Calories Don't Matter?

Look at that, they link is trying to sell a program and books. SPAM.

I think calories matter to some degree but it's not the "end all, be all" of building a truly healthy body.

I agree, one of the reasons I track micros and don't really care about the rest. I'm here for health, fitness and my friends, though.. not weight loss.

To be clear, however, I also don't think that calories "are the end all be all to building a truly healthy body" and I've *very* rarely encountered anyone who did think that. To weight loss, yes, calories are what matter (although the type of food you choose will have an impact on satiety). To health, almost everyone will tell you that micros and macros matter.


edited for typo

TrailBlazerMN wrote: »

JossFit wrote: »

Calories absolutely matter... it's called science.

You mean the law of thermodynamics?

if so, what is your take on this:

"Newton’s first law of thermodynamics states that the energy of an isolated system is constant. In other words, in a laboratory, or “isolated system,” 1,000 calories of broccoli and 1,000 calories of soda are, in fact, the same. I’m not saying Newton was wrong about that. It’s true that when burned in a laboratory setting, 1,000 calories of broccoli and 1,000 calories of soda would indeed release the same amount of energy.

But sorry, Mr. Newton; your law of thermodynamics doesn’t apply in living, breathing, digesting systems. When you eat food, the “isolated system” part of the equation goes out the window. The food interacts with your biology, a complex adaptive system that instantly transforms every bite."

um . . . Newton was responsible for the laws of motion. The man most directly responsible for presenting the first law of thermodynamics as a whole, which you are mangling incidentally, was Rudolf Clausius. Newton did publish papers that had to do with cooling within a system, but they were based on largely flawed assumptions of the time, and so, through no fault of Mr Newton, turned out to be . . . off the mark. That could be what is throwing you.

Regardless, this is a horrible argument for your cause. Even if you were 100% right, trying to pretend it has anything to do with the conservation of energy is just clumsy.

JossFit wrote: »

Calories absolutely matter... it's called science. This article is just using an eye-catching headline to draw readers, but it's misleading.

I have a degree in Nutrition Science and have a successful business working as an online coach (nutrition and training) and each one of my clients diets are based on calorie consumption first and foremost.

Besides, what the article states is not that they don't matter, it's that they don't all get processed in the same way, which is true;

"What I’m trying to illustrate here (and this is probably the single most important idea in this book) is that all calories are NOT created equal. The same number of calories from different types of food can have very different biological effects."

This is simply restating what we all know to be true; nutrient dense foods are going to be better for your overall health and metabolic function, and macronutrients serve different purposes in the body.

Eye catching is eye catching. That's for sure.

People like to walk around counting calories ,staying under there limit for the day while so many of the calories they are taking in are from crappy foods that your body simply realizes as CRAP!!!

Hmm, and we've been told that it's only the calorie counters who are judgy.

I try to eat a healthy diet, but the fact is that I can get fat on a healthy diet just as I can get fat on "crap" (whatever we define that as--your definition may differ from mine, for example if you like boneless, skinless chicken breast I'll point out that that's far from unprocessed, so you've just defined it as "crap," apparently). And one of the best things I can do for my health is not get fat again. For me, it's easier to avoid getting fat if I eat a healthy diet, but it's not ALL that's necessary--I have to also monitor the amount I'm eating (count calories or some other such tactic, such as focusing on portions and the like) and I have to remain active. So for ME making it just about micros would not work. I was focusing on eating a healthy diet made up of whole foods (in fact I was much more fussy about eating "naturally") when gained the first significant amount of the weight I gained (and then kind of fell into a nasty cycle).