05 Counting calories vs. counting macronutrients...

Counting calories vs. counting macronutrients

Hey Folx,

Calories in food come from the amount of energy that is stored in chemical structure of that food. When we eat, our body process the food in our stomachs and then disperses the broken down material to systems in our body to use for energy. When we move, breathe, do anything, our bodies are using energy. So energy-in transforms to energy-out. 

Food contains macronutrients, which are protein, carbohydrates, and fat. Not every body reacts  the same to each food, and not every food contains the same combination of macronutrients. Some people respond differently to certain macronutrients (i.e. celiacs), and not everybody uses up the same amount of energy in a day. 

Food also contains micronutrients, which are salts, vitamins and minerals. Many diets focus on either macronutrient ratios (like the Paleo or Keto diet), and many focus on the micronutrient ratios (like vegan). From my research, none of them explicitly mention calorie amounts, but the effective result of all diets is the reduction of calorie intake.  

Now, again, I’m not a medical professional, and I would consider myself to be a “normal, healthy person”. I’m not allergic to anything that I know, I can eat any food, I don’t have health issues, and I’m not on medication for anything (though, I was taking Pepcid AC nightly, and to a point of it not working anymore). I think there is a lot of merit to paying attention to macronutrients and micronutrients of food (i.e. eating an In-N-Out 3x3 vs. a salad), but the whole point of this post is that I needed to start somewhere. One of the biggest turn offs for me was stepping into a diet that wanted me to eat food I didn’t really want to eat and left me hungry. By being able to eat the food I normally ate, but literally just less (i.e. counting calories), I was able to make real, small changes, and eat my cake too. Trying to track all the things that are trackable is daunting and discouraging. Taking small steps and simplifying that task into counting calories has been highly effective for me, and my parents (who are in their 60’s; more on this later). 

Mental Health Tip: A step must be taken. Taking that first step is the hardest step. It doesn’t have to be a big step, just some step. Small steps turn into big steps. Just take it!  

Food Choices Tip: When looking up calories of certain foods, like meat, I was shocked to find that cooked meat vs. uncooked meat calories were quite different. When meat cooks, the chemical structure changes and releases more nutrients. So, cooked meat has higher calories than raw meat. I’ve never seen this indicated on nutrition labels. From what I’ve found, meat has the greatest caloric change when cooked. Other foods that may slightly change caloric content are foods with high water content. When the water is cooked out of a food (or even added to food, like pasta), the weight changes, changing the calorie per volume ratio. Be aware! 

Recipe: Morning Muffins (an adapted recipe from The Natural Nurturer). Preheat oven to 350o F. Take a muffin baking sheet (not the one with giant molds) and spread the extra coconut oil in the molds (so the batter doesn’t stick). Take the dry ingredients (rolled oats, salt, cinnamon, baking soda) and pulverize in a food processor or blender (this creates a smoother texture muffin). Then add the wet ingredients (eggs, coconut oil, bananas, applesauce, vanilla extract, and spinach), and pulverize until smooth. Pour batter into muffin molds, filling up 75% of the way - about 12 muffin molds. Cook in the oven for about 20 minutes, and then let rest. After they’ve cooled, you can pop them out of the molds with a utensil, being gentle not to rip them out. These muffins end up being about 130 calories each.

• Eggs - 2 - 12 g protein - 0 g carbs - 10 g fat - 140 cals
• Coconut Oil (melted) - ¼ cups + 2 tbsp extra - 0 g protein - 0 g carbs - 56 g fat - 520 cals
• Bananas (brown-ripeness) - 2 - 2.6 g protein - 54 g carbs - 0.8 g fat - 210 cals
• Unsweetened Apple Sauce - ⅓ cups - 0 g protein - 10 g carbs - 0 g fat - 34 cals
• Rolled Oats (uncooked) - 2 cups - 28 g protein - 110 g carbs - 12 g fat - 642 cals
• Spinach - 2 handfuls - 1.8 g protein - 2.2 g carbs - 0.2 g fat - 14 cals
• Baking Soda - 1 tsp 
• Sea Salt - ¼ tsp 
• Cinnamon - 1 tsp 
• Pure Vanilla Extract - ½ tbsp 

Cooking Tip: Baking can be scary. For a long time, all I heard about baking was that if you didn’t have correct, precise measurements, your baked goods would be terrible. That’s not true. The Morning Muffin recipe is a great introduction to baking because the recipe can be tweaked as desired, and if it doesn’t come out looking great, it will still taste great. 

Meal Prep Idea: I eat the Morning Muffins every morning with my coffee (Trader Joe’s cold brew coffee concentrate, a few oz of water, and 2 oz of half-n-half). This combination is about 210 calories, and keeps me satiated for about 3 hours.  

Next post: My parents started counting calories too...