One of the greatest myths that lead to diet failure is that if you eat fewer calories and exercise more then you will lose weight. While diet and exercise certainly contribute to weight loss the bigger picture is more involved and complex then simply changing you’re eating habits and behaviors. Look at fat for instance. For each gram of fat there is 9 calories. This will lead one to believe that the best diets are for success are not must low- calorie but low- fat as well.
The problem with this is that the human body needs some essential fatty acids in order to survive in a healthy manner. Therefore, cutting out fat completely did nothing for dieters but risk their health. But, onto a more puzzling aspect of the diet myth – studies show that overall, people have been consuming less calories, putting their fat intake at an even lower number yet one of the biggest epidemics that spreads all over the globe is obesity. This is quite a conundrum. The answer may lie in the other things that people are taking into their bodies. Yes, caloric intake is down but caffeine, sugar and refined carbohydrates are on the rise in the human diet. Looking at data gathered from two government surveys from Britain shows that during the past 15 years the caloric intake has dropped drastically while at the same time the numbers of people with obesity are steadily rising.
How it is then, with calorie intake at an all time low, people are getting fatter and fatter? This is not just an issue found in Britain but all over the globe, from America to Australia. Something just is not adding up here and with obesity numbers on the rise, scientific evidence is telling us that calorie intake does not equal obesity. In the United States alone obesity is a major issue. But the average caloric intake of American’s is 2,360. The recommended daily calorie count is 2,000 so this is not a far reach from what is considered to be healthy. In China, the average is 2,630 yet they have very little issues with obesity.
How is this explained? One possibility is that in China people live more active lives then are lived in America. However, this cannot be the sole reason. It is impossible that in the UK alone, at least 1,000 people a day are turning obese due to lack of exercise. So, if we are not taking in more calories than the best answer to this oddity is that when it comes to weight loss and exercise, it is the quality that counts, not the quantity.