You Need To Eat This Many Calories To Gain Weight

You can eat 3500kcal and only gain 1lb of fat!
 
You’ve seen it plastered over socials this week from fitness influencers everywhere, reminding you that 1 – your body fat levels matter this Christmas and 2 – it’s only a few days where you allow yourself to eat ‘junk’ food so just enjoy it
 
Regardless of the fact that this isn’t actually physiologically accurate (because of energetic costs of metabolism, impact of increased energy intake on NEAT to name but a few reasons) I still don’t love the narrative 
 
These messages remind us that body fat is of crucial importance at Christmas and should be at the forefront of our minds if we are fitness enough 
 
My lord (unsure if this is ok to say in December but we’re here) give me a break
 
There is more to life than your body composition
 
Can you quantify just how many hours of your life you’ve wasted thinking about your body fat?
 
 
Someone asked on the ETPHD pod yesterday for our non negotiables when setting up a diet after healing their relationship with food
 
And honestly my first answer sprang to mind faster than mum’s Christmas cake on the last day of December
 
It’s not that big of a deal
 
Nothing else has to change other than the number of calories you eat and/or expend and the rest of your life and healthful habits stay exactly the same
 
 
Calories in vs. calories out is the most over-hyped scientific rule since Pythagoras’s theorem (is that even a scientific rule?) 
 
Yet we spend hours and days and weeks and months overthinking it and it even seeps into our damn Christmas puddings through the channels of Instagram in the 12 days of bloody Christmas
 
Shut up about calories and how many we need to eat to gain fat
 
 
If you gain a kg you can lose it again within weeks and not a single person would notice
 
Or you could keep it because there is nothing inherently wrong with weight gain and many people would actually quite like it if they didn’t have the narrative rammed down their throat every day that leaner = more successful
 
If body fat matters for your health then again you can lose that kg within weeks
 
You know what you don’t want to lose?
 
An entire Christmas period to guilt, shame and food preoccupation
 
 
The wild thing is that for a lot of you, eating the Christmas food without stress and gaining a little weight is healthier than stressing about it and maintaining your weight
 
It’s also a lot more delicious
 
 
I know this time of year is hard for many of you who struggle around food so I urge you to switch off from fitness and diet messaging for now and instead focus on what’s around you
 
Gratitude for what you have and presence in whatever that is
 
 
Overthinking your food choices changes nothing and only serves to ruin your day
 
Everything is transient, including Christmas day, the love around you, mum’s christmas cake and your body weight 
 
 
I’m taking the week off so I’ll see you in 2 weeks – have the most magical Christmas and new year with those you love or by yourself (which I hope is also someone you love)
 
Thanks for showing up for yourself this year and for coming on the journey that is my life musings – I appreciate you so much for giving me your time and attention (I am but human)

I've written you some free new year journaling prompts - get them here
 
Lots of love and gratitude,
Em x