Can someone please explain "a calorie is a calorie"

Calories ---> Change in weight.
Macronutrients----> Change in body composition
Micronutrients

---

> Health

Going from obese/overweight to a healthy weight will also tend to improve health markers considerably.

Sorry, but I just can't agree with the other comments regarding keeping your diet or protein "low fat". I eat a diet based on fat and all of my health problems have vanished, and so is the body fat vanishing (of course, not as quick as the other health issues). Also, for many people (no, i didn't say "all"), high carb intake DOES impede weight loss, and for me, high carb makes me sick in a whole bunch of ways. I eat more veggies than what a person eating a SAD diet is usually eating, and I'm still very low on carbs. No need to cut veggies or fat or protein (quality matters). However, for an experiment, you could try reducing or eliminating grains and sugar and see what happens; and, NO, you won't hurt your health by trying it.

Forgive me if somebody else has said what I'm about to say. It's a bit more technical but I'm going to not make this too much of a biochem lesson!

Low-carb / ketosis diets work by changing body metabolism. In "normal" people with "normal" diets, sugar is metabolized by each cell when cells need energy. When you eat food, it gets broken down into it's very base components by enzymes secreted in the mouth, stomach, and small intestine (secreted by the pancreas and gallbladder, mostly). Those basic things- fats, proteins, and sugars, as well as any micronutrients- then get absorbed by your blood stream (fats are actually absorbed slightly differently as they are nonpolar and will NOT dissolve readily into the blood by themselves- this is another discussion)

Your body recognizes *the amount of glucose* in the blood stream (well, the concentration, to be more specific). It wants to keep a specific amount of glucose in the blood so that the cells can get what they need when they need it. If glucose is too high, your body releases insulin, which stimulates your body cells to take in and STORE more of the glucose. First, your body stores it as glycogen in the liver and muscles. Once those stores are "filled" the excess goes into fat stores. Now, if your blood sugar is too LOW, a hormone called glucagon is released. Glucagon is kind of the opposite of insulin. Glycogen from the liver is broken back down to glucose and is released into the blood stream. Fat IS broken down, too, but your body desires to keep more of the fat and exhaust the glycogen first. Glycogen is first in, first out, typically speaking.

When you exercise, most of the calories you burn does NOT come from fat cells. It comes from the stored glycogen in the muscles and liver because those are more readily available. I will be honest and say that I haven't covered exact mechanisms on how this works, but when your glucose level is low and your glycogen "tanks" are low, that's when the fat starts being broken down. I *speculate* that what happens is that your fat is broken down until the glucose level is too high, then the glycogen starts to fill back up, so when you rest for cardio the goal is to refill the glycogen. Maybe the mechanism isn't known yet, but we didn't cover this part in my classes- but we might later on in upper division.

SO ANYWAY, low-carb diets work by kind of removing glucose from the process. While we CAN get glucose from proteins and lipids, it's a lot more difficult (another reason why fat cells are harder to break down than glycogen). There is less affinity for it. So, when you eat low-carb, your body ends up going "oh no, i need sugar now!" That's why induction is so difficult. It's like we are all addicted to sugar in some way because it is the easiest way for our bodies to get energy, so we convert almost all of our food to sugar.

Well, your brain requires a lot of energy. It isn't able to get the sugar it needs from fats and proteins. So instead, it stimulates the body to break down fat in ANOTHER way- into ketones. Hence, the term ketosis.

The funny thing about ketones- they are made from fat, yet "one cannot simply transform ketones back into fat" (please tell me somebody got the meme reference?). If the brain isn't using the ketones, the ketones instead need to be urinated out (the concentration gets too high).

So really, instead of burning off the fat, you're pissing it away. It works well. However, as a lot of people are aware, it also requires a ton of water because proteins require a lot of water to metabolize properly. The first week is a lot of water-weight loss, but getting 10-12 cups of water is advisable. When my Beloved was on Atkins, he would drink ~12 cups or more of water a day.

below is a quote of a topic i made before that talks about calories.

People fully don’t understand calories and macro nutrients. Some believe that if they follow a specific macro nutrient ratio they will lose more weight. To understand the link between calories and macro nutrients we first must understand what a calorie is.

calorie - A calorie equals the amount of thermal energy necessary to raise the temperature of one gram of water by 1 Celsius degree, at a pressure of 1 atm.

The Calories in food were determined by putting them in a container, then they putting the container in water and exploded the food. They would then determine the temperature of the water, the higher the temperature the more calories it has. Calories is just a unit energy. It’s a measurement of how much energy is used. It’s like how we use feet or meters to measure distance, we can use calories to measure energy. I will state this now, calories in food, and calories used in science aren’t exactly the same thing. For every calorie used in science there are 1,000 food calories. Food calories are identified with a capital C, “Calories”. The ones used in science are lower case “calories.” Due to the fact I am using word pad to write this, it has auto correct and capitalizes the first word of a sentence I will use calories and Calories interchangeably. I am referring to food calories in both cases.

Macro nutrients such as carbs, proteins, fats are NOT calories. They contain calories, but they are not calories. So yes, a calorie is a calorie just like a foot is foot, and a meter is a meter. If your body burns 2000 calories(energy) at rest, what would happen if you consumed 1,500 calories? Energy can’t be created or destroyed, only transformed. For your body to burn 500 calories more it has to use energy from the body, such as fats, proteins, or carbs. The energy is used to support your normal body functions. Since you’re using energy from the body it will contain less energy from protein,carbs,fats. Since you have less energy in the body you will weigh less. If you consume more energy than you burn it will be stored. The law of thermodynamics states “Energy can’t be created or destroyed, only transformed.” Turning food in to fat is a transformation of energy.

Some people do low carb for health reasons. Others do it because they think it burns more fat which will result in greater weight loss. It does burn more fat, but this doesn’t mean it will result in more weight loss. The reason is because if you're burning a lot of fat and consuming a lot of fat you're in the same spot initially, only a limited net change in body composition. So you can't out trick your body. Some low carbers shoot for ketosis. This just means the body isn’t using carbs so much as an energy source, they are using mostly fat. What some of these people fail to realize the more protein you eat the more protein you burn(prevents the body from using fat). The more fat you eat the more fat you’re storing. In the end it doesn’t make a difference. It will always boil down to calories.

A lot of people say “well I ate under my TDEE(Total Daily Energy Expeniture) and I didn’t lose weight doing x method.” How do you know what your TDEE is? Because some formula told you? Calorie tracking devices such as bodybugg, fit bit, or calculators don’t tell you anything about your metabolic situation. It can be highly suppressed. You maybe burning less calories than you think.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/737410-understanding-calories-and-weight-loss

When you exercise, most of the calories you burn does NOT come from fat cells. It comes from the stored glycogen in the muscles and liver because those are more readily available. I will be honest and say that I haven't covered exact mechanisms on how this works, but when your glucose level is low and your glycogen "tanks" are low, that's when the fat starts being broken down. I *speculate* that what happens is that your fat is broken down until the glucose level is too high, then the glycogen starts to fill back up, so when you rest for cardio the goal is to refill the glycogen. Maybe the mechanism isn't known yet, but we didn't cover this part in my classes- but we might later on in upper division.

SO ANYWAY, low-carb diets work by kind of removing glucose from the process. While we CAN get glucose from proteins and lipids, it's a lot more difficult (another reason why fat cells are harder to break down than glycogen). There is less affinity for it. So, when you eat low-carb, your body ends up going "oh no, i need sugar now!" That's why induction is so difficult. It's like we are all addicted to sugar in some way because it is the easiest way for our bodies to get energy, so we convert almost all of our food to sugar.

Well, your brain requires a lot of energy. It isn't able to get the sugar it needs from fats and proteins. So instead, it stimulates the body to break down fat in ANOTHER way- into ketones. Hence, the term ketosis.

The funny thing about ketones- they are made from fat, yet "one cannot simply transform ketones back into fat" (please tell me somebody got the meme reference?). If the brain isn't using the ketones, the ketones instead need to be urinated out (the concentration gets too high).

What you said is accurate, but it's also highly misleading. Stating that "when glycogen stores are low that's when we metabolize fat." You also state, that "when we rest our glycogen stores get filled up again."

I'll make this as simple as possible. If your TDEE is 1,500 and you eat 2000 of any macro nutrient you will store fat. If you go over with protein, you utilize more protein for energy limiting fat oxidation(glucoeogenesis), Go over with carbs, you utilize more carbs and limit fat oxidation. If you go over with fat you are oxidizing the fat in the blood stream(what you consumed) and not body fat.

Your glycogen stores won't get filled up during rest. They will only get filled up by consuming carbs or through the gluconeogenesis process(consuming higher amounts of protein). .48g/1g of protein gets converted to glucose. Almost 50%.


Low carb diets "only work" if you're under your TDEE. As you also stated ketones come out through urine. I know you said this but I want it to be clear as not to mislead anyone. Only "excess" ketones pass through the urine. If your body is using the ketones you won't pass ketones through the urine.

Just because you "metabolize" more fat doesn't mean you're burning "more body fat." It can easily come from excess dietary fat. So you won't lose any weight just because you're "metabolizing more fat." It will always boil down to calories one way or the other.