You may think you know all about calories. Many people have been counting them, cutting them, and adding them up for most of their lives. But when it comes to weight loss, there’s actually still a lot of confusion out there about calorie counting. It turns out that many of the most common beliefs about calories are really just myths. Here are seven of the most persistent calorie counting myths — plus the facts, straight from experts.
1. All Calories Are Created Equal
Plenty of people believe that as long as they stick to a certain number of calories per day, they’re eating healthy. The myth that all calories are created equal can get in the way of eating a balanced, nutritious diet. “You cannot compare 100 calories of salmon to 100 calories of soda,” says Samantha Cassetty, RD, former nutrition director of Good Housekeeping, who is based in New York City.
She points out that salmon is loaded with beneficial nutrients, including omega-3 fatty acids and protein — one reason the American Heart Association recommends eating it twice a week — that work really hard to nourish your body. “With soda, it’s the opposite — those calories are working against you,” she says. Not only are they lacking in nutrition, but they are also full of sugar, and drinking them has been associated with an increased risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes, as research from 2022 detailed. “It’s a total mistake to think all calories are the same,” Cassetty says.
2. Celery Has Negative Calories
With only about 9 calories a stalk, per the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), it’s obvious how this calorie myth got started. It’s easy to imagine that the act of chewing celery “erases” enough of those calories to take the food into negative calorie territory. “It’s an idea leftover from another era,” says Cassetty.
Cucumbers, radishes, lettuce, and other water-rich vegetables are also sometimes said to be negative-calorie foods, but just like with celery, it’s nothing more than a myth. “There are no negative calorie foods,” says Cassetty.
3. Calorie Labels Are 100 Percent Accurate
What you see is not necessarily what you get when it comes to calorie information on nutrition labels. “There is leeway for manufacturers,” says Cassetty. In fact, by law, food manufacturers can be up to 20 percent off the mark with this number, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). That means a product you’re eating that you believe has 200 calories might actually have up to 240 calories. A study published in the journal Obesity investigated the accuracy of nutrition labels and found that prepackaged convenience meals had 8 percent more calories on average than their labels claimed. That can add up.
4. If You Cut 3,500 Calories You’ll Lose 1 Pound
This calorie myth is a gross oversimplification of the science of calories, and hardly the way weight loss works in real life, according to Cassetty. “Overall body size, genetics, sleep, and stress can all complicate this general rule,” she says. As a body loses weight, the amount of calories it needs to maintain that weight goes down.
The 3,500 calories-equals-one-pound math simply doesn’t account for this. Nor does it take into consideration other factors including gender, changing diet and exercise habits, and poor compliance, according to an article in Today’s Dietitian. Carson C. Chow, PhD, a senior investigator in the mathematical biology section of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is quoted in the article explaining: “Every 10 calories per day decrease in calorie intake leads to an eventual one-pound loss, but it can take three years to get there.” (You can check out the National Institutes of Health’s Body Weight Planner tool to try out this math out for yourself.) This rule of thumb isn’t quite as appealing to dieters as the 3,500 calorie rule, but it’s more accurate.
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