Is a calorie REALLY just a calorie?

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  • Michael190lbs
    Michael190lbs Posts: 1,510 Member
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    LPflaum wrote: »
    SophieSmall95 wrote: »
    is she a "nutritionist" by any chance, in that she does not need to be board approved? In a lot of places nutritionist is not a protected title. I've heard a lot of people claim to be nutritionists who don't have the faintest clue what they are talking about and are clearly scientifically illiterate.

    She and her partner both have master's degrees in clinical nutrition. Her partner worked at St Lukes- Roosevelt obesity research center and developed the nutrition plan for equinox fitness. She worked at NY-Presbyterian and focused on weight management, cardiac health, and adolescent nutrition. Together they are published authors and they've been on a ton of tv/news/web shows including WebMD, Shape Mag, Today Show, Time Mag, Health.com, Self Mag, GMA, etc.

    In short, no, they are a very legit nutrition consultancy group.

    Here is the real issue give me the TOP 10 Nutritionist in the world and have them write me out a diet. I guarantee you they will all be different. Its not a perfect world in any way and control is an illusion so just do your best!!
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    That individuals may extract fewer than the listed calories from some foods and that calorie counts are estimates (and more likely to be high for some items, like meat and high fiber foods and nuts) is well-known and has been discussed on MFP many times before. It's true, but has nothing to do with the fact that a calorie is a calorie.

    It also tends to mean that you are actually consuming FEWER calories than you would think if you counted as accurately as possible. No one -- not even people who eat lots of ultra processed foods -- consume more calories than the foods have. Thus, the whole thing about eating more of the foods that tend to have calories overstated or are harder to extract calories from -- in addition to being a luxury due to the surplus calories available to most -- is mostly just because most people don't count very well and it allows for a margin of error.

    I've always eating lots of the foods that tend to have somewhat fewer calories available than the calorie information would say, not because of the kind of majoring in the minors that the nutritionist was talking about, but because that's consistent with my idea of nutrition. I think focusing on nutrition is sensible. I think worrying about the percentage of calories in an item you might extract or eating foods that are harder to get calories from is a pretty odd and messed up focus.

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