Ahhhh few things stir up debate within the “weight loss” community as the topic of counting calories. Several years ago, a YouTuber named Freelee the Banana Girl and her partner DurianRider famously proclaimed that you could achieve extremely low body fat by eating 3000+ calories, as long as they are of plant origin. This led many vegans, myself included, to go to town on all their favorite whole plant foods, and low and behold, we gained weight because we were not exercising as much as this pair. It is true that consistently eating more calories than you burn leads to weight gain, although that is not the only factor that makes people overfat.

However, it is also detrimental to create extreme caloric deficit. Certainly, eating fewer calories than you burn will result in weight loss. But long term extreme caloric restriction has a multitude of side effects including mood disorders, endocrine dysfunction, disordered eating patterns, and so forth. There is also great debate over the term “metabolic damage“. I personally have experienced long term difficulty losing weight after prolonged periods of extreme caloric deficit, so although there is little research to support this concept, I know first hand that it is true.

There is an anti-diet culture on social media today, and it is easy to understand why. For decades, corporations have made billions of dollars selling “diet” products while purposely confusing the consumer. In actuality, these corporations don’t want you to succeed at weight loss. They want you to become hooked on their product to maintain weight loss. This anti-diet culture often pushes a “fat tolerance” message as well, asserting that it is OK to be fat. I know from personal experience that overweight people are often discriminated against. But obese people are at an increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer- the top killers of Americans.

So what is the answer for those who are striving to achieve their ideal body weight? What is the answer for those who are not comfortable being overweight and obese?

Well, you do need to eat less than you burn, but not too much less. This can be achieved by eating more of the low caloric density foods (indicated in green below) and less of the yellow and red food categories! The foods in the green category below are also filled with water and fiber to increase satiation and fullness, a necessary component of a healthy lifestyle. And we all know what it feels like to be on a diet where you never feel full. A caloric deficit of about 500 calories per day will be the goal, but please know that only calorie calculators (and the ones on exercise machines and pedometers) are wildly inaccurate.

Counting calories daily is not necessary when eating calorie dilute foods! However, once you get into the groove of this whole food plant based lifestyle, I would advise that you enter your calories into a calorie counter to make sure you are not overeating (or undereating), especially if you are coming from a binge eating or disordered eating past. I checked my calories yesterday while following the #eatyourvegchallenge, and found that I was eating 1700 calories which is a great amount for weight loss for my height, weight, and activity level! More about binge eating in my next post!