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Counting Calories is a Ridiculous Way to Try to Lose Weight

It just Does NOT Work. We’ve all done it.

Dr. Jason Fung
7 min readMay 2, 2018

The calorie theory of obesity has been perhaps one of the greatest failures in the history of medicine. Given the number of excess deaths caused by metabolic syndrome, you could argue that it is a bigger disaster than World War II. It is based on a complete misinterpretation of the energy balance equation.

Body fat gained = Calories In — Calories Out

This equation, known as the energy balance equation is always true. So, looking at this equation, people then say something like ‘It’s all about restricting the calories you eat’, or ‘All diets work by restricting calories’. On the Calories Out side, you hear things like ‘You should exercise more’. This is the standard Eat Less, Move More approach. Doctors, even so-called ‘obesity experts’ and various health professionals say stuff like this all the time, but they’re completely wrong. The problem is that they don’t even know why they’re so wrong.

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Dr. Jason Fung
Dr. Jason Fung

Written by Dr. Jason Fung

Nephrologist. New York Times best selling author. Interest in type 2 diabetes reversal and intermittent fasting. Founder www.TheFastingMethod.com.

Responses (60)

What are your thoughts?

You’re twisting data to fit your narrative.
It’s a contradiction to say…
“as if the body had any actual method of measuring calories.”
when you previously said…
“A drop in calories eaten by 40% is met with a 40% drop in BMR.”
But lets start by looking at…

570

Actually, in my data point of admittedly one, it works really well. TLDR whole article, but I’ve lost nearly 80 pounds over the last year and a couple of months doing exactly the thing that you say DOESN’T WORK.

165

I’m confused… I lost a bunch of weight this last year eating 1500 calories, limiting my eating window, and exercising. I’m looking to transition to maintenance, and I figured I’d accomplish that by upping my calories, but you’re saying increasing my…

120