The truth about low calorie: Why it doesn’t always mean healthy
When you scroll through fitness content from influencers or coaches, you can recognise a pretty common theme.
“Try this healthy recipe” insert low calorie, micronutrient lacking recipe.
Low calorie does not always equal healthy. The same way that high calorie doesn’t always mean unhealthy.
There’s a huge problem with viewing low calorie as healthy, and that is: you will always associate health with eating as little as possible. The other problem is that you will forever be in fat loss mode mentally, rather than nourishing mode. You can go and make low calorie pancakes, but are they really healthier than a bowl of fruit and oats, with greek yoghurt? Or an omelette with loads of vegetables mixed through?
Too often I watch influencers post healthy recipes to THOUSANDS of people, and the food they post has next to no micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), and is pretty much just protein. Another newsflash for you, high in protein won’t necessarily mean healthy either.
The first thing you need to figure out is what your definition of healthy is. Admittedly, the definition of health isn’t really subjective. I think a good way to sum up what a healthy food is goes something like this
“A healthy recipe helps get me closer to my macronutrient requirements and is rich in micronutrients, giving my body what it needs for vital processes so that I can maintain and improve my health.”
Okay so I won’t be writing for a scientific journal anytime soon but I think that definition will do. I’m not saying ALL foods we consume need to be ^that definition. I am saying that we shouldn’t go substituting micronutrient dense foods for ones that have nothing in them, just because they are low in calories.
This brings me to my next problem with this low calorie/healthy crossover. If you do not require fat loss, why are you looking for low calorie recipes? Sure, lower calorie foods are great for weight maintenance but if you’re exercising adequately these 300 calorie dinners aren’t going to cut it for your health. You can’t fuel maintenance and exercise with 900 calories per day (unless you’re 6 months old… I apologise).
So here is what you need to do to move away from this chronically low calorie BS:
Figure out how much you should actually be eating
Practice getting as close as possible to those targets each day
Once you’re hitting them consistently, start finding more nutrient dense foods
Learn about micronutrients and try to introduce more into your diet
Learn about flexibility with food and how to make the fun stuff fit
If you can tick off all of these, low calorie clickbait recipes shouldn’t reel you in anymore. You’ll soon start to realise that low calorie isn’t reaaaallly relevant for people who don’t need to lose fat. You might also realise how much better you feel when you give your body what it needs and what it wants
Your coach & friend,
Maddy
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