Counting Calories?

Not so long ago, health professionals generally agreed that weight gain or loss was all about calories in versus calories out.  Have you ever heard the saying, "The more we learn the less we know"?  As researchers have learned more and more about how our bodies function, we realize that the weight loss puzzle is much more complicated than just the number of calories we consume. That doesn't mean that we can consume excess calories without gaining weight, but as we have stated before, all calories are not created equally and there are a number of factors that influence weight loss or gain.

It is true that Americans are consuming more calories than ever before.  Over a 30 year period, the average daily number of calories which women consumed in the United States increased by 335 calories per day (1877 calories in 2000 compared to 1542 calories in 1971).  For men, the average increase was 168 calories per day (2618 calories in 2000 compared to 2450 calories in 1971).  Most of these extra calories came from an increase in carbohydrate consumption, primarily sweetened beverages. 

In addition to an increase in sweetened beverage consumption, we can identify some other trends that have contributed to an average increase in caloric intake.  Americans eat a third of their calories at restaurants and other food-service establishments, twice as much as 20 years ago. Restaurant portion sizes are huge—about 2 to 3 times larger than food labels list as a serving. Studies link eating out with obesity and higher caloric intakes and show that when people eat out, they consume more saturated fat and fewer nutrients than when they eat at home. Children eat almost twice as many calories when they eat a meal at a restaurant compared to a meal at home.

Five nutrition and public health experts at Harvard University, performed a long-term analysis of the factors that influence weight gain.  They tracked the dietary habits of 120,877 well-educated men and women who were healthy and not obese at the start of the study. In addition to diet, they were able to draw some conclusions about the influence of exercise, sleep, television watching, smoking, and alcohol intake on weight gain.  The study participants, nurses, doctors, dentists and veterinarians, were followed for 12 to 20 years. Every two years, they completed very detailed questionnaires about their eating and other habits and current weight.  On average, study participants gained a pound a year, which added up to 20 pounds in 20 years. Some gained much more, about four pounds a year, while a few managed to stay the same or even lose weight.       

Not surprising, french fries, potato chips, sugar-sweetened drinks, red meats and processed meats, other forms of potatoes, sweets and desserts, refined grains, other fried foods, 100-percent fruit juice and butter were the foods that were associated with the most weight gain. Also not surprising were the foods that resulted in weight loss or no gain when consumed in greater amounts during the study: fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Compared with those who gained the most weight, participants in the study who lost weight consumed 3.1 more servings of vegetables each day.       

Another finding from the study backs up other research that shows getting inadequate, or too much, sleep each night negatively impacts our hormones in a way that can lead to weight gain.  In this study, people who slept less than six hours or more than eight hours a night tended to gain the most weight.  The study also concluded that the more television people watched, the more weight they gained, most likely because they are influenced by a barrage of food ads and snack in front of the TV.  Alcohol intake had an interesting relationship to weight changes. No significant effect was found among those who increased their intake to one glass of wine a day, but increases in other forms of alcohol were likely to bring added pounds.

So what can we take away from this study besides another bunch of statistics?  Perhaps an awareness that over the past 30 years our lifestyles have changed in ways that seem to conspire against our ability to make healthful choices.  But remember, they are our choices and we can still be in control of how often we eat out, the quantity and type of foods we consume when we do eat out, and our beverage choices.  And finally, while it may be a little bit more challenging, getting the right amount of sleep is a matter of prioritizing and making it happen.  While calories do still count, the types of foods we consume and other lifestyle choices play a significant role in our weight loss or gain.