Question

  • Weight-loss wise, does it matter where calories come from?
    I hear a lot about empty calories, and nutritious ones, but I was just wondering, if I fix my diet to 1400-1600 yet eat fatty stuff, will I still be losing weight?
  • Yes, you can lose weight eating tootsie rolls, coffee and donuts as long as you are taking in less calories than you are burning. BUT, you are more likely to miss vital nutrients, feel hungry, and look and feel awful by the time you've lost the weight. In addition, if you live on unhealthy food and don't exercise (lifting weights in particular), half of the weight that you lose may be muscle. This means that in terms of body composition, you may actually be fatter than before you started dieting. Smaller, but a higher percentage of fat. Not a pretty situation!

    Mel
  • Quote: Weight-loss wise, does it matter where calories come from?
    I hear a lot about empty calories, and nutritious ones, but I was just wondering, if I fix my diet to 1400-1600 yet eat fatty stuff, will I still be losing weight?
    Why would you want to eat fatty stuff? Do you know what fatty foods do to your heart with all that fat swimming around in your arteries?

    blech!

    Mel is correct, you can still lose weight by eating junk as long as you take in fewer calories than your body burns. You can lose weight eating pizza and gain weight eating nothing but vegetables. It just depends on how many calories you consume as opposed to how many you burn. But fat has the most calories per gram of any other food (meaning it has more calories per gram than carbs and protein, etc) so the more fattening foods you eat, the LESS you can eat. If you blow all of your calories on fatty crap, you're gonna have to watch what you eat the rest of the time and you're gonna get REAL hungry.

    I could go on with the differences; fatty foods vs healthy foods and the benefits of eating those healthy foods, but I know a person that's not ready to give up the junk when I see one. Because I used to be one. And there was no talking to me. It's just something I had to wake up and realize on my own.

    Good luck to you. And seriously consider not only watching your calories, but where the calories come from.
  • Quote:
    Why would you want to eat fatty stuff?
    I don't, I was just wondering that's all
  • If you have a snacking problem, eat baby carrots or yogurt or something that will give you energy but burn calories. Empty calories are not good for you if that's what you eat all the time. Plus you need to feed your body good nutrients.

    emerald dragonfly
  • Quote: I don't, I was just wondering that's all
    Hope not!

    It's just you sounded so much like me in that post because I too was wanting to lose weight, but I wasn't (at first) willing to give up the fatty stuff.