i never said not to track what you eat.
i said not to track macros/calories
tracking what you eat is actually beneficial because today we can eat what we want, when we want. before you only got to eat what was in season and what you had access to in nature. you can simplify this by simply eating nutritious foods in a time restricted window.
also eating the same foods will lead to allergies. and you can eat things like almonds 365 days of the year, but an almond tree only makes almonds X amount of the year. so tracking what you eat can help you identify allergies etc. s
i was eating almonds daily, i would usually eat a cup a day while watching tv. after 2 years i noticed i was sneezing nonstop. so i was able to figure out those almonds were giving me allergies. i stopped the almonds and allergies gone. have not eaten them since but have gradually brought them back into my diet using almond flour. no allergies from that. so this is an example of tracking what you eat. elimination diets are a good idea to do every couple years just to see what is intolerant. so let's not conflate what i am saying. WHAT you eat is important to a tee.
as for counting macros and calories. if it works for you do it i guess, but it isn't helping you and i mantain it hurts you more. you have to remember tracking calories makes no sense because there is no way to know exactly how many you are eating. there are too many factors that decide that. (example food companies can be off by 40% or more legally, other things say no calories but do have calories, how you cook/prep food changes calories substantially) but let's say you COULD track them to a tee just for fun. still your calories out CHANGES everyday! when you eat during the day changes it, how you prep your food changes it, when you exercise, what type of food, their fiber content, their sugar content, their refined oils content, your gut health, your number of bowel movements, what steroids you might take, what Rx drugs you take (ask a diabetic how eating raw fruit effects their blood sugar vs. juicing that same fruit) different foods partition different, different foods satiete differently, there are dozens of things that effect it. back to the fruit example. when you remove the fiber from that fruit you turn that fruit from something healthy to unhealthy. that fiber helps blunt a rapid insulin spike and blood sugar reaction, this is why you should eat more raw fruit and less juices/smoothies. yet in both example same calories!
so you will never pinpiont exactly how many calories in vs. calories out you are eating. this leads to guys saying "i'm gonna eat 3000 calories today" and then being at 2700 for the day and saying "well let me eat this slice of pizza and pepsi since i have 300 calories to spare." well doing that will screw up your insulin levels, your gut health, and metabolism. so that is a very damaging 300 calories. this is one example where counting calories fucks people up and prevents them from actually reaching their fitness goals.
but again don't just #trustmebro do your own homework on this stuff. just because some skinny meathead on steroids eats what they want and gets away with it cause they have skinny genetics, doesn't mean that is what works on 99.9% of the population. that is NOT anectodal evidence, that is just coincidence. 2 different things.
i have studies done on humans over the course of years backing up what i am saying. here is one study to look at. 7 year study that showed eating in a deficit did not work in over 99% of people. they also have done other studies on high end athletes with gifted genetics, that number of failure was over 95% every time no matter what setting they were in and averaged 98%.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/202138
it just does not work as much as we want to believe it does. our bodies are too complex, we aren't robots. we are built like this to survive everything mother nature throws at us. now can you imagine if we burned the same calories in all situations no matter how much food we ate? humans would have went exctinct a long time ago lol. of course that isn't how our bodies work. our bodies ADAPT daily to different situations. in africa during the dry season lions don't eat much for a couple months, do they still burn up the same calories? of course not. their bodies adjust. then when rainy season comes they start eating again. how about polar bears? they hibernate and eat nothing, then wake up and hike 100's of miles to find food. how do they do that? humans are the same. we've fought wars and marched days with no food in full armor where the king promised we would get food after. thankfully our bodies could adjust to that and we didn't burn calories as fast. our bodies metabolism are like a furnace, you can raise or lower the temp. we don't just stay at the same metabolism. does this make sense?
and then don't get me into the water debate. literally the type of water you drink can make a huge difference in your bodies health and how it operates too. i've discussed water a lot in my podcasts. it makes a difference if you are drinking good water or bad water. a huge difference. yet in all situations whether you drink tap water or high quality spring water they all have guess what? 0 calories! so if we are to believe in the calorie argument does that mean there is no difference between drinking pesticide and chlorine ridden tap water and mineral rich spring water? just that alone should give you pause and make you wonder if 'counting calories' and ignoring types of calories is the real deal.
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