This is really weird and I should have understood this so clearly much earlier in my life and perhaps I did on some level (I know I did), but today this truth really made a bigger impact on my little brain. It was like I was hearing it for the first time.
It is a secret about calories and how they work long term in the bigger picture of weight loss.
You know how many of us try to stick to a certain caloric level each day and how complicated it makes life sometimes? It is not necessarily how many calories I eat today or how many I eat tomorrow, however, it is important how many calories I consume over a longer period of time. It was Mike O'Donnell who created this epiphany in me this morning. LOL Here are his words:
"Here’s a little secret about calories too, it doesn’t really urgently matter what you eat per meal or even per day. It’s the long-term calorie load effect over days/weeks that determines how we much we really burn and store as fat in the long run.
So what does that mean? It means trying to have exact calorie meals proportioned out 6x a day and the same calorie intake daily is a very complicated/confusing way (but it makes for a great industry in selling stuff as people stay confused).
How about we just focus on the bigger picture and know that high calorie days can be offset with low calorie days. How about instead we see that by selecting some days to be lower in calories we can have more flexibility on the other days and how we eat. How about we just focus on the bigger picture and know that high calorie days can be offset with low calorie days. Do you want to spend every day focused on measuring food and portions, or do you just want to be free to eat? (My injection: I'd like to be free to simply eat when I am hungry. It is basically what I do anyway.)
How about we just focus on the bigger picture and know that high calorie days can be offset with low calorie days. How about instead we see that by selecting some days to be lower in calories we can have more flexibility on the other days and how we eat. The body was designed to work optimally on changes/challenges, not routine!"