A calorie is a calorie ...

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Replies

  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,149 Member
    Look, I have a degree in organic produce, and have since studied a LOT about nutrition.

    All calories are not equal. That's like saying, "A pound is a pound!" When you lose weight. No. You could lose a pound of fat, and that would be awesome. Or, you could lose a pound of muscle, which is horrible. It's much more complex.

    Put simply, the type of calories we eat determine how well our systems function. And, primarily important to weight loss, they determine blood sugar and insulin levels, along with other hormones that basically decide how you will use a calorie.

    Bottom line: A calorie from white bread or refined sugar is most efficiently stored in your body Mas reserve energy in the form of glucose. Guess what the organ is for energy storage? Yep. Fat cells.

    However, a calorie that comes from broccoli takes nearly double the energy to convert it into glucose, and is much more efficiently broken down into usable vitamins and minerals. Therefore, 100 calories from a donut will go directly to your waist. 100 calories from a vegetable will go towards fueling your systems. Mainly your excretory system; which is what actually gets stuff out of storage in your fat cells and eliminated from the body.

    So, no. A calorie is not just a calorie.

    I can't wait when they tear this post to shreds because you're wrong.

    And your professional education on the matter is...?

    I don't but others know more than both of us and they WILL prove you wrong.

    There is no such thing as proof in this matter. There is so much evidence that can be taken in a number of ways. When you understand chemistry and the makeup of food, and how it reacts within your body, there is a lot of insight. However, there is still a great deal to learn and discover. So there will be no proof, because according to the scientific method, there is not enough information available to conclusively prove me wrong.

    But you are and we all know that so that's enough for me NOT to take seriously anything you post.

    To each their own. I understand science, and I've lost 11 lbs in 15 days. Because I know how hormones work. And I'm usually over my calorie goal. But nobody is forcing you to agree with me.

    Do you actually think you've lost 11lbs of fat in 15 days? Like, seriously?

    It's obviously not all fat. I didn't say I had lost 11 lbs of fat. I said I had lost 11 lbs. But there is also no real limit to how much you lose in a certain amount of time when you understand how the fat organ works, why it stores energy, and how you can overcome that process. I'm confused as to why there is such hostility towards basic scientific principles.

    5 pages later and I still haven't seen an explanation of what the "fat organ" is. That is the part that confused me the most, .

    All I found, that looked reputable, was this from Pub Med - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4542096 . Unless I'm missing something, it's an empty document.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,349 Member
    zyxst wrote: »
    Look, I have a degree in organic produce, and have since studied a LOT about nutrition.

    All calories are not equal. That's like saying, "A pound is a pound!" When you lose weight. No. You could lose a pound of fat, and that would be awesome. Or, you could lose a pound of muscle, which is horrible. It's much more complex.

    Put simply, the type of calories we eat determine how well our systems function. And, primarily important to weight loss, they determine blood sugar and insulin levels, along with other hormones that basically decide how you will use a calorie.

    Bottom line: A calorie from white bread or refined sugar is most efficiently stored in your body Mas reserve energy in the form of glucose. Guess what the organ is for energy storage? Yep. Fat cells.

    However, a calorie that comes from broccoli takes nearly double the energy to convert it into glucose, and is much more efficiently broken down into usable vitamins and minerals. Therefore, 100 calories from a donut will go directly to your waist. 100 calories from a vegetable will go towards fueling your systems. Mainly your excretory system; which is what actually gets stuff out of storage in your fat cells and eliminated from the body.

    So, no. A calorie is not just a calorie.

    I can't wait when they tear this post to shreds because you're wrong.

    And your professional education on the matter is...?

    I don't but others know more than both of us and they WILL prove you wrong.

    There is no such thing as proof in this matter. There is so much evidence that can be taken in a number of ways. When you understand chemistry and the makeup of food, and how it reacts within your body, there is a lot of insight. However, there is still a great deal to learn and discover. So there will be no proof, because according to the scientific method, there is not enough information available to conclusively prove me wrong.

    But you are and we all know that so that's enough for me NOT to take seriously anything you post.

    To each their own. I understand science, and I've lost 11 lbs in 15 days. Because I know how hormones work. And I'm usually over my calorie goal. But nobody is forcing you to agree with me.

    Do you actually think you've lost 11lbs of fat in 15 days? Like, seriously?

    It's obviously not all fat. I didn't say I had lost 11 lbs of fat. I said I had lost 11 lbs. But there is also no real limit to how much you lose in a certain amount of time when you understand how the fat organ works, why it stores energy, and how you can overcome that process. I'm confused as to why there is such hostility towards basic scientific principles.

    5 pages later and I still haven't seen an explanation of what the "fat organ" is. That is the part that confused me the most, .

    All I found, that looked reputable, was this from Pub Med - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4542096 . Unless I'm missing something, it's an empty document.

    I found an article from 2000 which said that "scientists" say that fat is an organ. There was another article about the fat organ called "Your fat has a brain. And it's trying to kill you."
  • LINIA
    LINIA Posts: 1,159 Member
    Fat is in itself an organ that has all the properties of any other body organ, have found an older article that demonstrates (interestingly enough) that more research is needed, do we know much more now..am hoping you can access:

    http://www.nytimes.com/1974/01/06/archives/they-dont-know-when-theyre-hungry-they-dont-know-when-theyre-full.html
  • crzycatlady1
    crzycatlady1 Posts: 1,930 Member
    LINIA wrote: »
    Fat is in itself an organ that has all the properties of any other body organ, have found an older article that demonstrates (interestingly enough) that more research is needed, do we know much more now..am hoping you can access:

    http://www.nytimes.com/1974/01/06/archives/they-dont-know-when-theyre-hungry-they-dont-know-when-theyre-full.html

    Need a subscription to read full article.
  • mph323
    mph323 Posts: 3,563 Member
    zyxst wrote: »
    Look, I have a degree in organic produce, and have since studied a LOT about nutrition.

    All calories are not equal. That's like saying, "A pound is a pound!" When you lose weight. No. You could lose a pound of fat, and that would be awesome. Or, you could lose a pound of muscle, which is horrible. It's much more complex.

    Put simply, the type of calories we eat determine how well our systems function. And, primarily important to weight loss, they determine blood sugar and insulin levels, along with other hormones that basically decide how you will use a calorie.

    Bottom line: A calorie from white bread or refined sugar is most efficiently stored in your body Mas reserve energy in the form of glucose. Guess what the organ is for energy storage? Yep. Fat cells.

    However, a calorie that comes from broccoli takes nearly double the energy to convert it into glucose, and is much more efficiently broken down into usable vitamins and minerals. Therefore, 100 calories from a donut will go directly to your waist. 100 calories from a vegetable will go towards fueling your systems. Mainly your excretory system; which is what actually gets stuff out of storage in your fat cells and eliminated from the body.

    So, no. A calorie is not just a calorie.

    I can't wait when they tear this post to shreds because you're wrong.

    And your professional education on the matter is...?

    I don't but others know more than both of us and they WILL prove you wrong.

    There is no such thing as proof in this matter. There is so much evidence that can be taken in a number of ways. When you understand chemistry and the makeup of food, and how it reacts within your body, there is a lot of insight. However, there is still a great deal to learn and discover. So there will be no proof, because according to the scientific method, there is not enough information available to conclusively prove me wrong.

    But you are and we all know that so that's enough for me NOT to take seriously anything you post.

    To each their own. I understand science, and I've lost 11 lbs in 15 days. Because I know how hormones work. And I'm usually over my calorie goal. But nobody is forcing you to agree with me.

    Do you actually think you've lost 11lbs of fat in 15 days? Like, seriously?

    It's obviously not all fat. I didn't say I had lost 11 lbs of fat. I said I had lost 11 lbs. But there is also no real limit to how much you lose in a certain amount of time when you understand how the fat organ works, why it stores energy, and how you can overcome that process. I'm confused as to why there is such hostility towards basic scientific principles.

    5 pages later and I still haven't seen an explanation of what the "fat organ" is. That is the part that confused me the most, .

    All I found, that looked reputable, was this from Pub Med - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4542096 . Unless I'm missing something, it's an empty document.

    I found an article from 2000 which said that "scientists" say that fat is an organ. There was another article about the fat organ called "Your fat has a brain. And it's trying to kill you."

    That's. ... terrifying
  • sunburntgalaxy
    sunburntgalaxy Posts: 455 Member
    edited January 2017
    LINIA wrote: »
    Fat is in itself an organ that has all the properties of any other body organ, have found an older article that demonstrates (interestingly enough) that more research is needed, do we know much more now..am hoping you can access:

    http://www.nytimes.com/1974/01/06/archives/they-dont-know-when-theyre-hungry-they-dont-know-when-theyre-full.html

    Need a subscription to read full article.

    I was able to get to it - way too long to read but I didn't see anything in that specific article to make me think that fat is an organ. Also the article is from 1974.

    I did find one article from Harvard Health Publications that did state that "it's appropriate to think of fat as an organ or gland" but other than that and a Wikipedia reference I don't see much of anything, Not that I looked that hard.

    health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/abdominal-fat-and-what-to-do-about-it
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,349 Member
    LINIA wrote: »
    Fat is in itself an organ that has all the properties of any other body organ, have found an older article that demonstrates (interestingly enough) that more research is needed, do we know much more now..am hoping you can access:

    http://www.nytimes.com/1974/01/06/archives/they-dont-know-when-theyre-hungry-they-dont-know-when-theyre-full.html

    Need a subscription to read full article.

    I was able to get to it - way too long to read but I didn't see anything in that specific article to make me think that fat is an organ. Also the article is from 1974.

    I did find one article from Harvard Health Publications that did state that "it's appropriate to think of fat as an organ or gland" but other than that and a Wikipedia reference I don't see much of anything, Not that I looked that hard.

    health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/abdominal-fat-and-what-to-do-about-it

    There's this:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/923153.stm

    "Steve O'Rahilly, from the University of Cambridge, said the discovery of leptin "made fat much cleverer than it was thought to be before."

    Simon Coppack, a researcher at the St Bartholomew's and the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry said: "Fat is an organ. You should probably think of it as a little bit like the liver."
    "
    The hormone tells the brain when the body needs to eat and when it has eaten too much...
  • Annie_01
    Annie_01 Posts: 3,096 Member
    zyxst wrote: »
    Look, I have a degree in organic produce, and have since studied a LOT about nutrition.

    All calories are not equal. That's like saying, "A pound is a pound!" When you lose weight. No. You could lose a pound of fat, and that would be awesome. Or, you could lose a pound of muscle, which is horrible. It's much more complex.

    Put simply, the type of calories we eat determine how well our systems function. And, primarily important to weight loss, they determine blood sugar and insulin levels, along with other hormones that basically decide how you will use a calorie.

    Bottom line: A calorie from white bread or refined sugar is most efficiently stored in your body Mas reserve energy in the form of glucose. Guess what the organ is for energy storage? Yep. Fat cells.

    However, a calorie that comes from broccoli takes nearly double the energy to convert it into glucose, and is much more efficiently broken down into usable vitamins and minerals. Therefore, 100 calories from a donut will go directly to your waist. 100 calories from a vegetable will go towards fueling your systems. Mainly your excretory system; which is what actually gets stuff out of storage in your fat cells and eliminated from the body.

    So, no. A calorie is not just a calorie.

    I can't wait when they tear this post to shreds because you're wrong.

    And your professional education on the matter is...?

    I don't but others know more than both of us and they WILL prove you wrong.

    There is no such thing as proof in this matter. There is so much evidence that can be taken in a number of ways. When you understand chemistry and the makeup of food, and how it reacts within your body, there is a lot of insight. However, there is still a great deal to learn and discover. So there will be no proof, because according to the scientific method, there is not enough information available to conclusively prove me wrong.

    But you are and we all know that so that's enough for me NOT to take seriously anything you post.

    To each their own. I understand science, and I've lost 11 lbs in 15 days. Because I know how hormones work. And I'm usually over my calorie goal. But nobody is forcing you to agree with me.

    Do you actually think you've lost 11lbs of fat in 15 days? Like, seriously?

    It's obviously not all fat. I didn't say I had lost 11 lbs of fat. I said I had lost 11 lbs. But there is also no real limit to how much you lose in a certain amount of time when you understand how the fat organ works, why it stores energy, and how you can overcome that process. I'm confused as to why there is such hostility towards basic scientific principles.

    5 pages later and I still haven't seen an explanation of what the "fat organ" is. That is the part that confused me the most, .

    All I found, that looked reputable, was this from Pub Med - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4542096 . Unless I'm missing something, it's an empty document.

    I found an article from 2000 which said that "scientists" say that fat is an organ. There was another article about the fat organ called "Your fat has a brain. And it's trying to kill you."

    I read that one too. I thought it was interesting.
  • AFGP11
    AFGP11 Posts: 142 Member
    I don't get why people have to get so upset over what other people eat. If you're completely focused on whether someone else is doing it the same way you are, you need to work on your self esteem, not just your diet. If you ask someone who is very successful and fit what they do to get that way, you can't be offended that they don't tell you "I ate pizza, fries and cake the whole time!" because people who are very serious about health are never going to do that. Everyone is here for different reasons. Many seem to be here to lose weight at the cost of anything else. They won't exercise (used to be me), won't eat a vegetable and then complain that they are starving on their two pieces of pizza and two donuts a day. They refuse to accept that a focus on nutrition AND calories is how many of us get to eat enough food for satiety and get offended when you tell them this has been your successful plan. Someone eating kale is not an indictment of your food choices. Just look back over at your own plate if you can't say anything nice whether you eat clean 100% of the time or 0%.
  • KatzeDerNacht22
    KatzeDerNacht22 Posts: 200 Member
    I had a somehow greasy vegan taco fest on Sunday :P
    Didn't gain weight :P
  • crzycatlady1
    crzycatlady1 Posts: 1,930 Member
    I had a somehow greasy vegan taco fest on Sunday :P
    Didn't gain weight :P

    I ate out twice this past weekend and was down on the scale this morning ;)
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    edited January 2017
    I had a somehow greasy vegan taco fest on Sunday :P
    Didn't gain weight :P

    I ate out twice this past weekend and was down on the scale this morning ;)

    To chime in, 3 days ago we had a popcorn and funnel food night so that's what I had for dinner. I wasn't starving. In fact I ended the day with calories left over because I wasn't hungry. "Junk" food contributed more to my calories than usual that day but it's okay. I'm about half a pound down. It's all about balance, not just balance for the day (some days can be pretty poor nutritionally and it wouldn't affect health negatively if most of the days are nutritious), but balance in the diet as a whole.

    neubys7ofux8.png
  • crzycatlady1
    crzycatlady1 Posts: 1,930 Member
    I had a somehow greasy vegan taco fest on Sunday :P
    Didn't gain weight :P

    I ate out twice this past weekend and was down on the scale this morning ;)

    To chime in, 3 days ago we had a popcorn and funnel food night so that's what I had for dinner. I wasn't starving. In fact I ended the day with calories left over because I wasn't hungry. "Junk" food contributed more to my calories than usual that day but it's okay. I'm about half a pound down. It's all about balance, not just balance for the day (some days can be pretty poor nutritionally and it wouldn't affect health negatively if most of the days are nutritious), but balance in the diet as a whole.

    neubys7ofux8.png

    That's what some people just can't seem to wrap their minds around. I honestly don't understand the 'all or nothing' mentality and that's just not realistic for me. Because of my medical history I knew going into this process right from day one that I needed to focus on the long term/big picture, otherwise I would be one of the millions that fail at long term weight loss adherence, and end up like many of my overweight/obese family members who have/had type 2 diabetes (several who have died from complications to their weight and diabetes).

    Eating a wide variety of foods that I enjoy is what's going to be sustainable for me, for the next 40+ years. It's also produced the results I need- I'm no longer a pre-diabetic, I have a bmi of around 21 and I'm one of the very few people who are successfully maintaining weight loss. To have a pp say that I'm doing things the wrong way and I actually haven't been able to lose weight or improve my health because of the foods I eat is utterly bizarre to me :p
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    I had a somehow greasy vegan taco fest on Sunday :P
    Didn't gain weight :P

    I ate out twice this past weekend and was down on the scale this morning ;)

    To chime in, 3 days ago we had a popcorn and funnel food night so that's what I had for dinner. I wasn't starving. In fact I ended the day with calories left over because I wasn't hungry. "Junk" food contributed more to my calories than usual that day but it's okay. I'm about half a pound down. It's all about balance, not just balance for the day (some days can be pretty poor nutritionally and it wouldn't affect health negatively if most of the days are nutritious), but balance in the diet as a whole.

    neubys7ofux8.png

    That's what some people just can't seem to wrap their minds around. I honestly don't understand the 'all or nothing' mentality and that's just not realistic for me. Because of my medical history I knew going into this process right from day one that I needed to focus on the long term/big picture, otherwise I would be one of the millions that fail at long term weight loss adherence, and end up like many of my overweight/obese family members who have/had type 2 diabetes (several who have died from complications to their weight and diabetes).

    Eating a wide variety of foods that I enjoy is what's going to be sustainable for me, for the next 40+ years. It's also produced the results I need- I'm no longer a pre-diabetic, I have a bmi of around 21 and I'm one of the very few people who are successfully maintaining weight loss. To have a pp say that I'm doing things the wrong way and I actually haven't been able to lose weight or improve my health because of the foods I eat is utterly bizarre to me :p

    Exactly. I have lost more than 100 pounds and went from the highest end of prediabetic range to safely normal. From hypertensive to normal. From 300+ triglycerides to 110. Yet I hear my health must be worse and the 100+ pounds I lost included no loss of body fat?
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,759 Member
    AFGP11 wrote: »
    I don't get why people have to get so upset over what other people eat. If you're completely focused on whether someone else is doing it the same way you are, you need to work on your self esteem, not just your diet. If you ask someone who is very successful and fit what they do to get that way, you can't be offended that they don't tell you "I ate pizza, fries and cake the whole time!" because people who are very serious about health are never going to do that. Everyone is here for different reasons. Many seem to be here to lose weight at the cost of anything else. They won't exercise (used to be me), won't eat a vegetable and then complain that they are starving on their two pieces of pizza and two donuts a day. They refuse to accept that a focus on nutrition AND calories is how many of us get to eat enough food for satiety and get offended when you tell them this has been your successful plan. Someone eating kale is not an indictment of your food choices. Just look back over at your own plate if you can't say anything nice whether you eat clean 100% of the time or 0%.

    I disagree. The majority are not living off of 2 pieces of pizza and 2 donuts a day and don't exercise. I'm not sure where you see that

    That'd be like 500 calories. No wonder those hypothetical people are starving.

    Damn, what kind of pizza and donuts are *you* eating? I calculated that at about 1200 calories.

    I'm not gonna lie tho about the bread and chocolate diet. I'm all in for that. :)
  • KatzeDerNacht22
    KatzeDerNacht22 Posts: 200 Member
    I had a somehow greasy vegan taco fest on Sunday :P
    Didn't gain weight :P

    I ate out twice this past weekend and was down on the scale this morning ;)

    Side note: I love your username for I love cats.
    On the other side, scale didn't move a single gram for me, either up or down, so I guess that's still good,gonna get measurements tomorrow :3
  • ieroen
    ieroen Posts: 77 Member
    lizery wrote: »
    Because there are soooooo many posts on here were users advocate others eating whatever junk they want because 'a calorie is a calorie', so long as there is a deficit.

    I don't really have anything new to add to the conversation, I was just reminded of something that I recently came across in the book 'New Rules of Lifting'. This subject is mentioned as something that grinds the author's gears:

    "Differentiating calories. I started this chapter by mentioning a statement that drives me nuts: “If you want to lose weight, eat less and exercise more.” There’s another that I find even more maddening: “A calorie is a calorie.” This one isn’t half-true. It’s wholly false. Your body processes different calories in different ways. It uses much more energy to digest protein than to digest carbohydrates, and more to digest carbohydrates than fat." - from L. Schuler and A. Cosgrove, The New Rules of Lifting, p. 263.
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 6,009 Member
    ieroen wrote: »
    lizery wrote: »
    Because there are soooooo many posts on here were users advocate others eating whatever junk they want because 'a calorie is a calorie', so long as there is a deficit.

    I don't really have anything new to add to the conversation, I was just reminded of something that I recently came across in the book 'New Rules of Lifting'. This subject is mentioned as something that grinds the author's gears:

    "Differentiating calories. I started this chapter by mentioning a statement that drives me nuts: “If you want to lose weight, eat less and exercise more.” There’s another that I find even more maddening: “A calorie is a calorie.” This one isn’t half-true. It’s wholly false. Your body processes different calories in different ways. It uses much more energy to digest protein than to digest carbohydrates, and more to digest carbohydrates than fat." - from L. Schuler and A. Cosgrove, The New Rules of Lifting, p. 263.

    From a pair of fitness experts, not nutrition...
  • jkwolly
    jkwolly Posts: 3,049 Member
    Never change, MFP. Never change.
This discussion has been closed.