Welcome to Debate Club! Please be aware that this is a space for respectful debate, and that your ideas will be challenged here. Please remember to critique the argument, not the author.

A quick refresher on a calorie is a calorie ....

Options
1235729

Replies

  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
    Options
    Does dietary composition affect how calories are absorbed? Absolutely.
    Does TEF change with diet composition? Yep.
    Does processing and ageing and cooking impact food calorie availability? Of course.
    Do the Atwater constants miscalculate basic available calorie amounts for certain foods? You betcha.

    Does any of the above really matter? Nope.

    In a generally consistent diet, one will always be more successful focusing on creating a standard trackable calorie deficit, than focusing on the minors.

    "A calorie is a calorie" is good guidance, if not 100% exact.

    I find the pyramid of priorities by Helms to be useful (even if I don't agree 100% on some of them)
    The-Pyramid-Of-Nutrition-Priorities.png
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    Options
    Does dietary composition affect how calories are absorbed? Absolutely.
    Does TEF change with diet composition? Yep.
    Does processing and ageing and cooking impact food calorie availability? Of course.
    Do the Atwater constants miscalculate basic available calorie amounts for certain foods? You betcha.

    Does any of the above really matter? Nope.

    In a generally consistent diet, one will always be more successful focusing on creating a standard trackable calorie deficit, than focusing on the minors.

    "A calorie is a calorie" is good guidance, if not 100% exact.

    I find the pyramid of priorities by Helms to be useful (even if I don't agree 100% on some of them)
    The-Pyramid-Of-Nutrition-Priorities.png

    I like the pyramid and agree
  • senecarr
    senecarr Posts: 5,377 Member
    Options
    senecarr wrote: »
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    trinty425 wrote: »
    I am really on board with it is not just how many calories you eat....but what kind of calories that really matters! I quit drinking soda and iced coffees because I realized I was just drinking sugar....and it was "wasted calories". They didn't give me nutrition....they didn't help me fill full. I feel much better eating a fresh salad with a tiny amount of dressing...than drinking a soda.

    all calories provide energy, and they cannot be wasted....

    @ndj1979 when someone puts quotation marks around words, as this person did with "wasted calories" it is called using SCARE QUOTES. It is a literary tool that allows the author to convey to the reader that what is within the quotes is being used in a "non-standard, ironic, or otherwise special sense" (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scare_quotes ).

    I would venture to guess you know quite well what @trinty425 was meaning to convey, as you can read on to understand exactly what they meant when using the scare quotes, because they describe it in the next sentence: "They didn't give me nutrition...they didn't help me fill [sic] full."

    Unless you just enjoy arguing for the sake of argument, in which case you are free to continue to perform that role however obnoxious this lemur may find it to be.

    If you believe NDJ already understood all that, isn't your pedantry really just avoiding understanding what NDJ said? The idea that calories aren't nutrition in and of themselves is a case of First World Problems - no longer having the concern of starvation as the ultimate form of dietary deficiency.

    Anytime anyone says anything about CICO, calories vs. nutrition, starvation mode myth, or cleanses/detoxes, a predictable host of people come out of the woodwork who comment in antagonistic, curt, demeaning ways. They pounce on any hint of a mis-spoken word about these debates that get rehashed here, honestly, ever flipping day. These MFP forums are chock-full of people who take these kind of statements and argue with them interminably, in a sort of red-blooded posturing. I find it the most obnoxious and unhelpful behavior. Are they hoping to deter people from reaching out for help, by answering so smugly?

    Additionally...I don't "believe NDJ already understood that" - I "venture to guess that" perhaps he knew and clarified in case he didn't.

    Yes, they are 1st world problems. I live in the 1st world and thus suffer it's problems, as do the majority of MFP-ers. There is nothing wrong with trying to get a nice range of nutrients in your diet merely because we live in the 1st world. That, and I *kitten**ng love broccoli and eat the stuff like it was going out of style. I am not sure what point you were trying to make here.
    So... you're upset about people being curt, antagonistic, and demeaning, when you posted just lecture someone on something you admittedly thought it probably (since believe is too strong a description apparently) the person already knew. I'm not sure how much you get to complain about a problem when you're part of it, because I can think of few things as demeaning as telling somebody something you think highly likely they already know other as a way to dress them down.

    Also, no one mentioned broccoli - someone did mention salad - which is weird because your follow up comment was claiming not understanding what my point was because I have no idea what you're bringing up broccoli for. Like literally no reason other than it seems itching to argue about something no one is arguing against. And it is also funny because plenty of people on the forum do tell people they can't have soda, saying it is nutritionally devoid, or that it magically will prevent weight loss in a deficit. Yet I don't see anyone tell anyone else they can't have broccoli. At most, I see chiding from some people that broccoli or salad isn't their preference and joking that means someone else shouldn't eat it. Yet some people some people, you included now based on this, seem to think saying a person can eat what they want means broccoli is bad. If that's your standards, there is quiet frankly a very good reason you see the board full of curt, demeaning people - it is because you're someone reading far too much into things when you think anyone attacked broccoli over soda being okay for an adult to choose to have with for some of their calories.

    And yes, the points get rehashed everyday because those lovely same people that do it, actually know what they're talking about and have the wherewithal to educated new members about how it works instead of giving up. Isn't it interesting that the people that actually know what they're talking about and have lost the weight manage to endure, but so many people that don't, also don't stick around as success stories, explaining how to make never drinking soda again a workable life style?
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 5,948 Member
    Options
    senecarr wrote: »
    senecarr wrote: »
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    trinty425 wrote: »
    I am really on board with it is not just how many calories you eat....but what kind of calories that really matters! I quit drinking soda and iced coffees because I realized I was just drinking sugar....and it was "wasted calories". They didn't give me nutrition....they didn't help me fill full. I feel much better eating a fresh salad with a tiny amount of dressing...than drinking a soda.

    all calories provide energy, and they cannot be wasted....

    @ndj1979 when someone puts quotation marks around words, as this person did with "wasted calories" it is called using SCARE QUOTES. It is a literary tool that allows the author to convey to the reader that what is within the quotes is being used in a "non-standard, ironic, or otherwise special sense" (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scare_quotes ).

    I would venture to guess you know quite well what @trinty425 was meaning to convey, as you can read on to understand exactly what they meant when using the scare quotes, because they describe it in the next sentence: "They didn't give me nutrition...they didn't help me fill [sic] full."

    Unless you just enjoy arguing for the sake of argument, in which case you are free to continue to perform that role however obnoxious this lemur may find it to be.

    If you believe NDJ already understood all that, isn't your pedantry really just avoiding understanding what NDJ said? The idea that calories aren't nutrition in and of themselves is a case of First World Problems - no longer having the concern of starvation as the ultimate form of dietary deficiency.

    Anytime anyone says anything about CICO, calories vs. nutrition, starvation mode myth, or cleanses/detoxes, a predictable host of people come out of the woodwork who comment in antagonistic, curt, demeaning ways. They pounce on any hint of a mis-spoken word about these debates that get rehashed here, honestly, ever flipping day. These MFP forums are chock-full of people who take these kind of statements and argue with them interminably, in a sort of red-blooded posturing. I find it the most obnoxious and unhelpful behavior. Are they hoping to deter people from reaching out for help, by answering so smugly?

    Additionally...I don't "believe NDJ already understood that" - I "venture to guess that" perhaps he knew and clarified in case he didn't.

    Yes, they are 1st world problems. I live in the 1st world and thus suffer it's problems, as do the majority of MFP-ers. There is nothing wrong with trying to get a nice range of nutrients in your diet merely because we live in the 1st world. That, and I *kitten**ng love broccoli and eat the stuff like it was going out of style. I am not sure what point you were trying to make here.
    So... you're upset about people being curt, antagonistic, and demeaning, when you posted just lecture someone on something you admittedly thought it probably (since believe is too strong a description apparently) the person already knew. I'm not sure how much you get to complain about a problem when you're part of it, because I can think of few things as demeaning as telling somebody something you think highly likely they already know other as a way to dress them down.

    Also, no one mentioned broccoli - someone did mention salad - which is weird because your follow up comment was claiming not understanding what my point was because I have no idea what you're bringing up broccoli for. Like literally no reason other than it seems itching to argue about something no one is arguing against. And it is also funny because plenty of people on the forum do tell people they can't have soda, saying it is nutritionally devoid, or that it magically will prevent weight loss in a deficit. Yet I don't see anyone tell anyone else they can't have broccoli. At most, I see chiding from some people that broccoli or salad isn't their preference and joking that means someone else shouldn't eat it. Yet some people some people, you included now based on this, seem to think saying a person can eat what they want means broccoli is bad. If that's your standards, there is quiet frankly a very good reason you see the board full of curt, demeaning people - it is because you're someone reading far too much into things when you think anyone attacked broccoli over soda being okay for an adult to choose to have with for some of their calories.

    And yes, the points get rehashed everyday because those lovely same people that do it, actually know what they're talking about and have the wherewithal to educated new members about how it works instead of giving up. Isn't it interesting that the people that actually know what they're talking about and have lost the weight manage to endure, but so many people that don't, also don't stick around as success stories, explaining how to make never drinking soda again a workable life style?

    Exactly. Mis-information must be corrected.
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 5,948 Member
    Options
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    The issue I see is that some of us use the terminology differently, regardless of what the technical meaning is. People I know IRL do speak of low nutrient dense food such as sugary foods as being "empty calories". I don't think it's that they believe the body can't utilize energy from it, but it's considered "empty" because apart from simply providing pure calories/macros, there's not much other nutritional benefit (in general). So from that standpoint, in common language it could be said that a "calorie is not a calorie", even though of course from a scientific perspective a calorie is a calorie.

    not sure why you are conflating nutrition with energy ...calories provide energy and nutrition, so if one eats sugar it is not empty because the calories provide nutrition ....
    As I said, in casual conversation IRL people don't equate things the same way. So since sugar is not a source of nutrients other than pure carbs, people say it's "empty".

    and they would be wrong ....


    and they will be corrected every time, whether they like it or not. Mis-information must be corrected...
  • Lovee_Dove7
    Lovee_Dove7 Posts: 742 Member
    Options
    Does dietary composition affect how calories are absorbed? Absolutely.
    Does TEF change with diet composition? Yep.
    Does processing and ageing and cooking impact food calorie availability? Of course.
    Do the Atwater constants miscalculate basic available calorie amounts for certain foods? You betcha.

    Does any of the above really matter? Nope.

    In a generally consistent diet, one will always be more successful focusing on creating a standard trackable calorie deficit, than focusing on the minors.

    "A calorie is a calorie" is good guidance, if not 100% exact.

    I find the pyramid of priorities by Helms to be useful (even if I don't agree 100% on some of them)
    The-Pyramid-Of-Nutrition-Priorities.png

    What really bothers me about this is the word PRIORITIES.
    WHOSE priorities? WHAT priorities?
    If your priority is a scale number, then DEFICIT IS ALL YOU NEED.
    You'll lose weight......of some sort!!!
    You'll get results......a lower number on the scale. BUT I hope you like the results on your body, because a deficit doesn't mean you get the body composition you want, or improved blood sugar readings, or better blood pressure, or better moods, or better sleep.......It just means you'll lose weight.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,401 MFP Moderator
    Options
    Does dietary composition affect how calories are absorbed? Absolutely.
    Does TEF change with diet composition? Yep.
    Does processing and ageing and cooking impact food calorie availability? Of course.
    Do the Atwater constants miscalculate basic available calorie amounts for certain foods? You betcha.

    Does any of the above really matter? Nope.

    In a generally consistent diet, one will always be more successful focusing on creating a standard trackable calorie deficit, than focusing on the minors.

    "A calorie is a calorie" is good guidance, if not 100% exact.

    I find the pyramid of priorities by Helms to be useful (even if I don't agree 100% on some of them)
    The-Pyramid-Of-Nutrition-Priorities.png

    What really bothers me about this is the word PRIORITIES.
    WHOSE priorities? WHAT priorities?
    If your priority is a scale number, then DEFICIT IS ALL YOU NEED.
    You'll lose weight......of some sort!!!
    You'll get results......a lower number on the scale. BUT I hope you like the results on your body, because a deficit doesn't mean you get the body composition you want, or improved blood sugar readings, or better blood pressure, or better moods, or better sleep.......It just means you'll lose weight.

    It's actually a fairly good chart. And certain things matter more. For example
    • Can't lose weight if you are eating too many calories, regardless of macro/micro level
    • Can't gain weight if you aren't eating enough calories, regardless of macro/micro level, training or supplementation.
    • etc...

    And keep in mind, this is not a one or all thing and is more of a general guideline. You should be taking multiple parts of the pyramid into your equation. Calories will address weight gain, maintenance, loss. Macros will address body composition (along with training). Micros will address health benefits and adequate nutrients. Meal frequency/timing can influence the amount of calories one and how it affect your performance. And supplementation is the last resort to help the highest performance achieve that extra 1%.
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
    Options
    Does dietary composition affect how calories are absorbed? Absolutely.
    Does TEF change with diet composition? Yep.
    Does processing and ageing and cooking impact food calorie availability? Of course.
    Do the Atwater constants miscalculate basic available calorie amounts for certain foods? You betcha.

    Does any of the above really matter? Nope.

    In a generally consistent diet, one will always be more successful focusing on creating a standard trackable calorie deficit, than focusing on the minors.

    "A calorie is a calorie" is good guidance, if not 100% exact.

    I find the pyramid of priorities by Helms to be useful (even if I don't agree 100% on some of them)
    The-Pyramid-Of-Nutrition-Priorities.png

    What really bothers me about this is the word PRIORITIES.
    WHOSE priorities? WHAT priorities?
    If your priority is a scale number, then DEFICIT IS ALL YOU NEED.
    You'll lose weight......of some sort!!!
    You'll get results......a lower number on the scale. BUT I hope you like the results on your body, because a deficit doesn't mean you get the body composition you want, or improved blood sugar readings, or better blood pressure, or better moods, or better sleep.......It just means you'll lose weight.

    Actually, weight loss alone will do all those things if you had problems with them before.
    Losing weight will make you lose fat and the more fat you have the higher the ratio of fat loss to LBM loss is.
    Losing weight will improve your blood readings, including blood glucose and insulin sensitivity.
    It will improve blood pressure if the high blood pressure was caused by being overfat.
    It will improve mood if it was caused by hormone imbalance because losing weight improves your hormone profile.
    Better sleep if it was caused by pressure on your torso causing apnea? Hell yeah losing weight will improve that.
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
    Options
    To put it in other words:
    If you NEED to lose weight, you WILL lose mostly fat and little to no LBM.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,401 MFP Moderator
    Options
    Does dietary composition affect how calories are absorbed? Absolutely.
    Does TEF change with diet composition? Yep.
    Does processing and ageing and cooking impact food calorie availability? Of course.
    Do the Atwater constants miscalculate basic available calorie amounts for certain foods? You betcha.

    Does any of the above really matter? Nope.

    In a generally consistent diet, one will always be more successful focusing on creating a standard trackable calorie deficit, than focusing on the minors.

    "A calorie is a calorie" is good guidance, if not 100% exact.

    I find the pyramid of priorities by Helms to be useful (even if I don't agree 100% on some of them)
    The-Pyramid-Of-Nutrition-Priorities.png

    What really bothers me about this is the word PRIORITIES.
    WHOSE priorities? WHAT priorities?
    If your priority is a scale number, then DEFICIT IS ALL YOU NEED.
    You'll lose weight......of some sort!!!
    You'll get results......a lower number on the scale. BUT I hope you like the results on your body, because a deficit doesn't mean you get the body composition you want, or improved blood sugar readings, or better blood pressure, or better moods, or better sleep.......It just means you'll lose weight.

    Actually, weight loss alone will do all those things if you had problems with them before.
    Losing weight will make you lose fat and the more fat you have the higher the ratio of fat loss to LBM loss is.
    Losing weight will improve your blood readings, including blood glucose and insulin sensitivity.
    It will improve blood pressure if the high blood pressure was caused by being overfat.
    It will improve mood if it was caused by hormone imbalance because losing weight improves your hormone profile.
    Better sleep if it was caused by pressure on your torso causing apnea? Hell yeah losing weight will improve that.

    One correction, not all of those are universally true. There are people on this board who have lost 40 lbs but had worse blood panels due to their diet they followed. And no matter how much weight I lose or how fit I get, my LDL's don't change.. And my BP and HR have never changed, whether I was 220 or 175.

    But generally, all of those are true.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    Options
    Does dietary composition affect how calories are absorbed? Absolutely.
    Does TEF change with diet composition? Yep.
    Does processing and ageing and cooking impact food calorie availability? Of course.
    Do the Atwater constants miscalculate basic available calorie amounts for certain foods? You betcha.

    Does any of the above really matter? Nope.

    In a generally consistent diet, one will always be more successful focusing on creating a standard trackable calorie deficit, than focusing on the minors.

    "A calorie is a calorie" is good guidance, if not 100% exact.

    I find the pyramid of priorities by Helms to be useful (even if I don't agree 100% on some of them)
    The-Pyramid-Of-Nutrition-Priorities.png

    What really bothers me about this is the word PRIORITIES.
    WHOSE priorities? WHAT priorities?
    If your priority is a scale number, then DEFICIT IS ALL YOU NEED.
    You'll lose weight......of some sort!!!
    You'll get results......a lower number on the scale. BUT I hope you like the results on your body, because a deficit doesn't mean you get the body composition you want, or improved blood sugar readings, or better blood pressure, or better moods, or better sleep.......It just means you'll lose weight.

    priorities..

    1. straight calorie deficit for weight loss.
    2. make sure that you get adequate nutirtion
    3. make sure that you meet macronutrient needs
    4. fill in rest of calories with foods that one enjoys

    the end
  • Lovee_Dove7
    Lovee_Dove7 Posts: 742 Member
    Options
    Does dietary composition affect how calories are absorbed? Absolutely.
    Does TEF change with diet composition? Yep.
    Does processing and ageing and cooking impact food calorie availability? Of course.
    Do the Atwater constants miscalculate basic available calorie amounts for certain foods? You betcha.

    Does any of the above really matter? Nope.

    In a generally consistent diet, one will always be more successful focusing on creating a standard trackable calorie deficit, than focusing on the minors.

    "A calorie is a calorie" is good guidance, if not 100% exact.

    I find the pyramid of priorities by Helms to be useful (even if I don't agree 100% on some of them)
    The-Pyramid-Of-Nutrition-Priorities.png

    What really bothers me about this is the word PRIORITIES.
    WHOSE priorities? WHAT priorities?
    If your priority is a scale number, then DEFICIT IS ALL YOU NEED.
    You'll lose weight......of some sort!!!
    You'll get results......a lower number on the scale. BUT I hope you like the results on your body, because a deficit doesn't mean you get the body composition you want, or improved blood sugar readings, or better blood pressure, or better moods, or better sleep.......It just means you'll lose weight.

    Actually, weight loss alone will do all those things if you had problems with them before.
    Losing weight will make you lose fat and the more fat you have the higher the ratio of fat loss to LBM loss is.
    Losing weight will improve your blood readings, including blood glucose and insulin sensitivity.
    It will improve blood pressure if the high blood pressure was caused by being overfat.
    It will improve mood if it was caused by hormone imbalance because losing weight improves your hormone profile.
    Better sleep if it was caused by pressure on your torso causing apnea? Hell yeah losing weight will improve that.

    It can, and I hope it does. But macros and types of food (quinoa vs. white rice, or hamburger and fries vs salmon and wild rice for example) are available to manipulate so you can maximize YOUR results based on your own body and how it's responding to what you are doing.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    Options
    Does dietary composition affect how calories are absorbed? Absolutely.
    Does TEF change with diet composition? Yep.
    Does processing and ageing and cooking impact food calorie availability? Of course.
    Do the Atwater constants miscalculate basic available calorie amounts for certain foods? You betcha.

    Does any of the above really matter? Nope.

    In a generally consistent diet, one will always be more successful focusing on creating a standard trackable calorie deficit, than focusing on the minors.

    "A calorie is a calorie" is good guidance, if not 100% exact.

    I find the pyramid of priorities by Helms to be useful (even if I don't agree 100% on some of them)
    The-Pyramid-Of-Nutrition-Priorities.png

    What really bothers me about this is the word PRIORITIES.
    WHOSE priorities? WHAT priorities?
    If your priority is a scale number, then DEFICIT IS ALL YOU NEED.
    You'll lose weight......of some sort!!!
    You'll get results......a lower number on the scale. BUT I hope you like the results on your body, because a deficit doesn't mean you get the body composition you want, or improved blood sugar readings, or better blood pressure, or better moods, or better sleep.......It just means you'll lose weight.

    Actually, weight loss alone will do all those things if you had problems with them before.
    Losing weight will make you lose fat and the more fat you have the higher the ratio of fat loss to LBM loss is.
    Losing weight will improve your blood readings, including blood glucose and insulin sensitivity.
    It will improve blood pressure if the high blood pressure was caused by being overfat.
    It will improve mood if it was caused by hormone imbalance because losing weight improves your hormone profile.
    Better sleep if it was caused by pressure on your torso causing apnea? Hell yeah losing weight will improve that.

    It can, and I hope it does. But macros and types of food (quinoa vs. white rice, or hamburger and fries vs salmon and wild rice for example) are available to manipulate so you can maximize YOUR results based on your own body and how it's responding to what you are doing.

    no, actually what matters is the context of ones overall diet and that one is hitting micro and macro goals..

    IF you eat a hamburger for lunch and you still meet your protein and fat minimums,and get adequate nutrition for the day, there is nothing wrong with that.

    and why are you implying that hamburger is bad but salmon is good? They both provide fat and protein ....
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
    Options
    Does dietary composition affect how calories are absorbed? Absolutely.
    Does TEF change with diet composition? Yep.
    Does processing and ageing and cooking impact food calorie availability? Of course.
    Do the Atwater constants miscalculate basic available calorie amounts for certain foods? You betcha.

    Does any of the above really matter? Nope.

    In a generally consistent diet, one will always be more successful focusing on creating a standard trackable calorie deficit, than focusing on the minors.

    "A calorie is a calorie" is good guidance, if not 100% exact.

    I find the pyramid of priorities by Helms to be useful (even if I don't agree 100% on some of them)
    The-Pyramid-Of-Nutrition-Priorities.png

    What really bothers me about this is the word PRIORITIES.
    WHOSE priorities? WHAT priorities?
    If your priority is a scale number, then DEFICIT IS ALL YOU NEED.
    You'll lose weight......of some sort!!!
    You'll get results......a lower number on the scale. BUT I hope you like the results on your body, because a deficit doesn't mean you get the body composition you want, or improved blood sugar readings, or better blood pressure, or better moods, or better sleep.......It just means you'll lose weight.

    Actually, weight loss alone will do all those things if you had problems with them before.
    Losing weight will make you lose fat and the more fat you have the higher the ratio of fat loss to LBM loss is.
    Losing weight will improve your blood readings, including blood glucose and insulin sensitivity.
    It will improve blood pressure if the high blood pressure was caused by being overfat.
    It will improve mood if it was caused by hormone imbalance because losing weight improves your hormone profile.
    Better sleep if it was caused by pressure on your torso causing apnea? Hell yeah losing weight will improve that.

    It can, and I hope it does. But macros and types of food (quinoa vs. white rice, or hamburger and fries vs salmon and wild rice for example) are available to manipulate so you can maximize YOUR results based on your own body and how it's responding to what you are doing.

    I'd suggest some reading:
    http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/iifym-and-flexible-nutrition-interview-with-dr-layne-norton.html
    http://www.simplyshredded.com/research-review-the-dirt-on-clean-eating-written-by-nutrition-expert-alan-aragon.html
    https://www.biolayne.com/articles/nutrition/guest-biolayne-blog-post-how-to-recover-from-clean-eating-by-mike-samuels/
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 5,948 Member
    Options
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    The issue I see is that some of us use the terminology differently, regardless of what the technical meaning is. People I know IRL do speak of low nutrient dense food such as sugary foods as being "empty calories". I don't think it's that they believe the body can't utilize energy from it, but it's considered "empty" because apart from simply providing pure calories/macros, there's not much other nutritional benefit (in general). So from that standpoint, in common language it could be said that a "calorie is not a calorie", even though of course from a scientific perspective a calorie is a calorie.

    not sure why you are conflating nutrition with energy ...calories provide energy and nutrition, so if one eats sugar it is not empty because the calories provide nutrition ....
    As I said, in casual conversation IRL people don't equate things the same way. So since sugar is not a source of nutrients other than pure carbs, people say it's "empty".
    Wether or not one "equates" it the same way does not change what it is...
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,401 MFP Moderator
    Options
    Does dietary composition affect how calories are absorbed? Absolutely.
    Does TEF change with diet composition? Yep.
    Does processing and ageing and cooking impact food calorie availability? Of course.
    Do the Atwater constants miscalculate basic available calorie amounts for certain foods? You betcha.

    Does any of the above really matter? Nope.

    In a generally consistent diet, one will always be more successful focusing on creating a standard trackable calorie deficit, than focusing on the minors.

    "A calorie is a calorie" is good guidance, if not 100% exact.

    I find the pyramid of priorities by Helms to be useful (even if I don't agree 100% on some of them)
    The-Pyramid-Of-Nutrition-Priorities.png

    What really bothers me about this is the word PRIORITIES.
    WHOSE priorities? WHAT priorities?
    If your priority is a scale number, then DEFICIT IS ALL YOU NEED.
    You'll lose weight......of some sort!!!
    You'll get results......a lower number on the scale. BUT I hope you like the results on your body, because a deficit doesn't mean you get the body composition you want, or improved blood sugar readings, or better blood pressure, or better moods, or better sleep.......It just means you'll lose weight.

    Actually, weight loss alone will do all those things if you had problems with them before.
    Losing weight will make you lose fat and the more fat you have the higher the ratio of fat loss to LBM loss is.
    Losing weight will improve your blood readings, including blood glucose and insulin sensitivity.
    It will improve blood pressure if the high blood pressure was caused by being overfat.
    It will improve mood if it was caused by hormone imbalance because losing weight improves your hormone profile.
    Better sleep if it was caused by pressure on your torso causing apnea? Hell yeah losing weight will improve that.

    It can, and I hope it does. But macros and types of food (quinoa vs. white rice, or hamburger and fries vs salmon and wild rice for example) are available to manipulate so you can maximize YOUR results based on your own body and how it's responding to what you are doing.

    The foods you eat make up the macros and micros. But as stated before, it doesn't matter how good your foods are, if you aren't creating the correct metabolic environment.
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 5,948 Member
    Options
    The point of the pyramid is that it is useless to focus so much attention on macros if one does not have their calories in order. It is useless to focus so much attention on micros of one does not have their calories and macros in order. It is useless to focus on supplements if one does not have their calories, macros and micros in order and so on and so forth...
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    Options
    J72FIT wrote: »
    The point of the pyramid is that it is useless to focus so much attention on macros if one does not have their calories in order. It is useless to focus so much attention on micros of one does not have their calories and macros in order. It is useless to focus on supplements if one does not have their calories, macros and micros in order and so on and so forth...

    this
  • ForecasterJason
    ForecasterJason Posts: 2,577 Member
    Options
    psulemon wrote: »
    Does dietary composition affect how calories are absorbed? Absolutely.
    Does TEF change with diet composition? Yep.
    Does processing and ageing and cooking impact food calorie availability? Of course.
    Do the Atwater constants miscalculate basic available calorie amounts for certain foods? You betcha.

    Does any of the above really matter? Nope.

    In a generally consistent diet, one will always be more successful focusing on creating a standard trackable calorie deficit, than focusing on the minors.

    "A calorie is a calorie" is good guidance, if not 100% exact.

    I find the pyramid of priorities by Helms to be useful (even if I don't agree 100% on some of them)
    The-Pyramid-Of-Nutrition-Priorities.png

    What really bothers me about this is the word PRIORITIES.
    WHOSE priorities? WHAT priorities?
    If your priority is a scale number, then DEFICIT IS ALL YOU NEED.
    You'll lose weight......of some sort!!!
    You'll get results......a lower number on the scale. BUT I hope you like the results on your body, because a deficit doesn't mean you get the body composition you want, or improved blood sugar readings, or better blood pressure, or better moods, or better sleep.......It just means you'll lose weight.

    Actually, weight loss alone will do all those things if you had problems with them before.
    Losing weight will make you lose fat and the more fat you have the higher the ratio of fat loss to LBM loss is.
    Losing weight will improve your blood readings, including blood glucose and insulin sensitivity.
    It will improve blood pressure if the high blood pressure was caused by being overfat.
    It will improve mood if it was caused by hormone imbalance because losing weight improves your hormone profile.
    Better sleep if it was caused by pressure on your torso causing apnea? Hell yeah losing weight will improve that.

    One correction, not all of those are universally true. There are people on this board who have lost 40 lbs but had worse blood panels due to their diet they followed. And no matter how much weight I lose or how fit I get, my LDL's don't change.. And my BP and HR have never changed, whether I was 220 or 175.

    But generally, all of those are true.
    Agreed.

  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    Options
    Does dietary composition affect how calories are absorbed? Absolutely.
    Does TEF change with diet composition? Yep.
    Does processing and ageing and cooking impact food calorie availability? Of course.
    Do the Atwater constants miscalculate basic available calorie amounts for certain foods? You betcha.

    Does any of the above really matter? Nope.

    In a generally consistent diet, one will always be more successful focusing on creating a standard trackable calorie deficit, than focusing on the minors.

    "A calorie is a calorie" is good guidance, if not 100% exact.

    I find the pyramid of priorities by Helms to be useful (even if I don't agree 100% on some of them)
    The-Pyramid-Of-Nutrition-Priorities.png

    What really bothers me about this is the word PRIORITIES.
    WHOSE priorities? WHAT priorities?
    If your priority is a scale number, then DEFICIT IS ALL YOU NEED.
    You'll lose weight......of some sort!!!
    You'll get results......a lower number on the scale. BUT I hope you like the results on your body, because a deficit doesn't mean you get the body composition you want, or improved blood sugar readings, or better blood pressure, or better moods, or better sleep.......It just means you'll lose weight.

    Actually, weight loss alone will do all those things if you had problems with them before.
    Losing weight will make you lose fat and the more fat you have the higher the ratio of fat loss to LBM loss is.
    Losing weight will improve your blood readings, including blood glucose and insulin sensitivity.
    It will improve blood pressure if the high blood pressure was caused by being overfat.
    It will improve mood if it was caused by hormone imbalance because losing weight improves your hormone profile.
    Better sleep if it was caused by pressure on your torso causing apnea? Hell yeah losing weight will improve that.

    It can, and I hope it does. But macros and types of food (quinoa vs. white rice, or hamburger and fries vs salmon and wild rice for example) are available to manipulate so you can maximize YOUR results based on your own body and how it's responding to what you are doing.

    That's the point of the chart. I don't see a disagreement, really.
This discussion has been closed.