Which is it? Let's hear opinions!

dualcollision · July 2013

I hear some people say it's how much you eat and "a calorie is a calorie". I also hear some say It's what you eat, not how much. What do you think? I'll keep from voicing my opinion right now but my personal experience leans me towards one answer not the other.

rmhand · July 2013

It's about what you eat and the amount matters too. But all calories are not created equal.

taso42 · July 2013

Calories drive weight loss or weight gain
Macros, along with exercise, drive body composition
Micronutrients drive health and well being

Mother_Superior · July 2013

IN

...for what will surely turn into a drastic over-complication of such a simple, perfect truth like this.

Francl27 · July 2013

In theory, this, but there are a lot of theories out there saying that protein, fat, carbs don't digest the same way and whatnot. The jury is still out.

In the end though, the basic idea is that for the same amount of calories, eating a cleaner diet will not leave you starving.

kellyjamespro2012 · July 2013

THIS^^^

MsDrJuris · July 2013

THIS. I've found that I can lose weight just by cutting calories, but when I want to look cut and lean and great, I have to eat clean (i.e.:when you're at a healthy weight already is when clean eating seems to really make a huge difference).

SideSteel · July 2013

^ This is generally how it works.

taso42 · July 2013

you can fulfill your nutritional goals without eating clean

IronPlayground · July 2013

^Yep! This sums it up!

BenPolonowski · July 2013

I feel better when I eat food that is fresh and unprocessed.

pcastagner · July 2013

Ugh. This topic always results in more heat than light.

Presently, caloric value of a food is determined by burning the food and seeing how much energy is produced. While on the one hand this model is in some ways not like your body, it still yields an UPPER LIMIT. If a given substance only has the material to produce 100 calories of heat, there is no way to get more than that out of it.

Calories are not meant as a measure of how fattening a food is for any given organism ingesting it. It's merely a way of expressing the upper limit of how much energy could be extracted from something.

In practice, humans are very much alike, and at the same time we are special snowflakes. For instance, your gut flora are your own and no one else's, and they are very much involved in determining efficiency of digestion. On the other hand, the law of thermodynamics applies to ALL energy systems, so none of us are able to gain mass unless we eat more than we expend.

rml_16 · July 2013

My mother eats the healthiest diet of anyone I know and has been overweight/obese her entire life.

She is (well, was, anyway) a binge eater.

I ate nothing but junk most of my life, but not a large amount of food in general. I was never even slightly overweight until I was 29 years old, and then only for about a year in total.

Antlady69 · July 2013

I also used to think "a calorie is a calorie" but have recently been convinced otherwise. I've long heard that sugar is REALLY bad for you health-wise, but I was really blown away when I actually heard Robert Lustig's explanation - and that one calorie is not necessarily equal to another calorie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

Sadly, I haven't been able to reduce my sugar intake significantly, but I'm working on it!

rmhand · July 2013

I like this one too!
Also a quote from Dian Sanfillipo "Eat to be healthy and you will lose weight if you need to."

ItsCasey · July 2013

For weight loss, it's how much you eat. I've been at this for 3.5 years. I have tried every method. The one that has worked best for me is calculating a deficit from my TDEE (15% in my case) and eating that amount every day, regardless of exercise calories.

Having said that, my primary goal right now is fat loss. That necessitates eating enough protein and doing enough strength training to retain the lean body mass I currently have. The strength training necessitates a certain amount of carbs to fuel progress in my lifting sessions. And everyone needs a certain amount of dietary fat to keep their bodies functioning properly.

So macros matter to me, and, in that sense, what I eat matters. But there are different ways to get, say, 150 g of carbs. Vegetables may be a healthier form of carbs than ice cream, but I have not found that it matters in relation to my fat loss goal whether I eat vegetables or ice cream or both. And eating some of the so-called "unhealthy" foods that I enjoy (like ice cream) keeps me from going nuts and wanting to murder people, so I say ice cream is a win.

SideSteel · July 2013

I would recommend this, very much:
http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/01/29/the-bitter-truth-about-fructose-alarmism/

squirrell79 · July 2013

Well, you will lose weight if you eat nothing but 500 calories' worth of Twinkies everyday. I believe some researcher did just that (not 500 exactly, but you get the gist) a few years ago, and the media promptly dubbed it the "Twinkie diet."

But is that healthy? Absolutely not.

This person put it very nicely.

Sarauk2sf · July 2013

oop. dble post

Sarauk2sf · July 2013

There are situations where some people do better on different macro mixes due to metabolic issues, but basically ^^ this.

ninerbuff · July 2013

THIS. Also to add, a calorie is a calorie regardless of source.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

ninerbuff · July 2013

It's known how macronutrients are digested and how they affect hormonal balance. What most people don't know is how to balance their macros/micro nutrients to fit their particular goals.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

CoderGal · July 2013

In on phone cause link looks fun

SierraDoll · July 2013

Calories in calories out.Ive lost 10lbs Eating top ramen & cereal everyday.

XxYeaIrocxX · July 2013

I agree with this.

joe2626 · July 2013

I'm merely speaking from personal experience when I say that, in terms of weight-loss, calories-in vs. calories-out will do the trick. Now that i'm trying to do a recomp, i've realised that it's not only quantity of food, but its quality too, that contributes to changes in my body-fat percentage. By eating as clean as possible, I look and feel much leaner.

Athena53 · July 2013

Calories rule in the end.

I still choose my foods carefully. Lots of veggies because 300 calories of veggies is flavorful and takes a long time to eat, and 300 calories of hamburger or fries disappears in an instant. Some lean protein because without it I get hungry. Lots of fruit- hard to get fat eating too much fruit. Soups and stews that are heavy on vegetables. And some junk and processed foods. I'm careful about those just because I don't trust all those chemicals and sometimes when I start eating sugary stuff it's very hard to stop. The processed foods also tend to be engineered to chew and digest quickly, so you eat more than you need before your body gets the message that you've had enough.

And, as one of my doctors said when I asked him about high fructose corn syrup, there are some substances the human body just wasn't created to process.

kylamaries · July 2013

Numerically, a calorie is a calorie and a deficit is the healthy key to weight loss. Logically, I eat pretty much whatever I want (with a few restrictions) within moderation. If I eat 100% healthy 100% of the time I become miserable and binge, thus shattering both perspectives. :happy:

cebreisch · July 2013

I agree with the "not all calories are created equal" phrase someone coined. Calories from an ounce of chocolate and calories from an ounce of lean/healthy protein are dramatically different.

Personally, I believe it's what you eat, how much of what you eat, combined with calories burned.

Confuzzled4ever · July 2013

All I know is when I eat crap I feel like crap and the jiggly belly comes back..

When I eat good clean healthy foods.. I feel great and the tummy doesn't jiggle as much. :~)

How *I* feel when I eat certain foods. I've felt like crap for the last month.. and of course I do.. I've been eat crap. crap in crap out. (lol.. that's kinds funny!). The scale still moved, but not very much.. and the inches didn't go away like I had hoped. I'm getting back into the swing of things this month so I expect to feel better and do better. Plus I'm changing my exercise routing a bit.

I think this topic is so debated because it depends on your goals. If all you want is to lose weight.. then all you need is a calorie deficent.. doens't matter how you get to it or what foods you eat. If you're looking for health and nutrition then you'll want the healthier better for your foods. If you're looking at it from health and nutrition, then the fast food burger is not a good idea, nor is having processed chemical filled foods. If you only care about losing weight.. then eat what you want.. just less of it.

I'm worried about health moreso then weight loss. Part of health is being ah ealthy weight. So that means I want the healthier foods. Clean eating and such. I'm almost there :~)

chezjuan · July 2013

I agree with this. But the pedantic side of me needs to point out that a calorie is a unit of measure, so a calorie is a calorie no matter the source.

That said, I do totally understand that a calorie of a nutrient-dense food is generally better to consume in terms of meeting macros, micros, and calorie goals than one from an "empty" source, especially when restricting intake to a weight-loss or maintenance level.

Which is it? Let's hear opinions!

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