Does Calorie Restriction Really Work for Weight-Loss?
A few times a week I'll get a question about weight-loss and calorie restriction similar to this one:
Question: In the past I've had no success restricting my calories. I noticed your meal plans are calorie-based, how will I know they will work for me?
In my personal experience, that simple math formula, "calories in calories out," never worked in absolutes with my weight-loss. For example, when I was exercising vigorously, while also not going over my "calorie allowance" I couldn't seem to lose weight, or I lost very little, which as I later realized, was because my diet was crappy. Pizza, cupcakes, french fries, oil, coca cola, chips a hoy. It didn't matter that I limited myself calorie-wise, I didn't experience real results or the weight-loss I wanted (or the flat belly!) until I cleaned up my diet.
Once I cleaned up my diet, the weight finally started to melt away and rather easily. After a while I stopped having a calorie allowance and just let myself eat, as long as it was healthy, and whole foods (and plant-based/low fat). It seemed that as long as I ate right and I was good about exercising regularly, the weight kept coming off. Eventually I hit my weight-goal, and I recently blogged about how I maintained weight without exercising for two years.
While I think exercise is important for overall health and it makes weight-loss easier, I have found that diet was far more important for both health and my weight-loss (and later, weight maintenance).
Moral of the story: It's true you should be mindful of calories when you're trying to lose weight, but it also matters where those calories come from -- what are you eating? In my personal experience, you just can't compare a 1,600 calorie diet made from whole plant-foods, to a 1,600 calorie diet filled with junk food.