This is a question that will trick a very large percentage of our population. When referring to weight loss, what’s more important: types of food consumed or amount of calories consumed? If you guessed types of food consumed, you would be wrong. Did you know you can actually get fat from eating only healthy foods if you eat too much of them? Most people believe just because a food is healthy, it will prevent them from gaining weight. This couldn’t be further from the truth! Now, eating healthy foods has many benefits of its own such as overall health and well-being, but that’s not the question that was asked. The question was “what’s more important for weight loss?”
For all of the lies that have been written about weight loss, this one thing will always hold true. If you want to lose weight, you must eat fewer calories than you burn, PERIOD! One perfect example of amount of calories consumed vs. types of foods consumed would be the sumo wrestler diet. Sumo wrestlers are some of the most overweight people in the world. This is largely due to their 20,000 calorie daily diet!! Here is the tricky part. A sumo wrestler’s diet is actually one of the healthiest diets out there. They consume fish, meats, tofu, and vegetables. The ability for them to gain weight has nothing to do with the quality of food but quantity of food. If you need 1800 calories per day to lose fat, you could consume 1800 calories worth of cheeseburgers or 1800 calories worth of carrots and still lose weight.
If you are looking to lose weight, it’s always recommended that you choose healthy food choices. However, this isn’t because it necessarily helps you lose weight. Both mentally and physically, it’s just a much healthier choice. One magic thing about healthy food choices is your ability to eat a larger amount of them without the calories adding up so quickly. You can eat a full pound of tilapia and have it equal the same number of calories as a small candy bar. Which one do you think you would fill up on faster? Just a little food for thought.
-Tom