In a simple mathematical equation a calorie is a calorie. A 3500 cal deficit mathematically creates a 1 pound weight loss, according to current scientific info.

However, it's not quite that simple in real life application. I like what Amarantha2 said.

I look at this way, we need to look at the quality of the calorie! 80 calories of tuna is way better than 80 calories of a mini coffee cake muffin. I happen to know the cals in that muffin since I had one the other day. Not something I do very often, it was good, but the tuna a way more satisfying, healthy option.

A calories is unit of energy measurement so yes, a calorie is a calorie.

That said, fat loss or gain is an equation of energy and what you input (eat) can have an effect on the output side of the equation.

This is only true if someone is insulin resistant, and probably significantly so. If you test a group of insulin sensitive people the opposite is true.

In terms of straight-up weight loss, a calorie is a calorie. You can eat the same number of calories in either proteins and veggies or cookies and cakes. They will provide your body with the same amount of energy. However, eating proteins and veggies will make you feel fuller for a longer period of time, so you're less likely to feel hungry throughout the day.

In terms of health, the way you get your calories matters. Eating balanced meals with lean proteins and veggies will do you more good than eating brownies and cookies. There are simply nutrients that your body needs that you cannot get from junk food.

My dad always talks about how when he was broke before, he pretty much ate only Snickers bars and value menu burgers from fast food places. He lost 50 pounds doing this. He knows it wasn't the best diet and he eats much healthier now. He tells me this not to advocate eating Snickers and McDonald's but to remind me that it's about calories in and calories out. I can eat foods I enjoy in limited amounts and still lose weight.

This is what I still don't understand. Why would post-sugar insulin spikes cause your body to expend less energy if you do the same amount of moving and exercising as if you hadn't eaten the sugar?


Freelance

Well, 100 pounds of lead weighs the same as 100 pounds of feathers. The lead just takes up a lot less space. So it is with calories: 100 cals of spinach contains the same amount of energy as 100 cals of mac and cheese. The difference is that the spinach would fill a large salad bowl, while the mac and cheese would fill a quarter cup, if that.

That's why it would be hard to gain on just spinach -- you'd have to eat a huge volume of it -- though it's theoretically possible. It's certainly possible to gain weight on 100% nutritious food if you eat too many calories of it.

F.

I disagree completely. Our bodies are designed to work efficiently with the healthful natural foods. I've been saying this for years and now, if you google, you will find it is being proven. Filling ourselves full of pesticide laden corn... which is what at least 80% of the processed foods are made of (along with all sorts of garbage such as wood ashes, chemicals, fake sugar, and other horrendous substance... DOES cause lack of proper functioning in our bodies. Not to mention all kinds of diseases.

You're right - there would be no difference if movement and exercise were the same. If you Google up insulin resistance and what effect it has and you'll see that for insulin resistant people a meal rich in carbs will make them feel lethargic.

For the same reason insulin sensative people will do better on a carb rich diet. They'll expend more energy with the carbs and less without due to energy levels.

Calories are calories. Energy in , energy out. Science is a beautiful thing.

Not necessarily. For example, recent research has shown that almonds have 7 calories each. However, we do not absorb all the fat so we are actually ingesting less calories.

Check out this article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert...b_2759564.html

that energy is still there its just in a different form which may make it more beneficial than another energy source, but its still energy, energy just doesn't vanish. Are some energy sources better than others? well obviously. But its all still energy so in that aspect a calorie is still a calorie :P how good the source that calorie comes from is a different question. but a calorie is a unit of measurement for energy.

Yes, but energy out is not independent of what you eat. The body is a complex organism and what you feed it changes how much energy your body uses just to live. I'm not even talking about energy from moving or being active.

So you need to burn more energy than the calories you put in to lose weight. How much you burn on a daily basis is partially impacted by what you eat.

This is real science. I can send literature or pages out of text books.

Or read Gary Taubes "Why We Get Fat". A lot of his stuff is just a priori hypothesis but a lot of stuff at the beginning of his book is just about how the body works. It's real research.

I agree. Science is beautiful. I am a PhD student, a scientist who studies quantitative methods.

Hmm. I am getting more confused also. I drink a lot of beer which contains no fat but has lots of empty calories. But I read, and might be experiencing, that alcohol contains calories that are not efficiently used by the body. Excessive (!) alcohol consumption can also increase the metabolic rate and therefore, causes more calories to burn instead of being stored as fat. I am sure I would put on weight if I was consuming an extra 400-600 calories of junk food on a regular basis but the beer equivalent does not seem to be having the same effect...yet.

This could, of course, all be BS. But something isn't adding up.

Misti- I 100% agree. And there is a lot of empirical evidence and science that strongly support some of this. I think there are people who take it to far. There are chemical and man made things that are perfectly safe, but the newest understanding of nutrition and how the body works does demonstrate that actually, a calorie is not just a calorie. The type of food you consume DOES impact how you use energy in your body.

Yes, a calorie is a calorie, but is it a calorie in a meal plan you can stick with for ever?
Is it a calorie that will fill you up and give you energy to go about your day or one that will leave you hungry and searching for more food?

For me the problem isn't what makes up the calories i eat, it's the number of calories i eat and finding combinations that are satifying.

The amount of calories you burn in a day isn't just based on how much you move. What you eat can impact your resting metabolic rate.