Please explain calories to me...

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nicolanicola
nicolanicola Posts: 23
in Food and Nutrition
OK, well I have just decided to stop doing Slimming World (a uk diet plan for all you non-uk people) and eat healthy and do regular exercise.

I'll give you a bit of history about my diet/exercise profile...for almost a year now I have been eating lunch about 11am (carbs) then going to the gym at 1 or 2pm and burning about 260 Kcals on the crosstrainer, usually working in excess of 80% of my MHR (maximum heart rate). Despite doing this after previously doing NO exercise, I am not losing any weight or fat from anywhere from exercise.

Ok, so I have been looking up heart rate zone information and found that to lose maximum body fat (which is what I want - from hips, bum thighs) you should work within 60 - 70% of your MHR, this zone burns the most fat, with the more intense zones getting more fuel from carbs stored in the muscle. So this is what I want. So now I am aiming to do 20 mins on the exercise bike every morning staying in fat burning zone, BEFORE breakfast - I read that if I you eat breakfast, then your body will use that food as energy rather than what is stored as fat.

I've been browsing the web today and looking at blogs etc about what foods to eat to maxmise fat burning and nuts have came up because they are high in protein. I love nuts and I could eat nuts in between meals I'm sure trying to lose weight would be much easier. However, I know nuts have high calorie or (can't remember which) fat content. Also, someone in my work is drinking protein shakes and successfully losing weight, but surely these are also high in cals or fat. So what I am confused about is if a food is hgh in protein does that balance out the calorie content of that food? Are all calories in all food equal?

I would like to hope that maybe I could ditch the calorie counting, eat high protein foods and low GI to keep me fuller longer and do my 20 minutes fat burning exercise every day and that would be sufficient to lose weight.

What do you think?

EDIT: Arghh I fear the lack of reponses is probably to do with my question not being clear!!

Basically, can I ignore the calorie count of things if I only eat foods that promote fat burning, whilst doing 20 mins of fat burning exercise on a morning before breakfast?

So like, if I ate some cashew nuts, the calorie content wouldn't matter because (somehow) they are helping me lose fat?

Replies

  • MrsRobertson1005
    MrsRobertson1005 Posts: 552 Member
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    The reason to eat a lot of protein is, A it's filling and B it helps your body repair the muscles that tear and grow while you work out. You don't want to eat too many carbs as is and carbs are all different, white carbs as i call them, white bread, pasta, rice.. are hard for your body to break down and don't really do anything for you, the good carbs are whole wheat carbs, whole wheat pasta, bread, brown rice.. as far as calories goes, as long as you are eating healthy food (not fired, no fast food) and healthy portions your calorie count should be good
  • MrsRobertson1005
    MrsRobertson1005 Posts: 552 Member
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    And if you want any extra support feel free to add me :)
  • eaber
    eaber Posts: 25
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    I dont know what they have available in UK but I imagine it cant be much different. My husband drinks protein shakes as a meal replacement occasionally and its only about 180 to 200 cals which is certainly not enough to ruin your whole day.
  • woja9640
    woja9640 Posts: 450 Member
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    As for the nuts, it depends on the nut you eat. Peanuts are high in protein, low in fat and medium in calories. At least from what can tell. If you eat peanuts or any nuts at all you need to make sure they are unsalted.

    You need to eat more protein in order to gain muscle and burn fat. Protein shakes are medium in calories and supposed to be low in fat. Get the protein powder that can mix easily with water and you don't have to worry about extra calories from mixing it with milk. If you add me as a friend, you can check my food diary.

    I have also heard from my gym that doing too much cardio can actually cause you to gain weight, so you may need to lessen the intensity on the cross trainer as well as adding in some weight work. Maybe doing some circuit training.
  • nicolanicola
    nicolanicola Posts: 23
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    Thanks for that. Yeah I am staying away from white carbs.

    Ok so protein is good because it repairs the muscles torn when exercising, well at least I know that now!

    The fat in my body, does that come from eating food with fat in them? So say I lost some body fat but then ate something with fat in it, would that then store itself as fat back where I had just lost it?
  • nicolanicola
    nicolanicola Posts: 23
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    As for the nuts, it depends on the nut you eat. Peanuts are high in protein, low in fat and medium in calories. At least from what can tell. If you eat peanuts or any nuts at all you need to make sure they are unsalted.

    You need to eat more protein in order to gain muscle and burn fat. Protein shakes are medium in calories and supposed to be low in fat. Get the protein powder that can mix easily with water and you don't have to worry about extra calories from mixing it with milk. If you add me as a friend, you can check my food diary.

    I have also heard from my gym that doing too much cardio can actually cause you to gain weight, so you may need to lessen the intensity on the cross trainer as well as adding in some weight work. Maybe doing some circuit training.

    Ok, so really I can't get away with ignoring calroie counting then? I still have to count the calories in nuts, other protien rich food?

    How does eating protien = burning fat?

    Plus, another poster above mentioned her husband uses them as meal replacements, if I have a protient shake, do I need to count the calorie content?
  • nicolanicola
    nicolanicola Posts: 23
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    Arghh I fear the lack of reponses is probably to do with my question not being clear!!

    Basically, can I ignore the calorie count of things if I only eat foods that promote fat burning, whilst doing 20 mins of fat burning exercise on a morning before breakfast?

    So like, if I ate some cashew nuts, the calorie content wouldn't matter because (somehow) they are helping me lose fat?
  • MrsRobertson1005
    MrsRobertson1005 Posts: 552 Member
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    No, fat in does not mean fat on, some fats are good for you, mono-saturated fats are healthy fats. Its all about limiting the bad stuff.
  • MrsRobertson1005
    MrsRobertson1005 Posts: 552 Member
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    yes and no, you still don't want to eat too many calories a day but those are healthy aka a better choice to spend your calories on than a double cheese burger
  • MrsRobertson1005
    MrsRobertson1005 Posts: 552 Member
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    I have to get off here and do my cleaning and laundry for the day but feel free to add me and or message me :)
  • woja9640
    woja9640 Posts: 450 Member
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    As for the nuts, it depends on the nut you eat. Peanuts are high in protein, low in fat and medium in calories. At least from what can tell. If you eat peanuts or any nuts at all you need to make sure they are unsalted.

    You need to eat more protein in order to gain muscle and burn fat. Protein shakes are medium in calories and supposed to be low in fat. Get the protein powder that can mix easily with water and you don't have to worry about extra calories from mixing it with milk. If you add me as a friend, you can check my food diary.

    I have also heard from my gym that doing too much cardio can actually cause you to gain weight, so you may need to lessen the intensity on the cross trainer as well as adding in some weight work. Maybe doing some circuit training.

    Ok, so really I can't get away with ignoring calroie counting then? I still have to count the calories in nuts, other protien rich food?

    How does eating protien = burning fat?

    Plus, another poster above mentioned her husband uses them as meal replacements, if I have a protient shake, do I need to count the calorie content?

    I would still do the calorie count. You have to make sure that your NET CALORIES are as close to your daily calorie goal as possible in order to lose weight as well. By not eating all or close to it, you will go into survival mode and start storing the food as fat. Not sure about the eating protein = burning fat.... I got that from my sister and her personal trainer. It all depends on your chioce about the protein shakes. And remember the other poster was talking about her HUSBAND. Men are affected in a different way than women.

    All I can tell you is I am 4 ft 6 in and when I joined MFP on Feb 2nd I was 170lbs. It is now 4 1/2 months later and I have lost 22 lbs with 33 left to go. I adjusted eating more protein in April and it helped me jumpstart after I was on a 3 week plateau.

    I think your body is now so used to you working on the crosstrainer you need to change up your work out. That may help.
  • BethanyMasters
    BethanyMasters Posts: 519 Member
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    You are WAY over thinking this.

    Weight loss is literally as simple as calories in / calories out. There are a certain number of calories you need to maintain your weight. You can figure this out with a BMR calculator.

    http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

    by multiplying that number by 1.2 you can determine how many calories you would need to maintain your weight if you were sedentary.

    We lose weight by creating a deficit.

    That's where MFP comes in. Assuming you input your stats and your activity level correctly MFP will give you an appropriate amount of calories to eat per day to reach your goals.


    Now when it comes to health it's a little more complicated than calories in and calories out. If you are wasting your calories on junk food but still staying within your allotted calories you'll probably lose weight but you are probably going to feel like crap and probably won't have the energy to get your body moving.

    Try to rely on lean proteins and simple carbs more to keep you feeling full instead of highly processed carbs and sugars. You have to have a balanced diet to be healthy , that includes a little fat (preferably healthy fats that are in things like nuts and avacado).

    And remember all calories count no matter where it comes from.
  • nicolanicola
    nicolanicola Posts: 23
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    Hmm, I did wonder if I was overthinking it!

    I think I will just concentrate on calories in and out. I went to the supermarket and went to buy some nuts, and for a small bag of nuts there were 500+ calories in them! So I don't know how on earth nuts can be good for burning body fat. Anyway, I stayed away!
  • nicolanicola
    nicolanicola Posts: 23
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    I have just found an article that explains how some foods make your body burn calories breaking them down more than other foods, or help it break down fat - http://www.fatfreekitchen.com/weightloss/fat-burning-foods.html

    That's why protein is good, it uses more calories to burn that to burn something fatty.
  • TrainingWithTonya
    TrainingWithTonya Posts: 1,741 Member
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    First of all, quit believing the media hype. The articles you will see on the web, on the news, etc. are generally one or two snippets from a study that have been twisted to meet the goals of the article. See a professional in exercise science &/or nutrition for accurate information.

    Second, there are no such things as "Fat Burning Foods" that reduce your body fat. Yes, protein requires more calories to digest then carbs or fat, but the fuel for that comes from the food you've just consumed. You can only burn stored body fat when the chemical conditions in the body are right and that requires exercise.

    Third, 20 minutes isn't enough exercise to get much fat burning. You actually burn a combination of glycogen and fat and sometimes protein during your entire workout, but depending on the duration and intensity of your workout there are times when you burn more from each of those sources. When you do something super intense that you can only do for up to 10 seconds (think 40 yard dash at the maximum speed, or a plyometric jump), you are actually burning mostly creatine phosphate to produce ATP to fuel the movement. When you do something a little longer but still pretty high intensity (think the 80%+ intensity workouts you were doing), then you are burning mostly glycogen. When you are doing something you can maintain for 30+ minutes because the intensity is so low, then you are burning mostly fat, but only after you have broken down enough glycogen to have the by-products to be able to burn fat. Because you have to have those by-products of glycolysis, you won't burn as much fat in the first 30 minutes of your low intensity workout as you will after 30 minutes of exercise when the body will hit the crossover point and burn more from fat stores.
  • nicolanicola
    nicolanicola Posts: 23
    Options
    First of all, quit believing the media hype. The articles you will see on the web, on the news, etc. are generally one or two snippets from a study that have been twisted to meet the goals of the article. See a professional in exercise science &/or nutrition for accurate information.

    Second, there are no such things as "Fat Burning Foods" that reduce your body fat. Yes, protein requires more calories to digest then carbs or fat, but the fuel for that comes from the food you've just consumed. You can only burn stored body fat when the chemical conditions in the body are right and that requires exercise.

    Third, 20 minutes isn't enough exercise to get much fat burning. You actually burn a combination of glycogen and fat and sometimes protein during your entire workout, but depending on the duration and intensity of your workout there are times when you burn more from each of those sources. When you do something super intense that you can only do for up to 10 seconds (think 40 yard dash at the maximum speed, or a plyometric jump), you are actually burning mostly creatine phosphate to produce ATP to fuel the movement. When you do something a little longer but still pretty high intensity (think the 80%+ intensity workouts you were doing), then you are burning mostly glycogen. When you are doing something you can maintain for 30+ minutes because the intensity is so low, then you are burning mostly fat, but only after you have broken down enough glycogen to have the by-products to be able to burn fat. Because you have to have those by-products of glycolysis, you won't burn as much fat in the first 30 minutes of your low intensity workout as you will after 30 minutes of exercise when the body will hit the crossover point and burn more from fat stores.

    Thanks for the informative post.

    Well, I can't do more than 20 minutes a day because that'd mean getting up at 6am, and I don't get enough sleep as it is! So I'll need to just keep doing the 20 minutes.

    Here's another thought/question, if I instead concentrate on burning calories, and have a calorie deficit every day then eventually my fat stores will get burned up, right? When I say fat stores, I'm primarily thinking my thighs, I imagine they hold a lot of fat, so if I burn fat then my thighs will get smaller. Is that correct? Also, if we burn off glycogen from the muscles, then how does the body change? I mean, does wherever was storing the glycogen get thinner? I guess I am thinking fat is stored where you have wobbly fat bits so it's obvious that we don't want these bits, but what does a part of the body where a lot of glycogen is stored look like? I know it's the muscle, but surely if we lost muscle mass then the muscles would shrink...is it desirable to lose glycogen to gain a nicer body?

    Hope this makes sense, I know my thinking is a bit all over!

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