a couple times a week at least. Is that right?

Christina: Yeah, [00:05:00] exactly.

Georgie: So if somebody listening is saying, wow, this is familiar. I want to move away from counting calories. We think it's worth the effort and we'll give you some tips on making that transition. Number one, this is super important. Keep your priorities straight. The number one move that will help you become healthier, feel more relaxed with food, and eventually lose weight is stopping the binges. If you eat slightly more at your planned meals and snacks, it may send you into a bit of an alarmed state, thinking, Oh no, that's too many calories. But remember, you're going to save far more than that when you can avoid binging. This is a reminder that you're likely to need to tell yourself many, many times. It just becomes second nature to slip back into cutting back on food portions, choosing the lowest calorie option on the menu or at the grocery store. But, these can backfire. If they lead to eating too low of a calorie [00:06:00] intake, or feeling deprived and deciding to say, screw it, you can find yourself heading to the store to buy all the foods you typically binged on. You may have been better off choosing a slightly higher calorie food or more generous portion for your meal.

Christina: The second thing we would recommend is to move toward using body signals. This is something that Kyle and I are currently working on. Calorie counting tends to blind us to our signals of being hungry or satisfied. so if you feel like you're not really sure what satisfaction feels like and you suspect you're kind of hungry all the time because you want food all the time, those are absolutely typical adaptations to calorie counting.

But we want to gradually tune back into these signals because they are there even if they are much more subtle. For starters I know that most people don't want to just stop counting calories and eat as much as they want because they feel like They will eat significantly greater quantity of food or even eat until they feel [00:07:00] sick So what I usually recommend my clients do is keep eating the meals that they're accustomed to on their calorie counting plan for a week And that's it But then start to tune in on how their stomach feels and what their energy level is like before and after the meal.

This way people tend to feel like they are still safe because they haven't eaten more food and they can practice memorizing what those sensations really feel like by paying close attention. We also have conversations about the difference between desire for food and physical hunger. They are actually completely different things and with a little bit of attention people can rapidly begin to tell them apart. That ability paves the way to practice using physical sensations of hunger to guide our eating, while we can still use desire for food as a clue to our emotional state.

If our desire for food spikes but we're not physically hungry, that's a great indicator that we may be under some stress, or need a rest, some comfort, or just a pleasant distraction.

Georgie: Personally, I used to be the queen of calorie [00:08:00] counters, so I know what Kyle's talking about when he says that your brain starts to automatically do it seemingly without your permission. When I'm at a restaurant and someone puts a plate of food in front of me, my brain is like 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, ding!

And it can just spit out not only the calorie content, but approximations of the carb and protein content as well. So when I wanted to move away from doing that, I wasn't going to be able to unlearn years of education, but what I found I could do was remind myself that I wanted a new ability. So instead of becoming a calorie calculator machine, I wanted to become somebody who was able to feel in my body. I need more food, regardless of how many calories that was. Or, I don't need all of this food, regardless of, even if it's a low calorie amount. Like, my body signals will supersede the numbers that my eyeballs are telling me. So, if you find yourself still automatically counting up calories, even roughly, Here's where you can intervene. Say [00:09:00] to yourself I'm not eating according to calories anymore. I'm listening to my body to know how much is appropriate. The question of, how many calories did I just eat? Or did I eat too much? Now turns into asking, am I satisfied? Or did I push past satisfied? If so, I can always adjust for next time. That question of, Did I eat too much? Did I eat too much? Did I eat too much? Did I eat too much just now? Did I eat too much yesterday? used to be a constant obsession for me, because I was constantly filled with fear that I had overeaten. It was a massive relief to know that if I had not gotten overfull, I was okay. And, I got secondary reassurance that when I felt stomach hunger again by my next meal, I was not in fact overfeeding myself. This went a huge way for me to bring down my anxiety level around food and just relax and know my body's got me. [00:10:00] And so far, it has been reliable and kept me at a healthy body weight for year after year after year.

Christina: I know I also hear from clients who say that worry about, did I eat too much? Did I eat too much? Did I eat too much? Can also lead to that screw it mentality that we talked about earlier. It's that perfectionism. Oh, if I did eat too much, I probably did. Then it's like, let's keep going. And I definitely have heard that from clients.

So I think it's a common experience and learning to move away from that as a, gentler way and like you said, you can be more present and at peace with the fact that, okay, if I didn't overeat Then we're good. Am I, am I uncomfortable? How does my body feel? And we can learn to trust ourselves more, which I think is a big part of this.

So the third thing that we would recommend doing to move away from calorie counting is to phase out some of the ultra processed foods in your diet. [00:11:00] Almost all of us consume more ultra processed foods than is ideal. And that's equally true for people who count calories, in particular because the ultra processed foods have nutrition labels on them, which makes calorie counting a whole lot easier.

Imagine accurately counting the calories in a salad bar creation with 26 different ingredients, and you can see why a lean cuisine instead saves you a lot of time. A lot of people we have worked with over the years who were counting calories or Weight Watchers points were not consuming a wide variety or large quantity of fruits and vegetables. They were basically eating a lot of protein powders, protein bars, pre packaged cups of oatmeal, cereal, frozen meals and ready to drink shakes.

Not only is this type of diet less health promoting, it's also less satisfying, which is really important for people whose end goal is to manage their weight using their natural appetite. Our factory installed food regulation system evolved to help us take in the appropriate amount of energy from whole, unprocessed foods.

It does a great job when we're eating [00:12:00] things like apples, eggs, nectarines, and spinach, but it doesn't do such a great job if our diet is based on baked goods, snack foods, and foil bags or bars. Even if these prepackaged foods carry healthy claims on the label or are fortified with protein or fiber to make them more marketable for weight loss, having most of the foods you consume be close to their natural state helps your body be the most accurate it can be at steering you to a healthy body weight with your hunger and fullness cues.

Georgie: And lastly, one thing that really helps in moving away from calorie counting is to know that you can trust your appetite best When you design your meals to maximize appetite satisfaction. So instead of selecting what you'll have for lunch by calorie content, you can give your brain a different focus. Consider that if you choose a meal containing protein, carbohydrates, and fat, that that will utilize all of the available pathways to tell your brain you are satisfied [00:13:00] and that nutrients have been taken on board. So that means don't skip out on a macronutrient completely. Diets which cut out protein, carbohydrates, or fat tend to all leave lackluster feelings of satisfaction. You can also help your brain get more fullness signals from your belly by eating meals with a large volume of fruits and vegetables. The stretch receptors in your stomach feel the weight and volume of food and send a quick message up to your brain that's like, Woohoo! Yeah, food in the belly! Building a balanced meal in this way, not terribly complicated, have some carbs, have some protein, have some fat, and make sure you've got a big whack of fruits and vegetables. This provides your body with more nutrients and will leave you satisfied for longer than having, say, an equal amount of calories in jelly beans. So, in summary, the process we're describing in this episode is about shifting your focus to a more helpful direction than it is about stopping [00:14:00] counting calories. Is this food highly appetite satisfying? And what are my body signals telling me about whether it's time to eat or stop eating? If you're on this journey, give yourself time and patience to move away from calorie counting and delete the app when you feel ready. If you let us know, we will throw a celebration in your honor, complete with videos of Christina and I doing a happy dance. If you need a coach by your side to walk you through the transition, that is what we do. Feel free to reach out. We'd love to support you in any way we can. Thanks for listening and see you in the next episode.