Is it really just all about the Calories?

nictiffss
nictiffss Posts: 6 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi everyone! I have a serious question cause I cannot find any straight answers online or from people. Is it true the only thing that generally makes you gain/lose weight are calories? This just does not make sense to me. for example, If you ate 200 calories worth of broccoli, vs 200 calories worth of fries, would you gain the same amount of weight? would you even gain weight from the broccoli? I'm so confused. I feel like diets are too calorie-based and not really nutritional based. Like is it ok to go over your calorie limit if you are going over with fruit? please help! im sorry if this is common sense to others, I am really just super confused!
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Replies

  • savageman69
    savageman69 Posts: 339 Member
    calories are calorie in terms of weight gain or loss....thats like saying you cant over fill your cars gas tank with gas but could with water or something that isnt suppose to be in there. Believe it or not your body doesnt have a food scanner in it.....overage of calories is just that an overage
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
    Yes. It is true.

    How you reduce the calories is up to you.
  • quiltlovinlisa
    quiltlovinlisa Posts: 1,710 Member
    I count calories to lose weight. I cut down on high amounts of sugary foods because i feel better doing so. As stated above, it's really that simple.
  • Nikki10129
    Nikki10129 Posts: 292 Member
    the question your asking is very similar to: What's heavier, a pound of feathers or a pound of lead?

    200 calories is 200 calories the difference is volume, it would take far more broccoli to reach 200 calories than it would take fries
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
    Yes, calories are the important thing for weight loss/gain. Nutrients and macros are for health.
  • ModernRock
    ModernRock Posts: 372 Member
    nictiffss wrote: »
    If you ate 200 calories worth of broccoli, vs 200 calories worth of fries, would you gain the same amount of weight? would you even gain weight from the broccoli?

    Calories are a measurement of energy. As far as weight loss/gain is concerned, consuming 200 units of energy from broccoli is the same as 200 units of energy from fries.
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    edited December 2015
    Eating one pound of broccoli is approximately 150 calories, I'd be stuffed to the gill. I'd rather eat the fries, just saying'
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
    nictiffss wrote: »
    Hi everyone! I have a serious question cause I cannot find any straight answers online or from people. Is it true the only thing that generally makes you gain/lose weight are calories? This just does not make sense to me. for example, If you ate 200 calories worth of broccoli, vs 200 calories worth of fries, would you gain the same amount of weight? would you even gain weight from the broccoli? I'm so confused. I feel like diets are too calorie-based and not really nutritional based. Like is it ok to go over your calorie limit if you are going over with fruit? please help! im sorry if this is common sense to others, I am really just super confused!

    Yes, calories are calories* from the perspective of weight gain or loss, and 200 calories of broccoli vs. 200 calories of fries will be exactly the same in terms of how it affects your weight. You can absolutely eat "healthy" foods and gain weight. You can absolutely eat "unhealthy" foods and lose weight. I've lost 65 pounds so far and I eat very little vegetables, and this week I've had pizza, ice cream, a cookie, chips, etc.

    *Okay, the labeled calories in food are actually estimates because they try to calculate the energy that is metabolically available to your body, and it's not a perfectly precise formula, so any particular food might be slightly off from what its label says.
  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,089 Member
    Yes for weight loss/ gain , it really does come down to calories. People like to believe the hype and fads that say certain food groups are bad and such. But in reality, it does come down to calories. Eat less then you burn and you'll lose weight.
    If you ate 200 cals of broccoli , its the same as 200 cals of French fries as far as the calories go. But for overall health and well being - eating a well balanced diet is best. You can still incorporate French fries into your day ( I have treats everyday along side of a healthy well balanced diet) but I wouldn't suggest a diet of all French fries . if you ate 200 cals of broccoli you may feel Fuller ( more volume ) then 200 cals of French fries . but it doesn't change the fact that each 200 cal option in this hypothetical conversation would be exactly the same as far as calories go.
  • BinaryPulsar
    BinaryPulsar Posts: 8,927 Member
    For weight loss it's calories. But, nutrition still matters. And protein is needed to gain or maintain muscle. I recently went vegan and I eat up to 2400 calories a day and still only weigh 97 pounds and I am a lot less active than I was a few months ago (recovering from an injury that also caused my weight loss). So, I don't know what's up with that.
  • Ashtoretet
    Ashtoretet Posts: 378 Member
    I've lost 65 pounds counting calories and mostly eating junk. If I had to do it over, I would have been more careful about hitting my protein macros because I lost a lot of muscle.
  • Soopatt
    Soopatt Posts: 563 Member
    For the first couple of months I ate a ton of junk but I started to realize that it impacted my ability to stick to my plan. If you choose the fries over the broccoli (or any low volume high calorie option), you start to get hungry eating less volume and it makes it hard to stick to your calorie allocation.

    I have had days where I have just eaten condensed milk and cookies, but it was a tiny amount because that was all my calories could stand and I was starving and not as happy as you might think.

    What works much better is to try to eat decent healthy food most of the time and to save your treats for only about 20% of your calorie allocation. You still want nice things, but you want to be comfortable.

    I agree with the comments about the protein. I don't avoid carbs, but if I don't get enough protein I am hungrier and less satisfied as well as the implications for my muscle mass.

    No need to live in misery - let go of the all or nothing ideas. I still eat McDonalds and I still eat pizza - just not as much as I used to.
  • Heatherthecyclist
    Heatherthecyclist Posts: 41 Member
    I disagree that a calorie is a calorie. I've recently had lots of sessions with a sports nutritionist. I was eating about 2,300 a day, still am but have dropped a lot of sugar, and am eating carbs in a pyramid style and have dropped lots of weight. Same calories, different foods. Sugar makes me store fat.
  • kitujainen
    kitujainen Posts: 143 Member
    it's also a lot of other things like metabolism and how tired you are and how active you keep yourself and the taste of food and how much you crave the bad things
  • cityruss
    cityruss Posts: 2,493 Member
    Heatherthecyclist wrote: »
    I disagree that a calorie is a calorie. I've recently had lots of sessions with a sports nutritionist. I was eating about 2,300 a day, still am but have dropped a lot of sugar, and am eating carbs in a pyramid style and have dropped lots of weight. Same calories, different foods. Sugar makes me store fat.

    A calorie is a unit of measurement, which is a definite magnitude of a physical quantity that is used as a standard for measurement of the same physical quantity. Any other value of the physical quantity can be expressed as a simple multiple of the unit of the same unit of measurement.

    Thus a calorie, is exactly that, a calorie. Just as an inch is an inch and on ounce is an ounce.
  • MissBabyJane
    MissBabyJane Posts: 538 Member
    It's literally, only about the calories...
  • MommyL2015
    MommyL2015 Posts: 1,411 Member
    Heatherthecyclist wrote: »
    I disagree that a calorie is a calorie. I've recently had lots of sessions with a sports nutritionist. I was eating about 2,300 a day, still am but have dropped a lot of sugar, and am eating carbs in a pyramid style and have dropped lots of weight. Same calories, different foods. Sugar makes me store fat.

    A calorie is just a calorie and sugar doesn't make you store fat, too many calories does. If you eat too many calories in the form of sugar or in the form of kale, you will store fat.
  • Dreysander
    Dreysander Posts: 294 Member
    I feel like calories are calories but macro breakdown is more personal. Some people feel better with more protein or more fat, some people feel better with more carbohydrate. I know I feel at my best (mental clarity, enough energy) with a fairly even split between all three.
  • cityruss
    cityruss Posts: 2,493 Member
    kitujainen wrote: »
    it's also a lot of other things like metabolism and how tired you are and how active you keep yourself and the taste of food and how much you crave the bad things

    They are all variables, and to a varying extent controllable.

    Calories, being a unit of measurement are an absolute.

    Energy consumed (calories) and the balance of energy (calories) is the be all and end all. That's how we work. Everything else is a way to create that energy balance.
  • rileyes
    rileyes Posts: 1,404 Member
    What digests faster and delivers more nutrients? Broccoli or fries?

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