What’s the Way to Weight Loss? Counting the Calories or its Content?

A man who can look at both sides of the equation.                             Courtesy of @Whisper.com  

     “Calories in, calories out” has been a big part of the weight-loss method for quite some time and it was mentioned repeatedly back in my college studies with the law of thermodynamics. The Energy Balance Equation of,  "you have to burn more than what you take in", which has been a concept conceived as a simple enough practice. 

The opposition, suggests a major debate of how your carbohydrates, fats, and proteins should ought to be broken down into different percentages. High protein diets such as Paleo can have you eating 40% or more of your calories from protein. Ketogenics has an individual go as low as 10% of your carbs as calories and fat calories can go as high as 80% (YIKES!), and the USDA RDI low-fat recommendations suggests for 30% of your calories or less from fat. 

     Both sides bicker about which method is more superior and whose diet strategy is best. Agreement seems to be distant, because each side has already made up their minds, becoming as solid as concrete. There should be some consideration amongst one another, since it can provide the possibility of learning strategies that can be of benefit. At times we could hear,  

“No! It’s not about the old calorie deficit theory, but it's about the “If It Fits Your Macros”, the ratio to the three nutrients.”  

As well as the statement of, “It’s about eating less and moving more”. Nothing more.  

So who is right?

Both! 

    Nutrition and your overall health of the mind and body does not consist of just one concept.  

Your body requires a certain amount of calories in order to sustain itself along with your daily activities. From those calories, your body needs a particular ratio or percentage of each of those three energy containing nutrients to function properly depending on your condition. 

Besides, these two nutritional logistics aren't the only other important factors of health, there's more to it than just these counting objectives; since we're also moving more into what not only goes on in the body, but what is going on in our mentality and mood as well.  

     Both sides have good points that we need to consider and combining these two concepts together will greatly increase your chances for success. The next step is to see our food with an appreciation of not just as numerical values or as macronutrient percentages with calories, but for more than what it can be in terms of quality.