Stop counting calories — not all calories are created equal!

Although the number of calories on a food product can give an indication of what the product will mean for your body, that number doesn't actually tell you all that much on its own. 

Are food products with more calories necessarily worse than those with fewer calories? The answer isn't simply yes or no.

First things first! What exactly is a calorie?

According to the dictionary is a calorie the unit of measurement in which the energy value of food is expressed. Calories in food provide our body with the energy it needs to function. Our body burns calories as fuel.

For cars, there are big differences in the quality of the different types of fuel, and it's no different for our bodies!

Quality beats quantity

Want to lose weight? Just eat fewer calories and job done, right?! Not quite. 

It's not just about the number of calories alone. It's the combination of the type of calorie, the number of calories and how they're spread throughout the day that makes for a more balanced diet.

In the classic system of counting calories, many people fall into the trap. They're led to believe that if they count calories carefully and make sure they don't exceed the set amount, they'll automatically lose weight and live healthily.

There are 2 big pitfalls here:

• The intake of calories isn't nicely spread out throughout the day

Your body has a certain energy requirement throughout the day. Even if you don't exercise or aren't physically active, your bodily functions need energy to work optimally. Think of your brain coming up with your brilliant ideas, your heart pumping blood around your body, and so much more.

If you eat a whole bunch of calories at once, your body can't process that sudden surplus and will convert it into fat. What's more, at other times during the day, your body won't get what it needs. So even if you don't eat too many calories according to a classic system, you can still put on weight.

• The total calorie count stays nice and limited, but your body has barely gotten what it needs

You can perfectly stay within your 'points total' by, for example, eating 2 chocolate bars at once and not eating much else for the rest of the day. You're still perfectly within your calories. But your body isn't getting anything it needs to function properly. No vitamins, minerals, macronutrients... Nothing, nada, zip. Healthy, you think? Not really, just saying.

The quality of the calories that you eat is incredibly important. The is more important than the number of calories

Even if you don't necessarily want to lose weight, but want to live as healthily as possible With a balanced diet, it's important to choose calories of the right quality, ones that give your body what it needs.

Good versus bad calories

The quality of calories can actually be divided into 3 categories. The good, the bad and the terribly bad.

The good calories can be found in real foods like fruit, vegetables, nuts, pips and seeds, proteins, wholegrain foods, ...These calories give your body what it needs to keep you feeling energised and at your best.

Bad calories, you guessed it, can be found in sweets, soft drinks, all kinds of sugary products, and so on. These are "empty" calories that have nothing to offer your body and, on top of that, quickly give you a massive sugar crash, hunger attacks and a short temper. In the long run, you're depleting your body and its reserves, and these empty calories even saddle you with raised cholesterol, high blood pressure, fatigue and more.

And the terribly bad calories then? You'll find those in products with trans fats, ready-made meals, heavily processed food, and so on. These calories not only give your body nothing, they can even harm your health.

Fancy an example?

If you eat a handful of nuts and dried fruit, for example, you might be surprised by the number of calories they contain. But in return, they give you more than just a handful of vitamins, dietary fibre, minerals and antioxidants, which help your body function at its best. 

When you eat nuts, seeds and pips, you feel full for much longer. This means you can go without feeling hungry until your next (nutritious) meal, and you'll be less likely to reach for too much and/or less nutritious food during a hunger attack. The many good nutrients in nuts and seeds can lower the risk of numerous chronic conditions and boost protection against cardiovascular disease, since they help lower LDL cholesterol levels (also known as "bad cholesterol").

These good calories give your body the much-needed fuel and so it's not a good idea to avoid them.  

The bad calories, on the other hand, really do nothing for your body — quite the opposite. Trans fats, for example, can't be digested by our bodies, build up in our abdominal wall and are linked to inflammatory responses in your body that you really don't want to deal with.

Conclusion

Dare to move away from pure calorie counting. Choose a nutritious, balanced diet with good calories that give your body what it needs: vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre, healthy fats, proteins and complex carbohydrates.

Choose to nutritious amount of good calories spread out evenly throughout the day and you won't know what to do with all that regained energy!

JustBite can already help you on your way with ournutritious snacks and the tips and tricks that we're happy to share with you.