Counting Calories: The Truth About Why Its Unhealthy

For years, we’ve been told that the secret to weight loss is simple: count your calories. It’s a straightforward equation—burn more than you eat, and the pounds will magically melt away. Like many, I believed that counting calories was the only path to success.

When I was in my early teens, I became obsessed with the idea of becoming a Victoria’s Secret model. I thought that to be accepted into any modeling agency, I needed to be skinny—unhealthily so.

Little did I know, this mindset would be my first step into the world of eating disorders. It led to years of depression and pain, and eventually, a fear of death as I struggled with anorexia nervosa

Many people don’t realize that calorie counting is a complete waste of time. Reducing food to just a number oversimplifies its true value. Just like humans, no two foods are the same, and focusing on calories alone ignores the true complexity of nutrition.

In this article, I’ll reveal the unhealthy truth about why counting calories is nothing but bullsh*t.

The Inaccuracy of Counting Calories

Counting calories doesn’t promote anything other than restriction and to be restricted to live is sh*t. The truth is, counting calories doesn’t bring you anywhere, because the calories you burn depends on multiple different factors. These include:

- Your metabolism
- Age
- Gender
- Height
- Genetics
- Body Size
- Muscle Mass
- Your Physical Activity (and what you do)
- Your hormonal balance Thermic Effect of Food (TEF)(the energy your body needs to digest food) 
- Sleep
- Stress levels

You can find more Info, here.

As you can see from this list, you can’t just expect to count calories and immediately lose weight—it doesn’t work that way. There are so many variables at play, from your body’s unique metabolic rate to factors like genetics, which is something completely out of your control.

Potato Example

On top of that, we’re bombarded with nutritional labels that tell us how many calories are in everything we eat. But have you ever stopped to think about how processed these foods are?

Let’s take the example of a potato. You could have two potatoes, both weighing 150 grams and labeled with the same calorie count. But how do we know they have the same nutritional value? One could have been grown in nutrient-rich soil, while the other might have undergone extensive processing. Calories alone don’t tell us the full story.

Ready Meals Example

Another example is ready-made meals. These meals are often produced in massive batches, and while the ingredients may be the same, how can we be sure that every portion is perfectly consistent?

Imagine a factory producing thousands of these meals—there’s no guarantee that the ingredients were mixed evenly across all the batches. One meal could have a higher calorie count than another, even though the label says they’re identical. This highlights yet another flaw in relying on calorie counting: you’re trusting that every portion is nutritionally the same, but in reality, it’s not that precise.

How Counting Calories Damages Your Relationship with Food

When you constantly restrict yourself to the bare minimum, you strip away the joy of eating foods you once loved. Foods that made you happy and allowed you to enjoy life.

Instead of feeling content, you close yourself off to becoming a miserable person. Suddenly, you’re the one who can’t join your friends for an ice cream, can’t enjoy a creamy milk coffee, or in my case, can’t even eat a damn banana because it’s ‘too much.’

Other dangers include: 

- Food is seen as the enemy: Instead of seeing meals as fuel for your body or moments of pleasure, calorie counting can make you view food as a set of numbers to control. This mindset often leads to guilt when you eat “too much,” even if the food is healthy and nourishing.

- Restiction leads to binging: When you’re constantly depriving yourself of what your body craves, it’s easy to overindulge when you finally give in, leading to feelings of shame and frustration.

- It Ignores Hunger and Fullness Cues: Relying on calorie limits trains you to ignore your body’s natural signals. Instead of eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re full, you end up eating according to external rules, which can disconnect you from your body’s needs.

- Promotes eating disorders like Binge eating, anorexia, orthorexia, bulimia etc.

You can find more Info, here.

The Fixation Overlooks the Nutrition

Just because something is low in calories doesn’t mean it’s the healthiest choice. In fact, it’s often the opposite. Have you considered the nutritional value? Low-calorie foods often lack essential nutrients like carbs, proteins, and fats, which are vital for keeping us healthy.

When you’re counting calories, it’s easy to focus only on the numbers, leading you to choose foods simply because their calorie count is low. This can result in picking ultra-processed ‘diet’ snacks that offer little real nutrition.

Counting Calories is Impractical

Tracking every bite may seem like a good idea, but it wastes time and takes the joy out of eating. Instead of savoring your meals, you focus entirely on the numbers. When I was calorie counting, I would blindly follow what my app told me.

I’d leave the kitchen with half an apple and a rice cracker with 0.5 tsp of spread, thinking I was doing the right thing because the app said so. It knows my body and what it needs, right?

Of course not—it’s just a program, a robot that doesn’t understand my hunger, feelings, or true nutritional needs.

Calorie counting also becomes a time-sucking process. Weighing every ingredient down to the grain of rice, obsessing over accuracy—it’s exhausting. I used to spend so much tim making sure I had the exact amount. I was always relieved if I came in under, but panicking at even a gram over. That’s no way to live, and honestly, it sounds like a sad, rigid existence. Instead of enjoying food, I was trapped by the numbers.

Eating Disorder Dangers

Counting calories restricts you to the bare minimum, and you risk developing an eating disorder, which, trust me, isn’t fun. By focusing on calorie counting, you open yourself up to various types of disordered eating, but I want to shift the focus to one in particular: Orthorexia.

Orthorexia is an obsession with eating only foods that are considered ‘healthy,’ often to the point of being restrictive and harmful. Calorie counting can trigger this behavior, as you become so focused on finding low-calorie, ‘clean’ foods that you start to eliminate entire food groups or refuse to eat anything that doesn’t fit within your narrow guidelines. This obsession with perfect eating can damage your relationship with food, lead to malnutrition, and ultimately cause both physical and mental health issues.

By counting calories, you’re not just risking Orthorexia—you’re training yourself to ignore your body’s true needs. It’s a dangerous road that can take a heavy toll on your well-being.

The End That Counts

At the end of the day, calorie counting strips away the joy of eating and replaces it with anxiety, obsession, and often guilt. It turns food from something that nourishes and sustains you into an enemy to be controlled. Trusting an app or a number over your body’s natural signals is a losing battle—one that can lead you down a dark path of disordered eating, as I learned the hard way.

What we need isn’t stricter rules or more focus on numbers. What we need is a balanced, mindful approach to food—one that celebrates variety, nourishment, and enjoyment without guilt or restriction. Your body is not a machine, and it doesn’t need to be micromanaged by calorie counts.

Instead of chasing a perfect number, aim for a healthy, sustainable relationship with food that lets you thrive both physically and mentally. Remember: true health is not found in the numbers, but in how you feel, live, and enjoy your life. Let go of the calorie obsession, and give yourself the freedom to eat without fear. Life is too short to spend it counting every bite.