CALORIE MYTH

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A quick rundown of this product’s key features:

In this revolutionary weight-loss program informed by more than 1,200 scientific studies, fitness and diet expert Jonathan Bailor offers concrete evidence that the calorie-counting model of weight loss doesn’t work. In fact, cutting-edge science supports a radically different approach to weight loss and health, proving that by focusing on food and exercise quality—rather than calorie quantity—you can burn fat and boost health more easily and enjoyably that you ever thought possible.

The human body does not recognize all calories as equal. Some foods are used to repair tissue, boost brain power, and fuel our metabolism—while others are stored as fat.   In The Calorie Myth, Bailor shows us how eating more of the right kinds of foods and exercising less, but at a higher intensity, is the true formula for burning fat.

Why? Because eating high-quality foods—like whole plants and nutritious proteins—balances the hormones that regulate our metabolism. When we eat these foods, our bodies naturally maintain a healthy weight. But when we eat sugar, starches, processed fats, and other poor quality foods, the body’s regulatory system becomes “clogged” and prevents us from burning extra calories. Translation: Those extra 10 pounds aren’t the result of eating too much . . . they’re the result from eating the wrong foods.

In The Calorie Myth, Bailor offers clear, comprehensive guidance on what to eat and why, providing an eating plan, recipes, and a simple yet effective exercise regimen based on the principles of high intensity interval training. Losing weight doesn’t have to mean going hungry or spending hours at the gym. The Calorie Myth offers a radical new model for weight loss and long-term health.

Our Top Reviews

Reviewer: James
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: thought provoking
Review: Let me first say that this is an interesting book with many new ideas. It is well worth reading.For instance, the author introduced the idea of nutrients (such as protein, vitamins) per calorie as a way of evaluating food choices. This concept would lower the value of nuts, for instance, compared to arugula since arugula contains many fewer calories per pound and much more nutrition than a comparable weight of nuts. Although this is a simple observation, it never previously occurred to me. He also lists beans as a carbohydrate since that is mostly what they are, even though we often think of them as a protein source. These unique ways of viewing food data made the book interesting for me.Much of the book contains good information that is not new unless you are new to this type of book. If you are, you should also read Fuhrman’s “Eat To Live” and/or “Four Hour Body” by Ferris to mention a few. The essential takeaway is that sugar, flour, white rice and white potatoes should be avoided like the plague if you want to maintain a reasonable weight. You should also exercise more and concentrate on consuming protein, fiber and water to lose weight.Practically everybody agrees that traditional calorie counting doesn’t work. Ferris explained it most clearly by explaining that calorie ratings are derived by analysts by burning substances and measuring their calorie release. With that measure you could gain a huge amount of weight by eating fireplace logs, clearly ridiculous. This author carries the calorie concept further by explaining that different foods/composition have different effects on the body, which is why we will gain more weight eating a 1,000 calories of donuts compared to 1,000 calories of meat or vegetables. It’s not just the calories but the different way our bodies process carbohydrates, proteins fiber and fats. So far everybody I have been reading and my own common sense agree.Fuhrman, however, an avid vegetarian, presents a convincing chart which purports to show a higher death rate from consumption of protein from any source. Pesticides, hormones, anyone? Ferris encourages beans, yogurt, nuts, and other substitutes for meat. Your choice.My general criticism with the book is that the author overstates what’s known. His exercise regimen involving tension and eccentric movements were somewhat new to me. In general I agree that most experts overemphasize the amount of exercise needed. Plus, I don’t have time to hang around the gym all day. An hour every day is too much for me. Have you ever seen a lion doing pushups? They’re mostly landscape potatoes who run around and hunt once in a while to keep in shape.His modified form of Charles Atlas inside out dynamic tension also just doesn’t cut it for me. Regular vigorous exercise seems to clear out my system by raising my metabolism as well as burning more calories. Three or four hours a week is plenty.His claim that serious dieting leads to reduced muscle strength has not been my experience. If I diet and work out I do not lose muscle or stamina. His additional claim that working your legs will independently build your arms has not gained any traction in my scheme. This is an old idea introduced by Ken Cooper in “Aerobics” published I think I the 80’s. It might be true to some small extent and under some circumstances, but I wouldn’t bet on leg presses to build up my arms. Do marathon runners have big muscles or not? Common sense, folks. For many years I went for physical evaluations at the Cooper Clinic and no one seriously recommended this form of exercise.The author also believes in set points, although he is careful not to use the more classical term of homeostasis. In homeostasis, the body maintains 98.6 degrees among other metrics. Under set points, the body keeps your weight at a certain level unless you violate certain rules, such as consistently eating too much sugar and other unhealthy foods. In my opinion this is a simplistic notion that falls apart under closer examination. How many donuts equals how much set point change? No mention here. If you took a tiny microscope and traveled with it through my arteries to the appropriate data storage site you would find my set point listed as “blob.” Careful consumption keeps me in check.Another theme the author frequently returns to is what our distant ancestors ate. These people supposedly set the golden rule for fitness and never got fat. They are the same people who didn’t use toilet paper, wear shoes, cooked with wood fires in their unvented caves and tents, etc. Are you really sure you want to do what they did? If the bodies they developed and left us with in our genes are so good, why do these same bodies automatically conclude that donuts taste so good even after our storage needs are clearly satisfied? And if our bodies are so well designed, why is it that some of the holes are too close together? The logic in the book is obviously flawed here and there.Since the author is trying to generate a following and create sales beyond the purchase of the book, he is careful not to offend. He says that dieting doesn’t work and that exercise leads to more eating. Nothing could be further from the truth. If I dramatically reduce my consumption while eating more fruits and vegetables, my stomach shrinks and the hunger goes away. Also if I exercise while hungry, the hunger goes away and my muscle strength increases. My weight increases from time to time because I get careless and lose focus. It is also true that I have changed my food preferences through habit. Coffee with cream and sugar no longer holds an appeal over drinking it black. The exact relationships between these factors and their timing has yet to be fully understood by anyone. That’s why we’re willing to read books like this rather than just rely on the FDA and their “experts.”Want to try something fun not mentioned in this book? Get a bushel basket full of celery and the other items needed to follow the principles listed in this book. Then follow the scheme religiously for a week. After a week, go for a huge pigout for one day. How about some cognac and donuts for breakfast? Then back to the celery for another week. The net effect of the pigout will actually cause you to lose more weight than you would on two weeks of the straight program. This is a Tim Ferris idea. I like my bread and cognac.My guess is that the same people who fail at dieting will also wither under the strain of eating 10 servings of vegetables every day as recommended here. The first time you chug 60 asparagus spears or 80 baby carrots or 40 slices of onion or some combination of these and other choices listed in the book, that fireplace log will look better and better. You might even start thinking about donuts. The concepts work, but there are psychological hurdles that might get in the way, particularly when you are hanging from a pole in your bathroom doorway as recommended. The theory of weight loss is advancing slowly. The author pushes it forward a little bit. But the program outlined by any of my favorite authors is a work in progress.And then, of course, there are ideas that are good that need further development. If fiber cleans out your digestive system and makes you feel full and therefore less inclined to overeat, why not eat as much fiber as is healthy. And just what sort of things can we put in our pie holes other than ground up psyllium husks that will constitute beneficial fiber without making us sick, not to mention using up all of our toilet paper. Independent of this author, I discovered shirataki noodles (brushed over briefly in the book) which are fiber without calories. They’re not exactly like spaghetti, but if you can take a slight textural deviation, they are a very good product. Or how about some konjac powder—same basic stuff. Maybe I can make donuts out of it with a stevia stuffing of some sort!

Reviewer: N. Haynes
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The Calorie Myth – be prepared to have your beliefs about calories challenged!
Review: I have been tinkering with the SANE way of eating since finding Jonathan Bailor’s blog several weeks ago. I was excited to see that he had written a book – “The Smarter Science of Slim” – but it was out of print. I pre-ordered the new book “The Calorie Myth” and contented myself with listening to the occasional podcast while I waited. I have added lots of vegetables to my diet and cut back on starches and have been seeing some success, mostly in the way I didn’t gain weight over the holidays for a change. I have been really anxious to have an opportunity to read more and see the science behind the book. It arrived on New Year’s Eve and I have been reading it at every possible opportunity. In the last few days I have fully implemented the plan, I have begun to see a difference in how I should look at diet and exercise. Further, I have not gotten on a scale, but can also see a difference in how my clothes are fitting!I am a 40-something overweight woman who has “tried everything.” As I read through the book, I realized that the earliest “diet” I was on was recommended by my pediatrician back when I was about 12. It was a low calorie diet and I don’t remember actually losing weight on it, I only remember being hungry all the time. In retrospect debunking the whole “calorie is a calorie” myth would have probably solved my weight issue thirty-some years ago. If my Mom had been told to take away (or at least limit) fruit juice, soda, Kool-aid, sugary desserts and all of the starchy foods that were prepared for me – the problem might not have blossomed like it did. As I got a little older, I continued to gain weight. Diets and exercise were tried and short-term successes ultimately failed long-term. I joined a popular weight loss center right before I got married in my late 20’s. I counted every morsel that went into my mouth and lost weight – about 40 pounds. My wedding dress was on the border of being un-alterable and the seamstress told me I needed to stop or I would need to buy a smaller dress. I went back to eating carefully, but not dieting and the weight came back – and brought a few extra pounds with it. A few weeks after our honeymoon, I tried the program again (even after I swore that I would never count calories again) and this time I lost nothing. I tried other diets, including Atkins, South Beach, Alternate Day Diet to name a few. I have been able to lose some weight through low carb eating (around 50 lbs) and mostly keep it off, but I have more to lose.Now enters “The Calorie Myth.” The entire premise of the book is different than any other diet I have read (and believe me, there have been many). Bailor introduces the science behind it as less a diet and more a way to improve your health dramatically. In fact, he suggests that we should focus not on a number on the scale, but on our overall health …and waist circumference. I have found myself stepping on the scale daily until hearing his opinion of this on his podcast. It’s been pretty awesome not worrying about what it will say, I must admit. My clothes are already beginning to fit a little looser – so obviously I’m not doing too poorly. The biggest difference is that I am NEVER hungry. If I feel like nibbling, I actually eat veggies – it’s mostly boredom anyway so this is strangely satisfying. If I want a little treat, I have options – and they aren’t “Frankenfood” substitutes or as Bailor calls them “Edible Substances” that are really just over-processed junk. One of the ideas that I heard on a his podcast had me nodding my head was Bailor’s suggestion that “enriched” breakfast cereal was like adding a vitamin pill to your cigarettes. Sure it’s BETTER for you, but it’s still not GOOD for you.Bailor also gives nuggets of information from exhaustive research and why low calorie/low fat/high carb is ultimately doomed to failure. This has been my experience, so it wasn’t a surprise at all. However, one study that particularly hit home with me was a WWII era study done by University of Minnesota researchers who measured the effects of a 1600 calorie diet on people. “Subjects’ metabolism responded by slowing down by a whopping 40%. At the same time their strength fell by 28%, their endurance fell by 79%, and their rates of depression rose by 36%.” To think that this information has been known on any level since at LEAST WWII and wasn’t common knowledge just boggles the mind.From a nutritional standpoint, Bailor advises get rid of/or limit sugars and starches. Given that this is where my biggest success has come from, I am already totally on board with this idea. Further, he breaks it down to three very basic precepts:1. Eat no less than 10 servings of non-starchy vegetables per day2. Eat at least three 30 to 55 gram servings of high quality and nutrient dense protein per day3. Fill the rest of our plate with whole food fats and low fructose fruitsThis is just so logical – but not really something I have done until recently because low carb dieting is pretty restrictive here. I have noticed how much better I FEEL by adding more vegetables – now I’m anxious to see what else this will do for my health.All in all, I am very impressed from start to finish. I have already noticed improvements in how I “feel” and am pretty certain this will also translate into positive changes in my appearance. This is a great book with a wealth of information and I’m looking forward to seeing where this takes me!

Reviewer: eugenio azevedo
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Muito interessante a ótica abordada pelo autor dando um enfoque totalmente diferente de livros de dieta e do papel da nutrição

Reviewer: Barney
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I have been following a similar eating plan for six months now with The Harcombe Diet, so I know this works. I have never felt better, and am four stone lighter than I used to be. And the most brilliant thing of all is you can pretty much eat as much of the right foods as you want and are never hungry.This book is a fantastic introduction into eating right to stay slim for life and tells you how to change your eating and exercise habits to lose weight permanently. It’s packed full of scientific fact to back up the advice, and it’s all so sensible and clear that you just know this is the right way to go. What’s so brilliant too is the advice you get on exercise – no longer do we need to spend hours sweating ourselves silly in the gym. It’s all abut eating right and exercising right.I feel like I have learned loads of new tips from reading this book, so feel really armed with the tools to ensure that I stay healthy and happy for life. I sounds too good to be true, but this book really does offer the holy grail of diet and exercise we have all been searching for.

Reviewer: Rebecca
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I read and then followed the The Smarter Science of Slim: What the Actual Experts Have Proven about Weight Loss, Health, and Fitness for over a year now and it completely changed my life. The Calorie Myth is the follow up to that book and contains all the vital information from the SSoS and more. It is even easier to understand and comes with a guide to kickstart your new SANEr life.Rather than regurgitate the same old rubbish we’ve been sold for 50 years to eat less and exercise more, Jonathan Bailor has clearly explained the science that shows that we don’t need to starve ourselves or spend our lives a the gym. We can eat mounds of delicious healthy foods and live full and active lives without having to consciously think about it.I battled for years to eat less and less, was eternally hungry and obsessed about foods, only to get fatter and sicker and when I sought medical help to be told to eat even less. When that didn’t work I was told I was obviously cheating!! Finally I am armed with the right information to make the right choices. I’m no longer fooled by the low-fat high-sugar fake-food marketing efforts and no longer struggle with my weight or my health!Jonathan has explained the science that supports our optimal health. If you want be in optimal form then you need would to follow his directions exactly. However he also shows how regular people who just want to live a normal healthy and fit life can do so without having to spend their lives counting calories and exercising till they drop. He explains the research that shows that your metabolism is damaged by eating poor quality foods, and explains science shows it can be repaired by changing to a high quality diet.Read it for yourself and arm yourself with the right information!

Reviewer: Satish B
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: A must read book for all health conscious people

Reviewer: Laura Schwarz
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Wissenschaftlich ausgerichtetes Buch, dass Schluss macht mit der Kalorienbilanz Theorie. Wer keine Lust hat auf Kalorienzählen, Fettsparen und stundenlanges Fitnesstraining hat, wird bei Jonathan Bailor richtig aufgehoben sein. Einfaches, gut umsetzbares Programm, kein Wischiwaschi Gelaber sondern wissenschaftlich fundiert. Bitte nicht missverstehen: wer bisher eine normale westliche Ernährung mit hohem Anteil an stark verarbeiteten Produkten, Stärke und Zucker hat, für den kann die Umstellung auf das SANE Konzept Heavy sein. Auch das Training beansprucht lediglich wenig Zeit jedoch deutlich mehr Power!Im Grunde ist SANE ein Paleo Konzept und smart excercise meint HIIT mit der Besonderheit, dass exzentrisches Krafttraining im Fokus steht.

Price effective as of Jun 29, 2025 01:24:06 UTC

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