Confused about: is a Calorie a Calorie and Food Quality
michellestiff1
Posts: 12 Member
So for years we were told a Calorie is a Calorie and it is all about Calories in Calories Out. Now we know that it is about so much more than this, that the body adapts and weight loss is a lot about hormones as well as Calories. My question is though- there IS a difference in how your body metabolizes Calories from different sources/thermic effect of food and so on . So how do we take that into account when we are counting Calories? 2500 Calories from whole food sources versus 2500 Calories from ding dongs is going to do very different things to you body. I know that this is part of the reason you advocate the 40-30-30 macros it is just I am coming from about a year of eating 10-20 carbs, 40-50% protein and the rest fat at only 1400 calories per day and now I am at 2000+ with completely different macros, and have gained about 13 lbs during my reset. I know some of it is water, glycogen replenishment etc. but I also know a significant amount of it is fat and I just don't know if I should stay at this caloric level until I stop gaining weight and stabilize there for a while..... I am very confused about how to go about this process
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As long as you are gaining weight, your metabolism has not adjusted to the new situation of getting more food.
How long have you been eating at the new calorie level?
It is different for everyone. One might be done at 8 weeks, others need 12 weeks or even longer, until the body stops gaining weight.
Of course there is a difference from where you get your calories from, even though some people say it does not really matter. But as matter of fact, a healthy body needs a good ratio of macro nutrients, as well as micro nutrients and fibre. The latter ones you will get from vegetables and fruit and are as important as the macro nutrients. getting a good amount of micro nutrients along with 30 grams of fibre, will more or less force you to not only eat junk food.
Just keep going and be consistent with your calories and macros, until your weight stabilizes.0 -
Well, a calorie is a calorie, though there are of course differences between macros in how many calories your body actually gets from the macros.
But unless you pull extremes one direction or another, the % of difference is below the inaccuracy in food labels, so no it doesn't matter.
So if you ate 2000 calories, 90% from fat, your body would actually get more out of that 2000 calories than say someone doing 90% protein with 2000 calories, where a lot of energy would be spent on digesting it, and converting it inefficiently to glucose for the body to use.
That would be the kind of extremes where it matters.
40/30/30, or 60/20/20, those levels it doesn't matter.
What will matter more though, is if your system is sensitive or outright issue with say carbs, diabetic being extreme example.
Any additional stress to the body along with other stress from a diet, or extreme exercise, or life, will mess with hormones and make some calories worse than others.
In those cases, the body is still getting same % of calories from the food, but the stress it causes from what you eat or sometimes what you are lacking, will make it worse.
And that depends greatly on you - genetics, other stress, ect.
Picture the stress scale where above a certain level your hormones will get messed up and body will adapt and fat and weight loss will be a huge fight to get, compared to right below it.
All the stresses combined together make up getting to that level, so if butting up against that level, need to reduce some stress.
Eating with reasonable deficit is one such stress relief.
For your body, avoiding certain foods may cause less stress.
For everyone, eating certain foods will cause less stress.
So depends on where the balance is and that person's body can take.
That's why some with what appears to be an extreme deficit, find success in eating "clean" - whatever that means to them. Probably compared to prior eating method, they just removed several stresses, now the fact of a big deficit isn't so bad for them, and they genetics allow it.
For someone else, huge life stress, also with constant illness they must deal with that stresses body, they eat clean, they eat reasonable deficit, but they exercise like a pro, and their body can't take it.
In those cases, gotta decide what to back up on.
So when you get sick, additional body stress, back off something else. Or hopefully don't have the stress level always at the line so that minor things cause a bump over and bad results.
Wow, just reread that, not sure why I finally decided to unload that info here, been intending a fuller post getting in to that later on just that topic.0 -
This is SUPER. Thanks for unloading. I am saving all in word doc to refer back to.
In my case- I am in a catabolic state from too much dieting/ and excessive exercise. I also was alternating days of just eating pure protein with protein and veg because of my stomach issues. I WAS SUPER STRICT PALEO and very very low carb but not in ketosis because of the high protein. I think this exacerbated my hormonal issue because I was NOT balanced. Now I am just trying to eat whatever I can to get in the calories without upsetting my stomach, which means fewer veggies, actually- those upset my stomach.0
