Where Should The Emphasis Be: Calories In or Calories Out?

Did you make any resolutions for New Years? Like so many others, did you resolve to lose a certain number of pounds?

My paper delivery guy made a mistake a couple days ago. Instead of the New York Times, I got the local paper instead. Of course, I can still get all the news that's fit to print online, but it's not the same as feeling the pages in my hands, turning page after page, folding it just so.

So I took the opportunity to catch up on local events. In the local paper was an article, taken from USA Today, about losing weight. It said a recent poll found that two-thirds of people can't estimate how many calories they need. This part was fine; people need to be more aware of all aspects of their health. And knowing how much you should be eating is as important to making good choices as what you should be eating.

My problem with the article is that the entire emphasis on losing weight was about calories. The examples given for how many calories are needed for weight loss were for sedentary women and sedentary men. Exercise was only mentioned once, toward the end of the article, and only in passing.

Why not compare the calories needed for a sedentary man to lose a pound to how many calories he could burn if he walked a half hour a day? Why not give some ideas about building some extra exercise into the day in addition to how many calories are in a large order of McDonald's french fries? Why does the popular media so often focus only on the calories we're eating?

Weight loss is not just about eating less. It is about moving more. Weight is all about calories taken in and calories burned. If you burn more calories than you eat, you will lose weight.

Successful weight loss and maintenance does not come from dieting alone, or exercise alone. Successful, long-term weight maintenance is about balancing your calories in with your calories out. Eat sensibly, and move more.

Julie