Why You Should Stop Counting Calories If You Want To Lose Weight

Eran Segal from the Weizmann Institute of Science explains why you shouldn't rely on counting calories.

Tech Insider tells you all you need to know about tech: gadgets, how-to's, gaming, science, digital culture, and more.

--------------------------------------------------

Following is the transcript of the video:

Eran Segal: If you take in less energy than you take out, then you will lose weight. And that idea, of course, it has some truth to it, but then it also oversimplifies the situation. And we know that this is also definitely not the full answer to it.

My name is Eran Segal. I’m a researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science.

You can have a diet where people even eat more calories than some other person, yet they still lose more weight. Then even the same person on diet A can eat, say 2000 calories and gain weight but then on another diet that person would eat 2500 calories but they would be losing weight.

And the reason is because the foods in these different diets may be very different and maybe process very differently by the individual. And it has to do with the amount of energy that that individual may be able to extract from one diet compared to the other.

And we really think that a key aspect for measuring that has to do with your blood glucose level response to those foods. Because that really dictates then the amount of insulin that your body secretes and that is directly affecting the amount of fat storage that will be caused by consumption of these foods.

One of the reasons why you really see this phenomenon that on the same food some person would gain weight and another person would lose weight.

A lot of that we believe has to do with differences that we have in our gut bacteria. Because the gut bacteria would be processing and being involved in metabolizing the foods very differently in each person.

So each of us actually has a tremendous amount of different bacteria living within our body. Some bacteria will thrive on some food and other bacteria will thrive on other foods.

They're really heavily intertwined with our metabolism and have an enormous impact on our processing of food and on our health and disease and they've been linked to many different diseases to obesity, to diabetes, to heart disease, and even to cancer and Urological disease.

We are still, as a scientific community, trying to understand what is a good and what is a bad bacterial composition. And how we can also change that with diet.

This is a very much an active field of research that we are trying to understand. But, in the meantime, we've been able to profile individuals gut bacterial composition and based on their composition, identify foods that would be fitting and matching their own bacterial composition.

So well we still do not understand the full way by which we can affect the good bacteria for the better. We can utilize and harness the information in the gut bacterial composition in order to tailor the diet of an individual to find foods that would be optimal for that person.

[benjaminmarson]

This really should be titled "Counting Calories does not automatically make you lose weight"

[denobarroga]

I’ve been able to keep my weight in check for over 10+ years by counting calories and walking most days 30 + minutes at the mall. Counting calories works for me.

[noireebene]

Counting calories works. I am a living example of that.

[SuperChocobo]

🤔 so me losing 55 pounds from just counting calories I guess was just a fluke....🤷🏻‍♂️

[jasminejensen]

There was a lot not necessarily touched up on. Counting calories can be beneficial short term. It results in success for many people. But it shouldn't remain long term. And it definitely shouldn't become an obsession. Generally, I think the overall goal should be to aim for an intuitive lifestyle that doesn't rely on counting or tracking, and instead just works off instinct and intuition. Also, calorie numbers aren't always too accurate. You really got to learn to see the food in front of you, rather than just the number. And your body knows how much it needs.

[twdjt]

Counting calories is fine. Obsessing over calories is the problem many have. Like count them in a manner that's accurate to the 100s....but don't sit there and obsess over if you added one more clove of garlic or a teaspoon more of coffee creamer that you should be counting. There are also many things that aren't even necessary to count. Along with the more commonly known things like celery etc that people say don't matter, I also wouldn't count any greens or whole foods below 20 calories.

[TopGear]

Soooo.... what do I do instead? Go out to the store and buy some good gut bacteria??

[mueezikram]

I was the obese boy and I ended up going from 93 kilos to 65 kilos in a couple of months. All because of calorie counting when I ate whatever the heck I wanted

[CreativeQueenx]

Who else is here just for the comments ?? 😀

[ndi]

Counting calories forces to me to be totally present and cognizant when and what I eat. Which is a very good thing.

[MrPepa-njvz]

Remember. Losing many pounds in a week is not normal. Counting calories work. They really do but it is not the healthy way... You lose more Muscle when you lose weight too fast, counting calories makes you see results fast but see it go fast too. So go for the long term one. Enjoy life and listen to your body. Binging is different from the needs. We all have differences but our body is smart enough to know that

[KevinShinwoo]

Man, I've been counting calories and have lost 90 pounds so far. I'm glad I watched this video so I could know what I was doing wrong!

[t_archives]

Definitely shouldn't call this "Why You Should Stop Counting Calories"

but more like

"It's Not As Easy As Just Counting Calories"

because I can somewhat agree. Every body has a different reaction to things. But counting calories is still a VERY important step to lose weight.

[johnnytaylor]

i lost 41 pounds by counting my calories intake and i never actually start losing weight even i was eating clean until i start counting calories so nah thank you! i'm good !! there is something about counting calories i don't know what that is but i'm sure it works !!

[outrightmed]

You didn't offer any alternative or solution. All you are saying is that we don't know, we don't understand and we are trying. Misleading video title that is asking people not do something while not offering anything better. I can't tell a cancer patient to stop taking the best available treatment because we are doing research on a better drug that might work and we are trying to understand. Hopefully doth butter no parsnips!

[michaeltilahun]

Your wrong brah. I lost weight by eating whatever I wanted as long as I counted calories and avoided soda and corn syrup.

[bloxio]

1:12 Am I the only one that noticed the police/ambulance siren? XDDD

[JowyCenatVlogs]

I don’t have the time to explain why but, just eat healthy calories & track Macros . You’ll be fine 🤙🏽

[purences]

This worries me. I lost 30lbs eating exactly what i already have been just by eating less. I didn’t drastically change my diet because it doesn’t make sense. You cant eat like that forever. Plus i wouldn’t want to (I’m 5’11, 180lbs)

[nicholasmessina]

I feel like counting calories urges the individual to be healthier🤷🏼‍♂️it’s helped me a lot and it doesn’t take a doctor to realize that if a person who has a 2000 calorie ceiling has the choice between a 1000 calorie bowl of ice cream or a salad, piece of meat, cup of soup, and some veggies that equal the same amount they’re choosing the healthier food