Calories are Calories!

angiereid

You’ve probably heard that eating unhealthy foods like sugar, fatty foods, fast foods, & alcohol will make you gain weight and that eating healthy foods like vegetables, fruits, and low fat foods will prevent you from gaining weight.

This is all totally untrue, the truth is that it’s not what you eat that makes you gain weight it’s how much of what you eat that makes you gain weight. You’ll gain weight if you eat too many calories worth of healthy or unhealthy foods.

If you were stranded on an island and the only thing you could eat were coconuts you would gain or lose weight depending on how many coconuts you ate each day.

Coconuts may not be that bad but what if your fantasy island only contained celery? The same rules still apply, depending on the amount of celery you eat you’ll gain, lose or maintain your weight.

Some people become overweight by eating these so-called low fat foods because they think that since its low fat and healthy they can eat as much as they want without gaining weight. The point is that calories are calories—and once again if you eat the right amount you can maintain your weight, lose weight, or gain weight.

kara2

so true!!! It's calories in and calories out through excercise.

Aamilah

Great post!!!!! And that is so true!!!

orangegalt

indeed. this works to my benefit. as i'm a hardcore ice cream addict, i typically eat at least 25% of my 1200 calories from ice cream... hasn't stopped me from losing 50 lbs

arewethereyet

this may be true but I can tell you from experience that 1200 calories of fat/sugar and white carbs DOES look differnent on my body than 1200 calories of lean meat/greens/fruits and veggies.

I did an experiement and my inches went up immediately. Especially in the waist area.

Just my observation.:flowerforyou:

stringcheeze

You’ve probably heard that eating unhealthy foods like sugar, fatty foods, fast foods, & alcohol will make you gain weight and that eating healthy foods like vegetables, fruits, and low fat foods will prevent you from gaining weight.

This is all totally untrue, the truth is that it’s not what you eat that makes you gain weight it’s how much of what you eat that makes you gain weight. You’ll gain weight if you eat too many calories worth of healthy or unhealthy foods.

Not to be contrary (okay, I am being contrary), 200 calories from eating fruits, veggies, lean meats, and whole grains will be a gazillion times better for you then eating 200 calories of processed, fatty, sugary, nutrient low food. Foods are not created equal, nor are calories.

Mindful_Trent

While technically this is true, to be healthy you need a balanced diet that meets all of your macro and micro nutrient needs. A diet that has too much of any one component (protein/carbs/fats/etc.) isn't going to meet these needs. You may lose weight on a 1200 cal/day diet of coconuts, but you would not be at your best health-wise. Here is a good article that explains why a calorie is NOT just a calorie. Another user (StacySkinny) posted it and I think it's a fantastic article that's well written.

http://www.naturalchampion.net/articles/article/2410291/51175.htm

patriot201

You are absolutely correct.

I think the "thing" is that it is often easier to eat large quantities of some of the high-fat, high-sugar foods than it is to eat the same number of calories of some low-fat, low-sugar foods. So, while the CALORIES are the same, the QUANTITY might not be.

To use your food examples from above, 1 cup of shredded coconut meat (raw, unsweetened) has just under 300 calories, while 1 cup of diced celery has just under 20 calories.

So, 1 cup coconut = (approximately) 15 cups celery.

One cup of coconut and 15 cups of celery are the same number of calories, but it would be much more difficult to consume 15 cups of celery.

You are right, though, that calories are calories.

antiadipose

idk how u guys can actually say that with full agreement?!

a person on an island would be pretty skinny after eating 8 whole coconuts because A) our bodies react completely different to MONO food choices, much easier digestion process! go look up 30bananasaday.
and B)those ppl on the island probably work off like 5000 calories trying to get those coconuts!

even if what ur saying is true, think of all the health risks!!!
clogging up ur arteries but looking skinny isnt all that great of a bargain is it?!

we eat a mainly healthy diet because we want to perform well. try running 10 miles after having a cheeseburger and fries with a smoothie for a drink. I can run 10 miles after having a great bowl of oats with nuts and granola and milk and fruit.

same calories... TOTALLY DIFFERENT EFFECT.

I eat one and a half times the calories (literally) of what my mom eats.
I weigh 120 lbs
she weighs 190
all her calories are crap.
most mine are healthy.
I go to the gym everyday or every other day
she literally feels tired and fatigue all day.

i actually am 100% against this.

kidakiwi04

I have to agree with accounant_boi, stringcheeze, and arewethereyet. A calorie may be a calorie but eating 1200 cal of pizza just isnt the same as eat 1200 cal of a well balanced nutritious diet. Yeah sure people may lose weight but how healthy are they? In the end its not solely about losing lbs but about being as healthy as possible. Sure they may be 115lbs but chances are if someones eating 1200 empty calories a day their heart is probably one coconut away from a heart attack.


edited for spelling

jlizgar

idk how u guys can actually say that with full agreement?!

a person on an island would be pretty skinny after eating 8 whole coconuts because A) our bodies react completely different to MONO food choices, much easier digestion process! go look up 30bananasaday.
and B)those ppl on the island probably work off like 5000 calories trying to get those coconuts!

even if what ur saying is true, think of all the health risks!!!
clogging up ur arteries but looking skinny isnt all that great of a bargain is it?!

we eat a mainly healthy diet because we want to perform well. try running 10 miles after having a cheeseburger and fries with a smoothie for a drink. I can run 10 miles after having a great bowl of oats with nuts and granola and milk and fruit.

same calories... TOTALLY DIFFERENT EFFECT.

I eat one and a half times the calories (literally) of what my mom eats.
I weigh 120 lbs
she weighs 190
all her calories are crap.
most mine are healthy.
I go to the gym everyday or every other day
she literally feels tired and fatigue all day.

i actually am 100% against this.

Dont worry, not everyone agrees with the original post. Im with YOU 100% I fully believe the type of foods we choose to eat DOES make a difference.

Superman79

You’ve probably heard that eating unhealthy foods like sugar, fatty foods, fast foods, & alcohol will make you gain weight and that eating healthy foods like vegetables, fruits, and low fat foods will prevent you from gaining weight.

This is all totally untrue, the truth is that it’s not what you eat that makes you gain weight it’s how much of what you eat that makes you gain weight. You’ll gain weight if you eat too many calories worth of healthy or unhealthy foods.

If you were stranded on an island and the only thing you could eat were coconuts you would gain or lose weight depending on how many coconuts you ate each day.

Coconuts may not be that bad but what if your fantasy island only contained celery? The same rules still apply, depending on the amount of celery you eat you’ll gain, lose or maintain your weight.

Some people become overweight by eating these so-called low fat foods because they think that since its low fat and healthy they can eat as much as they want without gaining weight. The point is that calories are calories—and once again if you eat the right amount you can maintain your weight, lose weight, or gain weight.

This post has a bit of truth, you can be thin and live on junk. But you won't be the least bit healthy. In fact, if you have the right nutrition calories don't even matter. Nutrition is SOOOO much more important than anything you do in regards to weight and health. It should be noted that if you are trying to lose weight and get in shape....you should avoid junk food, fast foods, processed foods, foods containing refined sugars and fructose, and try to stay away from gluten when possible. Also minimize intake of cow's milk dairy and excessive red meat. Do eat tons of raw fresh produce and fruit, and lean proteins, do take a good whole food multivitamin and make sure to regularly consume 25 grams of fiber per day.

stringcheeze

their heart is probably one coconut away from a heart attack.

Okay, this made me laugh (I have a morbid sense of humor)....

"Bones, was being stranded on a desert island what did him in?"
"No, Jim. It was a coconut."

:bigsmile:

hellokatee

While a calorie may be a calorie, they are not exactly equal. For example, if you consume 1200 calories at McDonald's for lunch, how long will it take for you to be hungry again? If you spread 1200 calories of fruits and vegetables throughout the day you may not even need anything else, although I would recommend some other types of food!

The point is, if you save up all your calories and go to McDonald's you are going to be hungry ALL DAY.

Now, try spreading one meal at McDonald's into three or four meals and see how you feel!

All foods are not created equal!!

angiereid

sorry to get people in a tizzy it was really meant to just simply state you can eat what you want you just have to portion it out many people believe they can never have any junk again or give themselves any kind of reward, its good to know you can sometimes have your cake and eat it too

larson0185

In the end, yes, calories are calories, but how your body uses them and the return on your investment will be different depending on the source. Healthy foods rich in nutrients will keep your bones strong, your heart strong, help reduce your risk of cancer, make your hair and nails shinier and stronger, give you more energy and be generally a better nutritional fuel source than, say, a jelly donut with a side of fried chicken.

That said, however, we're human--we're hard-wired to CRAVE foods rich in potential energy--like fats and sugars--because we're essentially highly evolved opportunistic eaters. We, genetically, don't know where our next meal is coming from. Maybe the local herd of whatever beast moved on or got sick; maybe our crops are wiped out by a natural disaster. It takes millions of years for those traits and tendencies to get worked out completely, and so our bodies still want things that taste like they'll stick to our ribs for a while. And a lot of readily available processed foods give us just that. Example: Cinnabon.

The great part about what we know versus what we crave is that we can compromise. Like having 25% of your daily calories come from ice cream. Yes, 100% of one's daily caloric intake can be ice cream, but a life lived on rocky road alone would be really awful from a medical perspective. And a life lived without ice cream is just unthinkable. It's morally wrong. :P So a good middle ground is ultimately the optimal situation--it leaves room for the foods we love and crave and which might not be the best for us, but it balances that with the fact that we do need certain chemical elements and compounds to keep our bodies up and running.

larson0185

Well said, Angie! I think my feelings on your original post were "Yeah--but there's some important information left out," but yes, YES! Having your cake and eating it, too is occasionally better for the sanity than a good night's sleep. My new mantra is 'moderation in everything!"

angiereid

thanks

MacMadame

idk how u guys can actually say that with full agreement?!

Because it's technically true. I think you are missing the point of the OP. Yes, it's better to eat healthy food, but you will gain weight if you eat too much food even if it's healthy. Eating healthy food is no guarantee of weight loss.

I don't know how many times I've heard "I'm doing everything 'right' but I can't lose weight" from people in real life and online.

When you probe to find out what "everything right" means to them, generally it means they
-do light to moderate exercise a few times a week,
-try (but don't always succeed) not to eat junk and
-eat 'healthy' foods (that aren't always actually healthy but have a 'diet' connotation such 100 calorie packs).

When you ask them how many calories they are eating a day, they don't know, but they "are sure it's not that many".

Basically, there are a lot of people who think if they feel deprived, they should lose weight. But it doesn't work like that.

I always encourage people in this position to start logging their food, even if it's just for a few days or a week if they are in a cycle of deprivation during the week and indulgence during the weekend. Usually most of them don't. But the few that do invariably come back with something like:

"OMG, I tracked my food for a week and I was eating TWICE AS MUCH as I thought I was!"

Plus, it turns out that several of their so-called "healthy" meals and snacks were much more calorific than they thought. For example, one gal was eating a certain salad 4-5x a week and she was thinking it had 250 calories but it actually had 600! Well, no wonder she wasn't losing eating 350 calories more most days than she though she was.

Just because it's a salad, doesn't mean that (a) it's healthy or (b) it's low cal.

Likewise, my sister spent the last year of her MBA program pretty much living off ice cream without gaining a pound. Was that healthy? No. Did she gain weight? No. Maybe that's "not fair" but she only ate as many calories of ice cream as she burned. Now, her daughter told her I looked younger than her even though I'm older because she looked like crap because she was eating so poorly. But that's a completely different issue than the issue of gaining weight.

I think it's important to understand that you have to burn more calories than you take in if you want to lose weight and that eating healthy and exercising is about overall health (that should be practiced for a lifetime) not a means to get thinner.

antiadipose

this is actually the MAIN issue of the world!!!!!!

i know so many ppl who skip breakfast, nibble on lunch... then BAM FEAST ON DINNER. if a calorie was a calorie those ppl would have no problem! would they??? cuz technically that person above probably had 1500

i had 1500 today


Before Gym

Fruit - Banana - 6", 1 approx 81g 72
Better'n Peanut Butter - Peanut Butter, 1 tablespoons 50
Fresh Fruit - Apricot, 35 g 17

Breakfast (After Gym)

Quaker Oats Old Fashioned - Oatmeal - 1/2 Cup Dry, 1/2 cup dry 150
Bobs Red Mill - Whole Ground Flax Seed Meal, 1 Tbsp 30
Aldi Fit & Acitve - Vanilla Nonfat Yogurt, 0.5 cup 70
Coffee - Brewed from grounds, 1 cup (8 fl oz) 2
Generic - Almonds - Raw, Whole, Each , 10 each 70
Spices - Cinnamon, ground, 1 tsp 6
Silk - Vanilla Soy Milk, 1 Cup 100

Lunch

Bumble Bee - Chuck Light Tuna (In Water) 5oz Can, 1 container (4 oz draineds ea.) 120
Generic - Green Onions, 1 stalk chopped 3
Tomatoes (Cherry) - Cherry Tomatoes, 10 tomatoes 40
Spinach - Raw, 2 cup 14
Cucumber - With peel, raw, 0.5 cup slices 8
Pace - Chuncky Salsa Hot, 2 tbsp 10
Oasis - Whole Wheat Pita (Large & Thin Pockets), 0.66 whole pita 79

Snack

Fit & Active (Aldi) - Apple Cinnamon Rice Cakes, 1 cake 50
Better'n Peanut Butter - Peanut Butter, 1 tablespoons 50
Prickly pears - Raw, 1 fruit without refuse 42

Dinner

Members Mark - Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 0.25 Tbsp 30
Boca Meatless Burger - Original Big Burgers, 2 burger 200
Onions - Raw, 0.25 cup, chopped 17
Generic - Raw Bell Pepper - Green/Red/Yellow/Orange, 0.5 medium 15
Generic - Potatoes - Roast, 50 g (3oz.) 50
Birds Eye - Steamfresh Frozen Vegetables: Broccoli, Cauliflower & Carrots, 1 Cup (84g) 40
Generic - Portabella Mushroom, 0.25 whole 11
Tomatoes (Cherry) - Cherry Tomatoes, 5 tomatoes 20

Snack

Fresh - Watermelon, 2 cup 92
Generic - Almonds - Raw, Whole, Each , 10 each 70
Lindt & Sprungli Dark Chocolate Excellence - 70% Cocoa Intense Dark, 1 squares 55


Totals 1,583
Your Daily Goal 1,910
Remaining 327

i didnt eat the rest of my exercise cals. because im STUFFED! lol who wouldnt be. ive been eating alll day. seriously LOOK!


**********im seriously willing to eat 1500 calories of healthy food. vs some1 who eats 1500 calories of not so healthy food.***********

plz! id love to prove this theory because everything ive learned goes against this!
whoever eats the unhealthy 1500 will not have the energy to work out half as much as i will ... therefore wont lose weight!

I UNDERSTAND THE OPs POINT COMPLETELY!
BUT WHY PROMOTE THIS?!?!?!?!

how did we all find this site?! we searched something on another.

some poor soul will search "is a calorie a calorie?!"
and they will see this thread!

and instead of eating healthy, they wont! thats why im so heated lol

vencellia

I agree with Olivia! All Foods are not created equal. You may eat 3 cheeseburgers 3 fries and 2 apple pies daily but in the end will exercising prevent you from getting Diabetes or Heart Disease? NO!!! My Father was in the Army jogged 6 miles everyday was a health freak in terms of exercising and taking Vitamins daily but he ate horribly ate times and stayed slim from all the jogging and working out! But he died from clogged arteries!!! So in the end all that jogging didn't help and those bad food choices killed him!!! And to think about it he didn't eat bad everyday but it all adds up!!! To live a longer life you must eat healthy and exercise regularly. Not only do we want to lose weight we want to live too!!