Are You Suffering From Calorie Amnesia?
posted on: November 24, 2017. posted in: Weight loss, Nutrition, Mindfulness
Yesterday, in the mission group I asked...
"What do you weigh? And how many calories do you honestly think you eat a day on average? Rough guess!"
Some answers.
"I weigh 15 stone 8lb and think I’m eating about 2000 a day."
"18.8 and about 2000 a day."
"14 stone.... I think about 2000 to 2500."
"18st. When I eat properly about 2000 calories, on an eat everything in sight about 7000."
Most of those who answered massively underestimated how many calories they're eating.
The question is, WHY?
__________
Let's start at the beginning.
A long time ago scientists discovered that the smaller an animal is, the less calories they burn, and the bigger an animal is, the more calories they burn.
You already know this.
It's common sense!
Mice need less calories than elephants!
Elephants need less calories than whales!
So for every gram of bodyweight an animal has, the greater their calorie needs become.
Which means a lighter mouse needs less calories than a heavier mouse. A lighter elephant needs less calories than a heavier elephant. And a lighter whale needs less calories than a heavier whale.
You get the idea.
Calorie needs...
Are primarily determined...
By BODYWEIGHT.
A 20g field mouse needs less calories to maintain its 20g grams of weight than a 6000kg elephant needs to maintain its 6000kg of weight.
__________
Now let's apply this to humans.
Lighter humans need less calories than heavier humans.
We know this.
My newborn baby Flo needs less calories to maintain her 8lb body than a professional female rugby player needs to maintain her 180lb body.
A 100lb rebel will need less calories to maintain her 100lb body than a 200lb rebel needs to maintain her 200lb body.
Again, it's common sense.
The 200lb rebel has DOUBLE the amount of mass to fuel and maintain than the 100lb rebel. Which means the 200lb rebel will need to eat considerably more than than 100lb rebel, to stay up at 200lbs.
So what can you learn from this?
If you weigh 20 stone (280lbs), and you think you're only eating 2000 calories a day to maintain that very large 280lbs of mass, you are suffering from CALORIE AMNESIA.
We know, even without lab testing, even using the most basic of equations, that someone who is 280lbs is eating roughly 3300 to 4300 calories a day to maintain their weight.
So if you are maintaining weight at 20 stone (neither losing or gaining), we know you'll be eating somewhere between 3300 to 4300 calories a day on average.
And if you're gaining weight?
You're probably eating EVEN MORE!
Some newbie rebels, fresh from the slimming industry and now in the post diet binge phase, will be eating in excess of 6000 calories a day.
The problem is this.
CALORIC AMNESIA.
You remember the "good days".
You remember the "low days".
Like the days you hit 1800 to 2000 calories.
But you forget, block out, go into DENIAL about the "bad days" and the "high days", when you eat in excess of 4000 calories.
It works like this...
Mon - 2000
Tue - 2000
Wed - 2000
Thu - 2000
Fri - 4000
Sat - 6000
Sun - 7000
Which totals 25,000 for the week and divided by 7 equals 3750 a day.
So your average is 3750, enough to maintain you at your 20 stone of weight. But your memory is 2000, because you block out or ignore your weekend nutrition, which leaves you thinking...
"Why am I so overweight! I hardly eat!"
For some obese people they'll go weeks eating at 2000 calories a day, then forget about the week on holiday they ate 15,000 calories a day.
For other obese people they'll eat 1500 calories in the day, then forget about the 2000 calorie binges they have before bedtime.
For other obese people they'll have near perfect 2000 calorie a day nutrition, then forget about the 1000s of calories of sweets and chocolate they binge on during car journeys.
The solution?
Honesty.
With your coach, your trainer, your dietician, your doctor, but most of all YOURSELF.
You not a miracle.
You are not bypassing the laws of thermodynamics.
Your body is not conjuring calories out of thin air...
You are eating them.
Somewhere. At some time. In some place. During your week, month or year. Those calories are going in, and your are forgetting them or denying them.
Why?
Guilt. Shame. Feeling like a failure.
You see...
Calorie amnesia is a defence mechanism against these negative emotions.
It's easier for your brain to forget or block out the calories you've overeaten, than it is to admit them and in doing so admit you're "greedy", "lazy", "lacking willpower", "a diet failure".
The good news?
You're none of the above.
You are a victim of a slimming industry that has deliberately nurtured your binge eating, to profit from your overeating and obesity.
And we can help!
It starts with awareness of the calories you're overeating. When the binges are happening and why. Then it moves on to forgiving yourself and understanding it's the slimming industry's fault for triggering your binges, not yours.
Finally, we can help you retake control through nutrition, and most importantly, change your mindset around food.
There is hope!
But to repeat...
It starts with honesty and awareness of the fact that if you are overweight you are overeating.
Liam
