Why Calorie Counting is Not Ideal For Busy Professionals.
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  • Why Calorie Counting is Not Ideal For Busy Professionals.

As a busy professional you are probably experiencing elements of stress most of the day, most days. Weighing out and calculating everything you eat is tedious whatever your lifestyle, but when your busy its even more of a pain. If your predominate goal is to lose fat, then yes a calorie deficit does need to be adhered too, but does that mean you need to count calories and is counting calories a good idea.

In our opinion, its not, following a calorie target can be mentally taxing. Will power gets weaker the more we use it, as a busy professional we are already using our will power a huge amount, whether thats stopping ourself from telling a colleague to get lost, whether thats trying to keep ourself awake for longer at night to get more done or whether thats trying to motivate ourself to go to the gym. We already have enough factors in life draining our will power reserves so adding in more tasks that require will power is probably not only not going to be beneficial for on our health and fitness goals but also probably negatively effect all other aspects of life.

Calorie counting for some individuals can give the impression that it does not matter what they eat as long as they stick to the target calories. As we have already discussed busy professionals will power is going to be weaker due to frequent use, we don’t need to add in nutritional deficiencies and unstable blood sugar levels to the mix, which will also increase needed will power as cravings will go rampant.

So lets start looking at a better approach.

Whether you have good habits or bad habits, you will have consistent habitual behaviours, this is important to recognise as this is your starting point. If you are maintaing weight then you know that you are eating at maintenance calories and if you are gaining weight then you know you are eating a calorie surplus.

So the first thing we must ask is where are we starting from and what are our current habitual behaviours that are leading to our current situation. If we are gaining weight and therefore in a calorie surplus then the lifestyle changes will need to be more drastic than if we were at maintenance.

If you are maintaing weight but do not exercise then the fix could be very easy, just exercise. If you are maintaing weight but drinking 15 pints a week, the fix could also be very easy. Basically you could just look at what is unnecessarily in your diet that you don’t need that is bumping up your calorie intake. If your gaining weight, then the first goal should be to start maintaing your weight.

Either way whether you are currently gaining or maintaining weight the next step to take you closer to your fat loss goals should be pretty stress free if you are smart about it. Simply look at your current habitual behaviours and swop one or two for more intelligent options. As an example a white tea with a few sugars and a biscuit or two, could be swopped for a green tea and a handful of blueberries, not only does this quite significantly reduce your calorie intake but as the second option is more nutritious and controls blood sugar better, it leaves you feeling more satisfied and energetic and less likely to overeat later.

Digestion is somewhat negatively affected for most people by being busy, so as a busy professional time restricted feeding can be one of the easiest and most effective ways to reduce calories that is almost completely stress free providing a diet that is high in nutrition and controls blood sugar is adhered to during the eating windows.

Have you ever noticed that the vast majority of people who are in great shape don’t really have a clue how many calories they are eating? Thats because as we have discussed in this article, counting calories is hard and their is a better way. The more you can listen to your body and give it what it actually wants and stop giving anything it doesn’t need, the sooner you will be moving towards your goal in a more effortless fashion. Please note that following any diet will be significantly harder if your sleep is poor, check out our article on how to improve sleep.

To come for an in depth chat about how you can lose fat and increase your energy fill in our contact form to arrange a free consultation at our private gym in Manchester city centre.