You Ask, I Answer: Calories

If our weight is just about calories, why does it matter how much fiber we eat or whether we snack on cookies or carrots?

-- Lauren (last name withheld)
New York, NY

Although weight management mostly involves calories, the concept of nutrition goes way beyond that.

Weight management falls under the umbrella of nutrition because it is part of a healthy lifestyle, since overweight status is linked to higher risks of developing a variety of diseases and conditions.

The goal of nutrition is to help people make smart food choices that help contribute to a healthy state of being.

This is precisely why I have problems with very low calorie diets (such as Argentine doctor Maximo Ravenna's) -- they aren't about making smart food choices.

Instead, they rely on extremely rigid rules that make people prisoners of what is supposed to be something pleasurable -- food!

In any case, if you calculate that you need to consume 1500 calories a day for a month to lose 'x' amount of weight, you could technically eat 1500 calories of anything.

However, keep in mind that while one cup of ice cream will contribute 500 calories, you can also get that same number by eating larger amounts of lower-calorie food (or the teeny ice cream cone pictured at left).

That, really, is one of the techniques and strategies one learns as a dietitian -- how to help people achieve their weight-loss and weight-management goals without going hungry or having to only subsist on six different foods.

You are also forgetting the most important point of all -- your health!

Eating 1500 calories worth of ice cream, pizza, and French fries might fulfill your energy needs, but you would be deprived of key nutrients, negatively affecting your health.

You could eat less calories and lose weight all while consuming unhealthy trans fats and missing out on vitamins, minerals, and fiber. What's the point?

Anemia, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, and other nutrition-related conditions can affect anyone who does not keep healthy eating patterns, overweight or not.