why does sugar make us fat
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Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »Sugar does not make us fat - excess calories make us fat.
Sugar is easily and readily metabolized into oxidizable energy. the fuel window for that is about 3-4 hours. Chances are (based on 2/3 of the US being overweight), a person has not used the amount of calories they just ate, so when the person's brain is sent signals from the stomach that it needs food again, the person eats again, whereby making the food they just ate be excess because they have not burned the calories off. Alas, weight is gained, and the cycle continues
This is not a compound problem, but an addition one. Among the complexities of the human metabolic system, it comes down to this: did you burn more calories than your last meal before your next one? The more you answer "yes" to this question, the better chance you have of losing weight.
Sugar decreased your chances of having more "yes" answers because of how fast it is metabolized.
That's funny, because I've been losing weight with a calorie deficit while still eating sugar. Sometimes I eat ice cream before bed. Am I a special snowflake?
The answer is no. My body functions in the same way all bodies do.
Overall calorie deficit is what matters. Yes, sugar is great for a burst of energy before a workout. But even if you don't "burn" it right away (i.e., eat ice cream before bed), you're not going to gain weight or store fat if you're in an overall deficit. It all evens out if calories are controlled.
You are missing my point though. Yes, you are in the minority considering most people are overweight and not doing anything about it. If you say "calorie deficit overall," what do you think makes up that "overall"?
In your case, you ate more, and then ate less, and it balanced out into a deficit. That is a sum, and the whole is made up of the sum.
I am not going to defend my claim to people who don't care to understand it yet can just attack it. Think scientifically, please.
I'm not sure what you mean here. How is using the concept of CI<CO not "thinking scientifically."? It's physics.
You're majoring in the minors here. None of what you are claiming trumps calories. Someone who is overweight but not doing anything about it got that way in the first place because he or she ate too many calories and gained weight. Someone who is maintaining a healthy weight is doing so because they are eating the correct number of calories. Someone who is losing weight is doing so because they have created a calorie deficit in one way or another.
Are there nuances to how different nutrients are metabolized and used by the body? Sure. But none of it matters more than energy balance. And those nuances are not important to the average Joe or June who is trying to lose weight for their health.6 -
Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »Sugar does not make us fat - excess calories make us fat.
Sugar is easily and readily metabolized into oxidizable energy. the fuel window for that is about 3-4 hours. Chances are (based on 2/3 of the US being overweight), a person has not used the amount of calories they just ate, so when the person's brain is sent signals from the stomach that it needs food again, the person eats again, whereby making the food they just ate be excess because they have not burned the calories off. Alas, weight is gained, and the cycle continues
This is not a compound problem, but an addition one. Among the complexities of the human metabolic system, it comes down to this: did you burn more calories than your last meal before your next one? The more you answer "yes" to this question, the better chance you have of losing weight.
Sugar decreased your chances of having more "yes" answers.
So does fatty beef or high levels of oils...so?
Fats have actually been shown to take longer to digest and increase that time between meals due to the non-release of grehlin, if the nutrition is appropriate. When combined with carbs (i.e. hamburgers and hotdogs), the effects are reduced.
Lipids cannot be utilized by the red blood cells for energy. They require glucose. Therefore, the body must do more to convert them into ready energy the cells can use. This process slows the digestive process, which slows down hunger levels.
I can go 8-10 hours on eggs and butter, whereas I couldn't even come close to that eating cereal.
And I go 16 hours fasted every day on 400 grams of carbs per day. A lot of that being sugar. Satiety varies by person.
Do you eat one or two meals per day? I am genuinely curious. What do you eat to go 16 hours fasted?
I eat 1 full meal around 7 and dessert after usually. I graze and snack from 12pm till dinner. Roughly 4000 calories at the moment. I try to get around 175-200 grams of protein and 75-100 grams of fat and a minimum of 250 grams of carbs. I fill in the rest with whatever.
If you are snacking, you are not fasting. I am not sure what you mean by "fasted." Also, you are bulking, correct?
I eat between 12 and 8pm. That leaves a 16 hour window.
And I'm not really bulking, no. At least not purposefully.
Everyone fasts around and within sleep times :-) regardless of diet. I am talking about waking hours. I have breakfast at 8, and I don't have to eat again until 4 or 5.
Who is asleep for 16 hours a day? Are the hours from 12 noon to 8 in the evening not "waking hours"?I do not become hungry or get the shakes. No snack, no drink. While I consume about 1000 calories, I burn just as much in that span. The same thing cannot be said for sleeping hours, however 2-3 of the hours before sleep are satiated by dinner, and the 2-3 hours after sleep (adjust for sleep times) are moderated by the fact that the digestive system mostly slows down during sleep, and takes a while to get back started again.
I'm glad you found a way to create a calorie deficit that is sustainable and helpful for you. This is not going to be a satisfying or sustainable way to eat for everyone.
Also, are you saying that you only consume 1,000 calories per day? Your wording is confusing here.5 -
Low fat or low carb, if you lost weight CI<CO...2
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For the record, I haven't lost weight overall since I have been on here, but I haven't focused on it enough. I enjoy learning about nutrition as a hobby, and like discussing it in a non-negative matter. I am a bit of a contrarian but I also enjoy learning new things. I generally don't respond to irrational people (you know, those ones that just say "thats stupid," or "just no."). They provide nothing to the conversation. I may be wrong, but I am not going to insult you for being wrong as well. I will simply provide my take. Generally, though, my takes are not taken well. And I am okay with that. You just don't understand things like I do, and that is not right or wrong...it just is. But the more we can provide logical information, the more people understand. We can't call it bad information simply because it is more complicated than the stereotypical phrases and the common person doesn't understand it. Every moment, we are losing and gaining weight. Energy storage and exhaustion is fluid, not staged. What we eat can dictate (to certain levels) how much we eat. Overweight people struggle more with this than ideal weight people, so the more they can be helped, the better it is for society as a whole.
That is all I am trying to do here.0 -
Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »Sugar does not make us fat - excess calories make us fat.
Sugar is easily and readily metabolized into oxidizable energy. the fuel window for that is about 3-4 hours. Chances are (based on 2/3 of the US being overweight), a person has not used the amount of calories they just ate, so when the person's brain is sent signals from the stomach that it needs food again, the person eats again, whereby making the food they just ate be excess because they have not burned the calories off. Alas, weight is gained, and the cycle continues
This is not a compound problem, but an addition one. Among the complexities of the human metabolic system, it comes down to this: did you burn more calories than your last meal before your next one? The more you answer "yes" to this question, the better chance you have of losing weight.
Sugar decreased your chances of having more "yes" answers.
So does fatty beef or high levels of oils...so?
Fats have actually been shown to take longer to digest and increase that time between meals due to the non-release of grehlin, if the nutrition is appropriate. When combined with carbs (i.e. hamburgers and hotdogs), the effects are reduced.
Lipids cannot be utilized by the red blood cells for energy. They require glucose. Therefore, the body must do more to convert them into ready energy the cells can use. This process slows the digestive process, which slows down hunger levels.
I can go 8-10 hours on eggs and butter, whereas I couldn't even come close to that eating cereal.
And I go 16 hours fasted every day on 400 grams of carbs per day. A lot of that being sugar. Satiety varies by person.
Do you eat one or two meals per day? I am genuinely curious. What do you eat to go 16 hours fasted?
I eat 1 full meal around 7 and dessert after usually. I graze and snack from 12pm till dinner. Roughly 4000 calories at the moment. I try to get around 175-200 grams of protein and 75-100 grams of fat and a minimum of 250 grams of carbs. I fill in the rest with whatever.
If you are snacking, you are not fasting. I am not sure what you mean by "fasted." Also, you are bulking, correct?
I eat between 12 and 8pm. That leaves a 16 hour window.
And I'm not really bulking, no. At least not purposefully.
Everyone fasts around and within sleep times :-) regardless of diet. I am talking about waking hours. I have breakfast at 8, and I don't have to eat again until 4 or 5. I do not become hungry or get the shakes. No snack, no drink. While I consume about 1000 calories, I burn just as much in that span. The same thing cannot be said for sleeping hours, however 2-3 of the hours before sleep are satiated by dinner, and the 2-3 hours after sleep (adjust for sleep times) are moderated by the fact that the digestive system mostly slows down during sleep, and takes a while to get back started again.
edited: shut down was too extreme. It does slow down though.
I go to bed at 11 or 12 and wake up at 6am. That makes me awake and fasted for 9-10 hours (16 total).
And frankly, I could add in more hours as I don't eat continuously between 12 and 8, and could probably go from 12:15 to 6:15 pretty easily if I wanted to eat 3000 calories at dinner time, but I don't. I have a lot of calories to get in though per day. It takes a lot of fuel for this machine...5 -
oy vey. Have a nice day, folks.0
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Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »Sugar does not make us fat - excess calories make us fat.
Sugar is easily and readily metabolized into oxidizable energy. the fuel window for that is about 3-4 hours. Chances are (based on 2/3 of the US being overweight), a person has not used the amount of calories they just ate, so when the person's brain is sent signals from the stomach that it needs food again, the person eats again, whereby making the food they just ate be excess because they have not burned the calories off. Alas, weight is gained, and the cycle continues
This is not a compound problem, but an addition one. Among the complexities of the human metabolic system, it comes down to this: did you burn more calories than your last meal before your next one? The more you answer "yes" to this question, the better chance you have of losing weight.
Sugar decreased your chances of having more "yes" answers.
So does fatty beef or high levels of oils...so?
Fats have actually been shown to take longer to digest and increase that time between meals due to the non-release of grehlin, if the nutrition is appropriate. When combined with carbs (i.e. hamburgers and hotdogs), the effects are reduced.
Lipids cannot be utilized by the red blood cells for energy. They require glucose. Therefore, the body must do more to convert them into ready energy the cells can use. This process slows the digestive process, which slows down hunger levels.
I can go 8-10 hours on eggs and butter, whereas I couldn't even come close to that eating cereal.
And I go 16 hours fasted every day on 400 grams of carbs per day. A lot of that being sugar. Satiety varies by person.
Do you eat one or two meals per day? I am genuinely curious. What do you eat to go 16 hours fasted?
I eat 1 full meal around 7 and dessert after usually. I graze and snack from 12pm till dinner. Roughly 4000 calories at the moment. I try to get around 175-200 grams of protein and 75-100 grams of fat and a minimum of 250 grams of carbs. I fill in the rest with whatever.
If you are snacking, you are not fasting. I am not sure what you mean by "fasted." Also, you are bulking, correct?
I eat between 12 and 8pm. That leaves a 16 hour window.
And I'm not really bulking, no. At least not purposefully.
Everyone fasts around and within sleep times :-) regardless of diet. I am talking about waking hours. I have breakfast at 8, and I don't have to eat again until 4 or 5. I do not become hungry or get the shakes. No snack, no drink. While I consume about 1000 calories, I burn just as much in that span. The same thing cannot be said for sleeping hours, however 2-3 of the hours before sleep are satiated by dinner, and the 2-3 hours after sleep (adjust for sleep times) are moderated by the fact that the digestive system mostly slows down during sleep, and takes a while to get back started again.
edited: shut down was too extreme. It does slow down though.
I go to bed at 11 or 12 and wake up at 6am. That makes me awake and fasted for 9-10 hours (16 total).
And frankly, I could add in more hours as I don't eat continuously between 12 and 8, and could probably go from 12:15 to 6:15 pretty easily if I wanted to eat 3000 calories at dinner time, but I don't. I have a lot of calories to get in though per day. It takes a lot of fuel for this machine...
5 -
Facts getting in the way of feelers again...8
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For the record, I haven't lost weight overall since I have been on here, but I haven't focused on it enough. I enjoy learning about nutrition as a hobby, and like discussing it in a non-negative matter. I am a bit of a contrarian but I also enjoy learning new things. I generally don't respond to irrational people (you know, those ones that just say "thats stupid," or "just no."). They provide nothing to the conversation. I may be wrong, but I am not going to insult you for being wrong as well. I will simply provide my take. Generally, though, my takes are not taken well. And I am okay with that. You just don't understand things like I do, and that is not right or wrong...it just is. But the more we can provide logical information, the more people understand. We can't call it bad information simply because it is more complicated than the stereotypical phrases and the common person doesn't understand it. Every moment, we are losing and gaining weight. Energy storage and exhaustion is fluid, not staged. What we eat can dictate (to certain levels) how much we eat. Overweight people struggle more with this than ideal weight people, so the more they can be helped, the better it is for society as a whole.
That is all I am trying to do here.
I find statements like the bolded to be quite arrogant.
Also, for you to say that you have not lost weight, but that all of us who have successfully lost weight are doing it wrong, is also pretty arrogant and slightly offensive.
I'm sure you didn't mean it that way, but I'm just pointing it out so that you can think about how the words you type are read and interpreted by other people and maybe phrase it a bit better. We can't read your intentions, we can only read the words that you post.
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No...imajollyroger wrote: »I reduce foods, especially processed foods, to their macro carb content because that is what is being scientifically proven to cause the obesity epidemic, not the fat.
Yes, the fat was taken out and the calories were put right back in the form of sugar. People psychologically saw "low fat" and proceeded to overeat. You'll see the same effect with low carb, give it time.imajollyroger wrote: »"We" took the fat out of foods in the 80s, made everything low fat/high carb and obesity, heart disease, and diabetes have skyrocketed--globally.
CICO...
3 -
I've only dropped 80lbs, have 170lbs of lean mass and walk around at 7%. What do I know?13
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I know what you mean OP!!!
Well, I'm gonna throw my 2 cents here seeing as I've not read all the posts.....but from what i'm reading and researching, the body burns sugar first before fat. So if you are ingesting things high in sugar, the body sends out insulin to burn the new glucose that you just ate (ever wonder why you feel sluggish in the afternoon after a sizeable meal especially if it included refined carbs.) Glucose is the preferred source of energy so it totally ignores the fat until the excess glucose stores are used up. If you eat more sugar than what your body needs it converts it to fat, esp around the abdomen. I'm sure the posters here will either agree or not, but I'm gonna do my own research on this here body.
So, I personally reduced my sugar intake, not perfectly but decidely a good bit. Sodium too. Now, my cravings have reduced greatly, and if I do eat something with too much sugar...I gag, and can't eat another bite. Good enough result for me right there.
I've also been reading up on Intermittent Fasting (IF), just today as a matter of fact. I'm going to give it a chance for the remainder of this month. I've booked mark this post so I'll respond here or pm you if I find it made a difference.
Now, I'm going to take my time and read all of the wonderful posts here to see if I can glean additional information for my research...carry on.
1 -
If you eat more calories than your body needs, they convert to fat. Not just sugar.9
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Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »Sugar does not make us fat - excess calories make us fat.
Sugar is easily and readily metabolized into oxidizable energy. the fuel window for that is about 3-4 hours. Chances are (based on 2/3 of the US being overweight), a person has not used the amount of calories they just ate, so when the person's brain is sent signals from the stomach that it needs food again, the person eats again, whereby making the food they just ate be excess because they have not burned the calories off. Alas, weight is gained, and the cycle continues
This is not a compound problem, but an addition one. Among the complexities of the human metabolic system, it comes down to this: did you burn more calories than your last meal before your next one? The more you answer "yes" to this question, the better chance you have of losing weight.
Sugar decreased your chances of having more "yes" answers.
So does fatty beef or high levels of oils...so?
Fats have actually been shown to take longer to digest and increase that time between meals due to the non-release of grehlin, if the nutrition is appropriate. When combined with carbs (i.e. hamburgers and hotdogs), the effects are reduced.
Lipids cannot be utilized by the red blood cells for energy. They require glucose. Therefore, the body must do more to convert them into ready energy the cells can use. This process slows the digestive process, which slows down hunger levels.
I can go 8-10 hours on eggs and butter, whereas I couldn't even come close to that eating cereal.
And I go 16 hours fasted every day on 400 grams of carbs per day. A lot of that being sugar. Satiety varies by person.
Do you eat one or two meals per day? I am genuinely curious. What do you eat to go 16 hours fasted?
I eat 1 full meal around 7 and dessert after usually. I graze and snack from 12pm till dinner. Roughly 4000 calories at the moment. I try to get around 175-200 grams of protein and 75-100 grams of fat and a minimum of 250 grams of carbs. I fill in the rest with whatever.
If you are snacking, you are not fasting. I am not sure what you mean by "fasted." Also, you are bulking, correct?
I eat between 12 and 8pm. That leaves a 16 hour window.
And I'm not really bulking, no. At least not purposefully.
Everyone fasts around and within sleep times :-) regardless of diet.
Of course, but when the IFers talk about fasting, and 20-4 or 16-8 or whatever, they include the sleep time in the fast and usually mean skipping a meal in the morning or evening or otherwise compressing eating hours.
I'm not sure why fasting (or IF) is currently a topic? Obviously it would be hard to fast for 16 waking hours and sleep, say, 7, and get in enough calories in that one hour, although some probably do.I have breakfast at 8, and I don't have to eat again until 4 or 5. I do not become hungry or get the shakes.
Why would you? I eat at 6, 12, and 9 or 10 most days, and generally don't get the shakes or whatever between lunch and dinner (and would find it really weird if I did). I don't do IF, since my longest time without eating is 9-10 hours, although I've thought of trying it (I can skip breakfast without an issue, eating dinner earlier might be a trick). The form of IF that currently intrigues me more is 5:2. (But this is not about sugar, is it?)
Not sure why you do 1000 calories, but perhaps you have your reasons.4 -
Oh, looking back, we are talking about IF because of the claim that butter and eggs will hold one for 8-10 hours. Not me. I usually have no problem adhering to any eating schedule if I eat reasonably balanced meals, but just eggs and butter and I'd be hungry before lunch.
Eggs work well for me when combined with vegetables and some additional protein -- I love a vegetable omelet with some low fat cottage cheese. But lately I've been obsessed with smoothies (today's was yogurt, protein powder, strawberries, spaghetti squash, a green pepper, and kale -- believe it or not, delicious!) which is quite high sugar, and I skipped lunch (scheduling issues) without being hungry. Satiety is individual.2 -
mysteps2beauty wrote: »I know what you mean OP!!!
Well, I'm gonna throw my 2 cents here seeing as I've not read all the posts.....but from what i'm reading and researching, the body burns sugar first before fat. So if you are ingesting things high in sugar, the body sends out insulin to burn the new glucose that you just ate (ever wonder why you feel sluggish in the afternoon after a sizeable meal especially if it included refined carbs.) Glucose is the preferred source of energy so it totally ignores the fat until the excess glucose stores are used up. If you eat more sugar than what your body needs it converts it to fat, esp around the abdomen. I'm sure the posters here will either agree or not, but I'm gonna do my own research on this here body.
So, I personally reduced my sugar intake, not perfectly but decidely a good bit. Sodium too. Now, my cravings have reduced greatly, and if I do eat something with too much sugar...I gag, and can't eat another bite. Good enough result for me right there.
I've also been reading up on Intermittent Fasting (IF), just today as a matter of fact. I'm going to give it a chance for the remainder of this month. I've booked mark this post so I'll respond here or pm you if I find it made a difference.
Now, I'm going to take my time and read all of the wonderful posts here to see if I can glean additional information for my research...carry on.
There is no queue for your nutrients. Your body will always burn both, and when you're resting even mostly fat, not sugar.
http://www.exrx.net/Nutrition/Substrates.html
Extra glucose is rarely if ever turned to fat.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1036598110 -
Eggs and butter would hold me for about an hour.
Now a hard boiled egg and a banana with a cup of tea and half a cup of milk in it? I'm good for hours on that. I have it every day.4
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