Calories: Nutritionist Kassandra Hobart joins Kristen Holmes and Emily Capodilupo to discuss exactly what calories are, how your body uses them, the challenges in tracking them, plus tips for being smarter and healthier with how you consume them.
Nov 12, 2019
44:55
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Nutritionist Kassandra Hobart joins Kristen Holmes and Emily Capodilupo to discuss what calories are, challenges in tracking them, importance of eating slowly, general guidelines for calorie intake, food timing, how calories affect your sleep, and misconceptions about calories.
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Quick takeaways
Focusing on the quality of food is more important than calorie counting for performance and health.
Tracking calories can be challenging due to various factors and may not provide precise information.
Understanding Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) helps determine baseline calorie needs and guides adjustments for activity levels.
Deep dives
The importance of quality over quantity in nutrition
When it comes to optimizing performance and overall health, focusing on the quality of the food we eat is more important than obsessing over calorie counting. Weighing and measuring food can help understand its nutrient density, which plays a significant role in fueling the body and supporting performance. Rather than fixating on calories, it is advised to prioritize nutrient-rich whole foods and mindful eating habits such as chewing each bite thoroughly. This approach can lead to better absorption of nutrients, improved digestion, stable blood sugar levels, and enhanced performance.
The challenges of calorie tracking and its limitations
Tracking calories can be challenging due to various factors, such as inaccuracies in food labels and the body's complex metabolic processes. Calorie counting methods often have a broad margin of error, and relying solely on them may not provide precise information. While trends in calorie consumption and expenditure are useful, it's important to remember that precise calorie counting is difficult and imprecise. Factors like activity levels, sleep quality, and stress levels can significantly impact calorie needs and absorption. Therefore, prioritizing overall quality of food, being aware of portion sizes, and listening to the body's signals are essential for optimal nutrition.
Understanding the role of basal metabolic rate (BMR)
Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the minimum amount of calories needed for the body's basic functions, such as breathing and digestion. It varies depending on factors like age, weight, height, and environment. Measuring BMR accurately requires specialized equipment, but estimating it using formulas based on age, gender, and body measurements can provide a reasonable estimate. However, these estimates may have a certain level of error, usually around plus or minus 200 calories. Nevertheless, understanding BMR helps determine the baseline calorie needs and guides adjustments for activity levels and performance optimization.
Improving calorie tracking accuracy with technology and innovation
Woop, along with other wearable devices and online calculators, calculates calorie burn based on factors such as age, gender, and heart rate data. While these methods have some margin of error, they provide valuable insights and trends. Woop has made efforts to improve the accuracy of active burn calculations, focusing on heart rate ranges that were previously underrepresented in research and existing equations. Additionally, partnerships with metabolic testing companies allow for more accurate measurements in the future, enhancing users' understanding of their calorie expenditure.
The importance of sleep and nutrition in overall health
Sleep plays a critical role in nutrition and overall health. Inadequate sleep can disrupt the body's hormonal balance, leading to cravings for high-calorie, refined foods. Prioritizing quality sleep and incorporating pre-bed routines that promote relaxation and parasympathetic activation can support optimal digestion and absorption of nutrients. Avoiding heavy meals close to bedtime and focusing on easily digestible protein and carbohydrates if hunger arises during the night can prevent disruptions in sleep quality. Maintaining hydration throughout the day is also crucial, as proper water intake can impact both sleep quality and digestion.
Nutritionist Kassandra Hobart chats with WHOOP VP of Performance Kristen Holmes and Director of Analytics Emily Capodilupo about the science of calorie tracking, including what calories really are (4:01), basal metabolic rate and the ways your body burns calories (4:26), a recent update to improve how WHOOP tracks caloric burn (9:04), food label inaccuracies and other things that make calorie counting difficult (11:09), if weighing food helps (14:50), why eating slowly and in a restful state is so important (18:16), general guidelines for where your calories should come from (22:56) and why this varies depending on your goals (25:06), why food timing matters (29:12), how calories affect your sleep (32:18), and the biggest misconceptions people have about calories (38:55).