Tim Spector 'not a fan of calories' and points out errors making 'counting nearly impossible'

Tim Spector has said that he is not a fan of counting calories - and there's a few errors which can make the task near impossible.

Taking to Instagram, the Professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London - and founder of the Zoe health app - said the first reason he's against calorie counting is that it's "virtually impossible to do it well". He explains: "Even if you can measure it, and most people can't, the manufacturers often get it wrong and the restaurants are wildly out of their estimates because so much depends on the portion sizes."

Secondly, he adds: "It ignores totally the structure of the food so you get the same calorie amount for something that's a whole food as well as a powder that's ground up into tiny pieces which gets absorbed into your body super fats and has a very different effect."

Finally, he states that his number one reason is that it "ignores the quality of the food." He explains that people search for low-cal products but a "health halo" makes people ignore that it lacks nutrients and it's also often "packed with chemicals to make you over eat and mess up your gut microbiome".

In his caption alongside the video he says that "on the surface, the theory behind calorie counting makes sense. If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight.

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"This seductive simplicity explains why calorie counting is so popular. But in reality, accurate calorie counting is nearly impossible."

The expert warns that when we’re focused on calories, we’re more likely to ignore the actual ingredients of the food and it’s impact on our body. He states: "Focusing on food quality, getting enough fibre and a wide variety of plants is in my opinion, a much better way to eat for your gut health and overall health."

Even if you knew exactly how many calories were in your meal, you wouldn’t know how many you’ve actually absorbed, he stresses. Giving celery as an example, he says a raw stick has six calories but when it's cooked, it jumps to 36 calories.

Similarly, almonds have a calorie content of around 460 calories/100g, blending into an almond butter increases this to 650 calories/100g.

Concluding his video, he says "always go for quality above energy."

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