Counting calories and portion control have been preached by so-called weight loss experts for decades. But, if eating less food is the answer, then why isn’t everyone already slim?

Here are a few of my thoughts on weighing and measuring food (and why it’s NOT the answer to weight loss and maintaining your ideal weight forever.

No other species on Earth weighs and measures their food.

If you eat to satiation on packaged, processed foods, you gain weight… so people make the assumption that the way to lose weight is to eat less food.

When it comes to eating, you were never meant to grit your teeth and bear eating less than you want to eat.  It’s unnatural behaviour to portion control and eat tiny amounts of food when your hunger drive knows exactly when you are full.

People are being told by lean, intelligent and professional people that this is the way to do things – to override their hunger drive by using extreme amounts of willpower.  This will work in the short term – but eventually the willpower will collapse and you’ll binge on the highest calorie dense foods you can get your hands on because your body wants more food.

A few people with extraordinary willpower and determination will manage to do this for their entire lives and stay slim by eating less than they want to eat.  But it’s not necessary and it’s not natural.  There’s a much easier way to get to your ideal weight.  Without having to override your instincts to eat until you’re full.  Eat the food you were designed to eat and stay away from any modern packaged, processed, deep-friend and highly fattening food.   If you are eating food that is under 700 calories per pound (rice, beans, potatoes, legumes, fruit, vegetables, etc.) You will naturally get to your ideal weight without having to limit your portion sizes or measure your food at all.   This is what Dr. Lisle called “losing weight without losing your mind” because you don’t have to constantly think about counting calories or eating less than you need to eat to feel comfortably full.