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If you’re a listener of mine or in any way interested in fitness, I’m sure you have an app for counting and tracking your calories floating around your phone—I know I do.

But where did this idea come from? Let’s go back in history (cue the cheeky rewind sounds)... It’s 1909, and women can’t even vote yet, but Lulu Peters was a rebel with a medical degree and a dream: to teach America how to eat and maybe—just maybe—shrink her “too-too solid bod.”

Fast forward to 1918, and boom! She publishes Diet & Health: With the Key to Calories—the first bestselling diet book. Suddenly, bread isn’t just bread; it’s 100 calories. Pie? 300. Food had become numbers. Delish.

Around the same time, the industrial revolution told us, "Hey, you're basically a machine!"—and machines need fuel control. Being “super skinny” went from a rich person’s nightmare to the total dream. The bathroom scale arrived right on time, gleefully offering up your daily measure of self-worth, and just like that, thinness became a moral virtue.

The only way to lose weight is by maintaining a caloric deficit—that’s an irrefutable fact. But is counting every calorie really the best path? Counting can be tricky, with user error, inaccurate labels, and wildly variable “calories out” due to body type and countless other factors. We aren’t just calorie-burning machines; we’re way more complex. Yet, the impulse to quantify everything still has a hold on us.

With my programs, I aim to help pave the way to sustainable habits that naturally support a deficit: eating loads of veggies, waiting to eat until you’re actually hungry, and managing stress. Boring? Perhaps. But here’s the twist: it actually f*cking works.

What’s Inside:

• Who invented the calorie and why does it matter so much?
• The historical path that led to THIN IS IN.
• What’s the problem with relying on calorie counting as your only form of weight loss?
• Sustainable habits that stack alongside a healthy caloric deficit.

Imagine a world without calories. Maybe we’d have less highly processed, low-calorie snacks? Or maybe the thinness of your body would exemplify your moral value? The truth is calories are important, but knowledge and positive habits make all the difference. Are you a calorie-counting junkie?  Let me know on Insta!


Mentioned In This Episode:
Transform Your Body & Habits In 28 Days.  Guaranteed.
Fit Feels Good
Goals, Grit and some Woo Woo Shit with Oonagh Duncan