Every calorie counts

People who say that “calories don’t count” or that “some calories count less than others” are usually trying to convince you to follow a diet that concentrates on one kind of food to the exclusion of most others. One common example that seems to arise like a phoenix in every generation of dieters is the high-protein diet.

The high-protein diet says to cut back or even entirely eliminate carbohydrate foods on the assumption that because your muscle tissue is mostly protein, the protein foods you eat will go straight from your stomach to your muscles, while everything else turns to fat. In other words, this diet says that you can stuff yourself with protein foods until your eyes bug out, because no matter how many calories you get, they’ll all be protein calories and they’ll all end up in your muscles, not on your hips.

Boy, wouldn’t it be nice if that were true? The problem is, it isn’t. Here’s the absolute truth: All calories, regardless of where they come from, give you energy. If you take in more energy (calories) than you spend each day, you’ll gain weight. If you take in less than you use up, you’ll lose weight. This nutrition rule is an equal opportunity, one-size-fits-all proposition that applies to everyone.