Weight management is more than calories in, calories out.



Unless you're a pro-level athlete who needs to ensure you're eating enough calories, there's probably no good reason to count calories or follow a calorie-based meal plan.



I know…you know someone who lost weight counting calories. Maybe you did yourself. Do you know anyone who kept the weight off for a year or two by continuing to count calories?



I doubt it.



The premise behind calorie counting is that you can measure the calorie content of the food you eat and compare it to the calories you burn. If you burn more than you eat, you'll lose weight.



It sounds simple, which is why this concept doesn’t die. However, this isn’t the way your body or the food you eat works. 



Most importantly, the calorie count of the food you eat has a marginal, if any, impact on your body fat. Instead, the macronutrient makeup is what matters.





The Calorie Balance Equation (A Quick Refresher)



You eat calories. You burn calories.



According to the calorie balance equation, if you burn more calories than you eat, you lose weight. If you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight.



Let's assume you eat 2500 calories per day and want to lose 12 pounds of muffin-top-making body fat in 12 weeks.



One pound of fat contains 3500 calories. So, the theory is, if you create a 500 calorie per day deficit or a 3500 calorie per week deficit, you'll lose a pound per week.



For a calorie-based meal plan to work,




You must be able to count calories in the foods you eat accurately



You must be able to measure the calories you burn during the day accurately



Your body must manage its fat stores only based on the deficit or surplus of calories you create




As you'll see, none of this is reality.



1. Calorie counts are not accurate.



The accuracy of each ingredient's calorie content in a recipe varies, making the calorie count of an entire meal, like the one you'd order at a restaurant, significantly inaccurate.



A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that almost 20% of restaurant's calorie-counts were understated by at least 100 calories.



In another study, published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, restaurant meals contained an average of 18% more calories than what the menu stated, and frozen foods contained an average of 8% more than what the labels stated.



When you’re trying to create a 500 calorie deficit in a day, that’s a significant number.



“Ok, I get that there’s variability at restaurants, but the foods I buy and cook will still be accurate, right? After all, the FDA ensures all food labels are accurate before companies sell the foods, right?”



No and no.



The following are a few questions and answers straight from the FDA:




From Guidance for Industry: A Food Labeling Guide by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)



Can I use “average” values derived from databases to determine the nutrient content of my product? 



FDA has not stated how a company should determine the nutrient content of their product for labeling purposes. Therefore, there is no prohibition from using “average” values for its product derived from databases if a manufacturer is confident that the values obtained meet FDA’s compliance criteria. Regardless of its source, a company is responsible for the accuracy and the compliance of the information presented on the label. Use of a database that has been accepted by FDA affords a firm some measure of security in that the agency has stated that it will work with industry to resolve any compliance problems that might arise for food labeled on the basis of a database that the agency has accepted. A manual entitled FDA Nutrition Labeling Manual: A Guide for Developing and Using Databases is available online. 



How many samples of each product should we analyze for nutrition labeling?



FDA has not defined the number of samples that must be analyzed.