The Dictum of the Chart
Till early 2000, the term Calorie was only limited to my Physics Book. It was just another unit like Joules, Watts, Horse-Power and so on. In 2008, my dad had to seek professional help to evade a much-needed By-Pass Surgery. To everyone’s relief, he diligently followed a very strict regime, made several lifestyle changes, lost oodles of weight and succeeded in his mission. Well, one of the most significant side-effects of the treatment was his intense attachment to the Calorie chart! The problem was, it spilled way beyond his own plate! Friends, relatives, neighbors, no one was spared the sermons from the Calorie Chart! If anyone was having food and dad happened to be around, with the utmost dread they had to brace themselves to be bombarded with the calorie-counts of the edible contents of their plates!
A recent incident, just a few weeks ago proved that; this unit of Energy has exponentially grown in popularity within a matter of just a decade!
It was this year’s Valentine’s Sunday and I had walked into a local coffee shop to grab a Frappuccino for my sixteen-year-old brat, waiting in the car. The recent lockdown situation has affected the small hospitality sector the most. The lively coffee-shop at the happening corner of Mumbai’s Carter Road was almost empty except for a sassy “kitty group” of five. I overheard snippets of their conversation as I waited for the drink parcel. Surprisingly, it was about the number of calories in the cheesecake they had ordered and how each one planned to burn it out later!
How wrong we were in our analysis of dad’s behavior! It was not an obsession after all! He was merely caught in the frenzy of Calorie-Mania!
Technical Hitch
In recent times, the market is flooded with several Fitness Apps, which are pretty simple to use and conveniently pocket-friendly. You download an App and right at the click of a button, your weight to diet everything is sorted. Quite an impressive number of happy and contented users are maintaining their daily calorie-target with the use of these Apps. I downloaded one such trendy App on the persuasion of a friend. She cheekily claimed that the App helps her to smartly cheat on her diet! It turned out she was true to her words. The fact was, I could have a kachori and jalebi breakfast and binge on a burger lunch by compensating later on other meals as per the Calorie-Tracker of the App! 
A genius solution to everything, right? However, the problem is, misusing technology can rarely lead to a happy ending. In this case, one ends up sacrificing nutrition over calories! Simply speaking, the expected results would be far from anything favorable in the long run.
Lead us not into Temptation
A small prayer of protection for all! 
Visualize yourself in front of an elaborate food Buffet at a party or restaurant. Calorie-Counters beware! Food Buffets are the biggest Calorie-Busters! I always tend to exceed the capacity of my stomach no matter how much I try to restrict my portions. Hey, I’m not complaining here. After all, we have to respect The Right to Indulgence; the Birth Right of all human beings!
However, the practice of portion control in day-to-day life does help to avoid the nuisances of overburdening the digestive system and complicating the metabolic process of the body.
If you want to dedicate your mathematical aptitude to counting calories, no one is stopping you but do you really believe it to be the ultimate solution to health or even, weight management? Regular exercise, eating balanced, wholesome food and portion control are essential to maintain a healthy body. The stomach is for digesting food, not a storage! Our body is continuously trying to send us signals when to stop! We just have to listen to it. If it is still not working, it is time to consult a professional. Leave the calculations to the expert and relax! Why burden the food-plate with mathematics? Just eat and enjoy food within the limit! Bon Appetit!
